Conversational English: Adjective Pairs – "short and sweet", "loud and clear"...

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, I'm going to show you how to use some commonly

used adjective pairs. Now, what are adjective pairs? Adjective pairs are sets of adjectives

which are used together in order to emphasize whatever you're trying to say. So, you could

use one of these words alone, but then it's not as powerful. So, we tend to use these

adjective pairs together in order to emphasize whatever we're trying to express. Let's have

a look at about eight different examples, and I think you'll see that it's quite easy

for you to understand them after that, and also, hopefully, to start using them yourself.

Okay? Let's have a look. The first one is "bright and early". What does it mean? "Bright

and early" means very early. For example, "Yesterday, I woke up bright and early in

the morning." Okay? "Bright and early" again means very early. Okay?

Next one, "short and sweet". When we say that something was short and sweet, it means it

didn't last too long, it didn't take too much time, and we're very happy that it didn't

take too much time. For example, if you go to a conference and there are lots of speeches,

then you don't want the speeches to be too long. So, if they're short, you could say

the speeches, the introductory speeches were short and sweet, which means they were nice

and short, nice and small. Okay? Not too long, and therefore, you didn't get bored.

Okay, next one, "loud and clear". "Loud and clear" means very clearly. So, for example,

you could say to someone on the phone, if he asks you, "Can you hear me?" and he's kind

of shouting, you can say, "Don't worry, I can hear you loud and clear." It means very clearly.

Next expression, "sick and tired". This is kind of on the negative side. When we say

we're sick and tired of something, it means we are annoyed, we're frustrated, we're irritated

with something. So, unfortunately, an example that is often given for this expression is

when someone says, "I'm sick and tired of my job. I really should get another job."

Okay? I hope that's not true for you. I hope you love your job the way I do. Okay? But

you might be sick and tired of something happening. All right?

Next, "nice and warm". "Nice and warm" means that a place feels warm and cozy and comfortable.

So, for example, let's suppose there's a snowstorm outside and you come into a nice little coffee

shop and you say, "Oh, wow, it's nice and warm in here." So, you feel very cozy and

comfortable after coming in outside from the cold. Okay?

Next one, "safe and sound". "Safe and sound" basically means very safe. So, you could say,

"We were worried about them, we hadn't heard from them in many hours, but finally they

came home safe and sound." "Safe and sound" again means safely. But when we say "safe

and sound", it's because we were a little bit worried before, so by using two adjectives,

we emphasize that they came home very safely and we are happy about that. Okay?

Next one, "first and foremost". "First and foremost" means first and most important.

So, very often they use this in professional situations, in business English, at the start

of a meeting or a conference. So, somebody might say, "First and foremost, I'd like to

thank everyone for joining us here today." Or, "First and foremost, I'd like to thank

the organizers of this conference for all their hard work." Okay? So, it's a nice expression

that you can use and it means first and most important. All right?

Last one that we're going to learn today is "hail and hardy". "Hail and hardy" means basically

very healthy. So, if you say, for example, "He's 85 years old, but he's hail and hardy.

He goes for a walk every morning at 6 o'clock." All right? So, "hail and hardy" means very

healthy. Okay? So, I wish you... I hope that you are also hail and hardy, which means very

healthy. And try to start to use some of these expressions.

See if you can use something today in writing or in speaking, and this way, you'll learn

not only to understand these expressions, but also to start using them in your own English.

All right? If you'd like to do a quiz on this subject, please visit our website, www.engvid.com.

Thanks for watching, and good luck with your English.