Learn Advanced Adjectives in 3 Ways | English Vocabulary Skills

Well hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

Today I'm gonna be teaching

and testing your knowledge of some advanced adjectives

that will help you to describe the world around you in English.

And then I'm gonna show you a really fun flashcard memory game

that will help you to learn and to memorise new vocabulary.

I've also created a free downloadable PDF

the link is in the description and it includes all of the flashcards

for the vocabulary that you'll be learning today.

You can download it from the description below.

These flashcards are something that you can use at home

with any words or phrases or even grammar points

that you want to learn and you want to memorise.

So make sure you stick around because at the end of this lesson

you'll not only have ten fancy new adjectives to use,

you'll also have a great new tool

for practising vocabulary and language.

So are you ready?

So first up, we're gonna learn these new adjectives.

And the adjectives that we're looking at are extreme adjectives

which means that we can use these adjectives instead of

saying very, really or extremely with a regular adjective.

So instead of saying something is very bad, we can say

that it's appalling.

Appalling.

With all of these strong adjectives, you definitely want to know

which syllable is the stressed syllable in each word

so that you can emphasise it.

It's appalling.

Can you hear me stressing that?

In extreme adjectives, this is such a useful tip

for your pronunciation. So instead of saying

The weather this summer has been very bad.

We can do better than that.

We can say:

The weather this summer has been appalling.

Really bad.

Another thing you need to know about these adjectives

is that they're extreme, okay? The word appalling

already explains that something is really bad or very bad,

okay that's why it's called an extreme adjective.

So you cannot use the adverbs very, really, extremely

together with an extreme adjective, okay? So don't say

It's been very appalling.

You can say: It's been very bad.

Or

It's been appalling.

Got it?

Good. Now when something is a surprise,

or it's very surprising, you can say it's astonishing.

Astonishing.

It's astonishing to see how quickly they

rebuilt the town after the earthquake.

A cool thing to learn with the adjective astonishing

are some of the verbs that it's commonly used with.

It's astonishing to see...

Astonishing to think...

Or to realise...

This adjective is very often used with the to-infinitive verb.

It is so helpful, so helpful to pay attention to this kind of

information when you're learning new words so make a note of it

on your flashcard or in your notebook:

often used with the to-infinitive verb.

Okay so what about when something is extremely large

in size? Large in size or amount or degree?

Can you think of an adjective, an extreme adjective,

that could work here?

Immense.

They were under immense pressure to pass the exam.

Now it's also possible to say they were under an immense

amount of pressure to pass the exam.

Either way, we know that the pressure was high.

This next adjective describes something excellent

or beautiful and impressive.

It's splendid.

Well, that was a splendid afternoon! Thank you for inviting us.

It's kind of a little posh, a little formal.

But I love it, I use it all the time!

Our next adjective is

gruelling.

This is gonna be a tricky one for some of you to say.

Gruelling.

When something is gruelling, it's extremely tiring and difficult,

and it requires a lot of effort and determination.

To pass their final exam, they had to complete a gruelling

24 hour observation.

Do you know this adjective?

Excruciating.

It can be used in a few different situations,

you can use it to describe something that is extremely painful

The pain was excruciating.

Ouch.

But it can also mean extremely boring or embarrassing

so something can be so boring

or so embarrassing that it's actually

painful, it feels painful to watch.

The presenter was excruciating to watch.

Now maybe they were just dull and boring to listen to

but they could also be incredibly underprepared and it was

embarrassing and awkward to watch him give his presentation

and feel so uncomfortable.

I mean you can also say in this same context

that something was painful to watch, excruciating to watch,

painful to watch.

When a person is very careful

and does things with a great attention to detail,

we can describe them as

meticulous.

Can you hear that stress?

Meticulous.

We were impressed by the meticulous research

Sarah had done to prove her theory.

So this was very careful, very detailed research.

Now the last adjective I want to share today is

impeccable.

This means perfect or really well done.

