Common Adjectives You NEED to Know | Upgrade Your English Skills

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back  to my advanced English lessons with Harry,  

where we try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language help  

you with your conversational English or business  English preparation for those proficiency exams,  

or indeed even those job interviews,  whatever you need, we're here to help.

So what are we looking at today in this particular  lesson? Well, in this advanced English lesson,  

we're looking at core locations to do with  size, dimensions and quantity. There's some  

of them are a little bit tricky on the tongue for  pronunciation. So we'll try and practice that at  

the same time. Any problems, you know, the way  we do it by now you come back and you can ask  

me and we can go through it again. Okay, so let  me go through we've got 12 situations here that  

we can use and examples. I'll read through them,  and then come back and give you a situation when  

you can use them and what they mean. Okay,  so let's start and minuscule piece of cloth,  

a minuscule piece of cloth. So that's the first  one difficult to pronounce. minuscule, minuscule.  

A mammoth task. Again, a little bit tricky,  a mammoth task. A vast room. Not so tricky  

to pronounce would you got to get that sound  a vast room. A gigantic wave, a gigantic wave,  

a gargantuan meal. Now this one's really  difficult. Gargantuan meal even tricky for me  

gargantuan. Itsy-bitsy spider. And I'll tell you  a little fairy tale about that. Itsy-bitsy spider.  

Tiny spot. A colossal sum. Dainty feet.  Bulky luggage. Now this one next one again,  

tricky in the pronunciation. And infinitesimal,  an infinitesimal dose, infinitesimal.  

And then finally, a bit tricky, because it's a  sounds, a dwarf cherry tree have to be really  

careful because sometimes I say, a dwarf twerry  twee. We know it's a dwarf cherry tree. Okay,  

so we're going to go back through them, explain  and give you a situation when you might use them.

Okay, so a minuscule piece of cloth.  Minuscule means really, really small,  

really, really tiny. So you might see somebody  walking along the beach. And they're almost naked,  

because they've got a really, really small  bikini on it's a minuscule piece of cloth.  

Okay, minuscule, really, really small,  minuscule, like the size of a stamp miniscule.

Next, a mammoth task. Mammoth like the ancient  elephants that lived at the time of the dinosaurs,  

they were called mammoths, yeah. So a mammoth  task is a very large or very big task. So lots  

of these words have to do with size. So it  could be something very small, or something  

very big. So mammoth is very big, a large  large task a lot of work to do a mammoth task.  

Getting all of the emails up to date,  or transferring all the data from one  

system to another system turned out to  be a mammoth task. It took several days  

and almost a week when we thought it  might only take hours a mammoth task.

Next, a vast room again, this is about the  large size of vast room. So you've ever been  

to one of these old old palaces that have  been built like the Palace of Versailles.  

When you go into one of the dining rooms,  they are huge. They stretch for many, many,  

many many metres. So these will be described as  a vast room very large, a large expanse of vast  

room and make sure you pronounce the sound that  that's okay, a vast room. A ballroom could be  

a vast room. The parliamentary meeting rooms  and government buildings can be a vast room.

Next we have a gigantic wave. Gigantic,  gigantic wave. Tsunamis produce gigantic  

waves that come on to the shore  and destroy all the buildings in  

close proximity to the shore. Gigantic  Okay, get the pronunciation gigantic.

Next, gargantuan. And be really, really careful.  Gargantuan. Gargantuan means really enormous,  

very, very large. Here we're talking about  a gargantuan meal. So perhaps somebody is  

sitting down to one of these 12 course  meals where they're gone to test all the  

little courses that are available in the  restaurant. And really by the end of the  

sixth or the seventh course, he's absolutely  stuffed. A gargantuan meal fit for a king.

Now itsy-bitsy spider. This means something really  small itsy-bitsy. Okay, and it comes from an old  

nursery rhyme. Itsy bitsy spider climbing up  the spout. Down came the rain and washed the  

spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all  the rain and itsy bitsy spider climbed up the  

drain again. Okay, so this is about itsy bitsy  spider means something really, really small,  

itsy bitsy spider climbing up the spout or the  drain the drain outside the house. Itsy-bitsy.  

There's a song as well. Itsy bitsy, teeny,  weeny, yellow polka dot bikini. Okay,  

so there's an old old song so ask somebody who  can remember it. Itsy Bitsy something really,  

really small, itsy bitsy, teeny  weeny, something really, really small.

Tiny spot tiny means, again, really, really  small. So you take your coat to the dry  

cleaners because you spilled some wine on it.  Or you think you did but when you look at it,  

there's only a tiny a very, very small spot on  the coat. You'd hardly notice it you notice it  

because you know you spilt it but nobody else  can see it. Or if you prick your finger on an a  

nail or pin you might get a tiny spot of  blood. Oh, it's so awkward. There's only  

a tiny spot of blood something really  really small almost impossible to see.

