10 Advanced English Adjectives

Hello I'm Emma from mmmEnglish

and in this lesson, I'm going to go over ten advanced

English adjectives.

And I want to do that for two reasons.

Firstly, to help you expand your vocabulary

and help you to express yourself in interesting ways

but also because these advanced English adjectives

can be quite tricky to pronounce.

They have several syllables, consonant clusters and

quite a few different stress patterns.

So today I want to show you how you can use

these adjectives correctly and accurately

so that you can sound more sophisticated

when you speak in English.

We've got ten adjectives to get through so let's just

dive straight into this lesson and get started.

Our first adjective is 'explicit'.

Say it with me. Explicit.

There's a really tricky consonant cluster in there.

Explicit.

So the stress there is on the second syllable

but all of the vowel sounds are short.

Now if something is explicit, it's said or it's explained

in an extremely clear way like you can't doubt

what the meaning is if it's explicit.

Now you often see it being used when

people are giving instructions or warnings or even

threats so it's quite serious, this word.

He gave explicit instructions to turn the gas off

after an hour.

As with many, many English adjectives we can add -ly

to the end of this one to create the adverb 'explicitly'.

I explicitly told you to stay in this room until I returned.

Exponential.

Hear that stress?

Exponential.

We use this word to talk about growth.

When something is growing or it's increasing

really, really quickly,

we describe this growth as exponential.

We've seen an exponential increase in greenhouse

gases in the atmosphere over the past twenty years.

Now again

the adverb 'exponentially' can be used to modify a verb.

Company profits grew exponentially throughout 2019.

That means they increased rapidly

or really, really quickly.

Now I want you to think of a way to use this word

in a sentence yourself.

You could choose either the adjective or the adverb

but I want you to write it in the comments below

so that I can give you some feedback and help you to

increase your English skills exponentially.

Specific.

Now although this word is quite common, it's also quite

commonly mispronounced, especially as an adverb.

Specific.

The stress is on that middle syllable.

There are specific areas within the festival

where children are not allowed.

For specific instructions, please refer to the guide.

Now we can use the adverb 'specifically' to express

very similar ideas.

Specifically. It's not

Specifically.

They bought the land

specifically to establish a vineyard.

Please answer the questions as specifically as you can.

So we know that adding -ly to an adjective

to create an adverb is a really common pattern

in English. It happens all the time

but when an adjective ends in the sound like 'specific',

we don't pronounce the syllable before the -ly

and there's lots of examples of this.

Realistically.

Strategically.

Logically.

They're all pronounced in the same way

just like 'specifically'.

Colloquial.

That's another tricky consonant cluster. That

Colloquial.

Now you've probably heard me or

another English teacher using this word before

because it's related to language

and it shows that a word is used in

an informal conversation rather than in

formal language or in written English.

That English expression is quite colloquial.

Quite colloquial.

It's a bit of a tongue twister.

We use that word colloquially.

So I want you to think of an example of an English

expression, maybe an idiom that is quite colloquial

and add it into the comments below.

We'll see how many colloquial expressions

we can get down there.

Delicate.

Listen to the stress pattern there.

Our first syllable is stressed

and the last one is unstressed.

Delicate.

You hear that schwa sound in the final syllable, it's not

It's 'delicate'.

And we also use the adverb 'delicately' as well.

Now these words, they have quite a few meanings

but it's often used to describe

flavour or smell or color that is really pleasant

and not too strong.

So we could say:

The flavours of this dish are quite delicate.

Now we also use it when something is

done in a really careful way so that it's not damaged.

He placed the fruit delicately into a box.

But we also use it when something is done in a careful

way so that people are not upset or annoyed.

We need to handle this situation very delicately.

If you had a friend and you had to tell them something

that you knew would upset them

or maybe hurt their feelings but it had to be said,

you would want to do it delicately,

you would want to say it to them delicately.

Carefully.

Coherent.

I love this adjective.

Can you hear where the stressed syllable is?

Coherent.

It's that vowel sound in the middle.

Coherent.

So when something or someone communicates

in a really clear and sensible way

that people can understand, that's coherent.

The minister offered a clear and coherent

explanation for the tax increase.

The opposite is 'incoherent'.

We could say:

The email that he sent was poorly written

and quite incoherent.

We want to make sure that you

are very coherent when you're using English.

Eloquent.

So the first syllable is stressed and the other two

reduce down to become the schwa sound.

Eloquent.

And just like 'colloquial', this adjective is related to

language, okay? It's used when someone expresses

themselves really clearly and effectively.

And almost beautifully.

She gave an eloquent speech at the gala dinner.

Or: He spoke eloquently about his

journey of personal development.

Exquisite.

Now a lot of these adjectives that we've been talking

about today have this consonant cluster.

Exquisite.

Now the stress here is on the middle syllable.

And at the end, often

when a word ends in an E that's silent in English,

often it extends the vowel sound out.

But not here, this last syllable is really short.

Exquisite.

Now 'exquisite' means that something is extremely

beautiful and delicate.

We bought an exquisite hand-painted bowl from Japan.

Or: Her necklace is exquisite.

Do you own anything that you could describe

as exquisite? Let me know in the comments.

I don't think I have anything that's exquisite myself

except perhaps my engagement ring.

I think that's exquisite.

Insatiable.

Say it with me. Insatiable.

I love this adjective.

The second syllable is the stressed one.

Insatiable.

Hear how low in pitch those last two syllables are?

This is a fabulous adjective that we can use

when something is impossible to satisfy.

If you keep wanting something more and more

and more, then we use 'insatiable'.

It usually relates to hunger or thirst.

We could say: His appetite was insatiable.

He didn't stop eating!

But we can also use it when we're consuming

other things as well.

For example.

The public seems to have an insatiable appetite

for celebrity gossip.

Or: Her work ethic is insatiable. She just doesn't stop!

Mischievous.

It's a tricky one. It's not

There's only one I there so it's pronounced 'mischievous'.

And this is actually a really common pronunciation

and spelling mistake that native speakers make.

'Mischievous' is an adjective that describes someone,

usually a child who has fun by being cheeky

or silly or kind of funny. Not in a negative way at all.

Jack is a mischievous child.

He has fun by creating trouble or disruption

but that's not too serious.

We also use the word 'mischief' as well,

which is often pronounced incorrectly as well as

But it's 'mischief' or 'mischievous'.

Do you know anyone who's a little mischievous?

Or can you think of someone who

sometimes gets up to mischief?

Maybe a niece or a nephew or one of your kids.

So I hope that you learned a few new adjectives

in this lesson and that you've actually practised

putting them to use this week. Make sure you practise

using them. Write sentences, say them out loud.

Before we finish,

let's go over the pronunciation of these words.

Explicit.

Exponential.

Specific.

Colloquial.

Delicate.

Coherent.

Eloquent.

Insatiable.

Exquisite.

Mischievous.

Which one of those adjectives is the most

difficult for you to pronounce?

Make sure you get in a little bit of extra

practice this week.

Write it on a sticky note. Put it on your mirror.

Every morning when you wake up, practise it ten times.

Practise a sentence as well.

So you can catch me on

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And once you've done that then head over here

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and your speaking skills with me

in one of my mmmEnglish Imitation Lessons.

I'll see you in there!