And we use it when something is

perfect without any problems at all.

Her performance was impeccable.

We also often say that someone's behaviour was impeccable.

Okay so now we've learnt some new extreme adjectives,

let's test what you know and lock them into your memory.

So this is something that you can definitely do with flashcards

at home, you can either pick up a card

read the word and try and remember what it means

or

you can easily work backwards and you can look at the definition

and then try to remember the word.

As you get more familiar with the word, you know keep

putting them to the back of the pack you know,

so they come up less frequently

and once you feel a hundred per cent confident

with how to use that word and what it means,

put it in a separate pile

and maybe come back to it at the end of the week or later,

a few days later and test yourself.

This is gonna help to retain that knowledge,

that word, that expression in your head.

In this quick quiz now, I'm gonna show you the definition

and I want you to try and remember and tell me

what is the correct adjective.

Alright? Like this.

Do you remember which adjective means extremely

tiring and difficult

and demanding great attention and determination?

Yes, that's right! It's gruelling.

Which adjective describes something that is

extremely large in size or degree?

Immense.

Yes.

Moving on, we've got this one here.

How do we describe something that is perfect

with no problems or bad parts?

It starts with I.

Yes! Impeccable.

Next up.

Something that is very bad is...

Appalling.

That's right, maybe you can think of some others

but we're looking for appalling.

Do you know what the adjective is?

Something excellent, beautiful and impressive is?

Splendid.

How about this one?

When something is very surprising, it's...

Astonishing.

Correct!

Just two more to go now.

When a person is very careful and they do something with great

attention to detail, they are...

Meticulous.

You're right!

And the last one?

An adjective that means extremely painful, boring or embarrassing.

Excruciating.

That's it!

Did you get them all?

I hope so

but don't go anywhere just yet! I'm gonna test how well

you can use these adjectives correctly in a sentence now.

So this time I'm gonna give you the sentence

and I want you to complete the sentence with the correct adjective,

one of the ones that we've just learned, just like this.

Now as always, I'm gonna give you a few seconds to think

before telling you the answer. In this case,

the weather's been very bad.

The weather's been appalling this summer.

But if that weather was actually perfect all summer,

then you could also say that the weather

this summer has been impeccable.

So there's always more than one option but let's try and remember

and use the ones that we've just learnt.

Are you ready to try it out? Let's go.

Her English is

I've never heard her make a mistake.

It's perfect!

Her English is impeccable.

To pass the test, they had to complete a

obstacle course in the pouring rain.

It was tough and not everyone made it through.

So it was very hard.

To pass the test, they needed to complete a

gruelling obstacle course in the pouring rain.

The presentation about gas prices was

to watch. I've never been so bored in my life.

It was excruciating to watch!

It's

to see how quickly they rebuilt the town after the earthquake.

It's astonishing

to see how quickly they rebuilt the town after the earthquake.

We were impressed by the

research Sarah had done to prove her theory. It was so detailed.

We were impressed by the meticulous research.

He had dressed up for the occasion and looked

in a tailor-made wool suit and shiny leather shoes.

He looked splendid in his wool suit.

Now it could also be impeccable

if we wanted to say that he looked perfect.

They were under

pressure to pass the exam,

the results could change their lives forever!

They were under immense pressure to pass the exam.

So that's it!

You've done an amazing job to get all the way through to the end.

You've just learned a new bunch of adjectives that you can use

to describe the world around you in English which is awesome.

But you've also practised them in multiple ways

to help make sure that those words stick in your mind.

Don't forget to download your free flashcards to practise with me.

The link is down in the description below.

And remember that you can recreate this same activity using

flashcards with any other words and phrases

that you want to learn.

So I hope you had fun and I hope that you enjoy those flashcards

I made and that they help you to stick those words in your mind.

If you'd like to see more lessons just like this one

let me know down in the comments below.

You can keep practising with me right here,

right now in this lesson right here.

I'll see you in there!