A colossal sum. Well, colossal  again means something really  

big. The Colosseum in Rome really,  really big, colossal, giant. Okay.  

A colossal sum of money. So if somebody wins  the Euro lotto of 122 million people go wow,  

that's a colossal sum of money. What could you  possibly do with that? It's absolutely gross.  

Means it's really really immoral to win so much  money, colossal sums of money won on the lotto.

Dainty feet. Dainty is another word for neat  and tidy and quite small. You couldn't describe  

my feet as dainty. My wife describes my feet and  lots of ways but dainty isn't one of them. dainty,  

very small, very twee, very nice and neat  and tidy. Somebody with a very neat waist  

or knit figure could have a dainty figure  so dainty fits this shoe size could be quite  

small three or four or something like that. So  they have dainty feet good for dancing dainty.

Bulky luggage bulky means heavy, but also  something that is not packed correctly  

and there are lots of things sticking  out so it's a little bit bulky. Okay,  

so if you don't pack your luggage correctly, then  it can be bulky if you have four or five suitcases  

then could be bulky because you just have lots  and lots of things in it. Not packed correctly,  

not packed neatly so bulky. Bulky means big  but awkward and difficult. So sometimes the  

luggage even though it's heavy, it's easy to carry  because it's neat and well packed. But if it's not  

so well packed and it's bulky and sticking out at  different angles, then it's difficult to carry.

Could you help me with this luggage.  It's really bulky and it needs two  

people one on one side and the  other on the other side bulky.

And if you go to the airport, usually bulky  luggage has to go in the special section for  

overly large bag so bulky items, bicycles or  things like that have to go into a special  

section and you can't check them in in  the normal check in desk bulky luggage.

Next this is a really difficult one now I'm going  to try and pronounce it for you really slowly.  

Infinitesimal. Infinitesimal. And here we've  got an infinitesimal dose of something. Okay,  

infinitesimal. Infinitesimal means so small, that  it's almost impossible to see it. Okay? So for  

example, if we're talking about energy, which lots  of people are talking about these days, we might  

say that at the moment, solar panels or indeed,  wind turbines provide an infinitesimal amount of  

the necessary energy, meaning we use most of the  energy because through gas or oil or electricity  

other ways, whereas wind and solar panels are  these new or renewable sources provide currently  

an infinitesimal something almost too small, okay.  So we have to increase or improve the level of  

energy we take through the sun and the wind and  the the ocean, okay? But at the moment, it might  

be described as very, very small or infinitesimal,  infinitesimal. Okay, so meaning very, very small.

And then finally, we've got this tongue  twister, a dwarf cherry tree. A dwarf,  

cherry tree, not a dwarf twerie twee, okay.  Dwarf, as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  

Okay, the small little people that were  in the fairy tale of the Disney cartoon,  

okay. So a dwarf cherry tree is something  really small, that has a limited growth,  

okay, so like these trees that the Japanese the  bonsai trees, that they grow their dwarf trees,  

and they only grow to a certain size  and never any bigger, so dwarf small.

Okay, so we've got lots of these expressions,  these collocations that are connected with  

dimensions, sizes, and quantity, okay? Some of  them meaning small are very small, some in some  

of them meaning big or very big. So let me go  through them again. minuscule piece of cloth,  

something really, really small. A mammoth task,  something really really big. A vast room a huge  

room that spreads from left to right. A  gigantic wave a huge wave like a soon army  

or gargantuan meal gargantuan something fit  for a king a big fist covering the whole table.  

Itsy-bitsy spider something really really small.  Itsy-bitsy spider climbing up the spout. A  

tiny spot really, really small something you  can hardly see a tiny spot of ink tiny spot  

of blood. A colossal sum. Massive, massive  sum of money that they want in the lotto.  

Dainty feet small, neat, tidy, dainty  feet. Bulky luggage. Big and awkward,  

difficult to carry bulky luggage. Infinitesimal  dose a really, really small dose. So the doctor  

would give an infinitesimal dose of medicine  to try and cure somebody with not too much.  

And then the dwarf cherry tree that limited in  the size that it will grow a dwarf cherry tree.

Well, hopefully you can enjoy those particular  collocations in his advanced English class,  

you'll probably have to listen to it a couple  of times because those are really difficult not  

only because of the meaning, but also in terms  of the pronunciation. So pick a few of them,  

practice them. If you're going to practice the  pronunciation try practising in front of the  

mirror or indeed use your mobile phone. Record  yourself. Listen back and see where you have  

to make changes and listen to my pronunciation  as well. And if you need any further examples,  

you know the drill by now come back to me and  I'll help you www.englishlessonviaskype.com.  

And as I always say to you, if you liked this  particular lesson, then please please like  

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this is Harry signing off until the  next lesson. Thanks and goodbye.