Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English lessons with Harry, where I tried to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. Today's lesson is all about adjectives, their advanced adjectives, I've got 20 of them, which will help you to improve your vocabulary. As you know a very strong advocate of one to one lessons, they're a really great way to help you to improve not only your vocabulary, but also your conversational skills and the best platform out there is probably probably help you to learn lots and lots of different languages not only English, but I of course, I'm focusing on English. In total, they have over 32,000, tutors and teachers willing and able to help you. You can book a lesson at any time. And if you don't like or don't get on with the teacher, you can change your teacher without any extra charge. Make sure that you click on the link in the description below and get your 50% Yep, 50% reduction in the first lesson with preppy thanks preppy for sponsoring this lesson. Okay, let's get back to the lesson. As I said, we're looking at Advanced English adjectives and these adjectives are going to help you to improve your vocabulary. So I'm going to go through them one by one, as I said, I've got 20 of them. So it's a long list. So I'll go through them one by one. I'll give you an explanation. And then I'll give you some examples. Okay, so the first one is affable, affable. Somebody who is affable is somebody who is easy to get on with a pleasant person. They don't cause stress. They're very likeable, and they like to please people, but they are good fun, and they don't get stressed too easily. Okay. So affable. He is an affable man, always willing to stop and talk. So here we are using the word affable to describe somebody who is pleasant, easy to get along with likes to stop and talk likes to help people, affable, or, for example, the bar manager was very affable and knowledgeable, the staff gave us great service and attention. So again, here we're using the word affable as an adjective to describe the pleasant friendly bar man in the bar. Okay, so so it was good to get welcomed, and somebody who knows about the beers and everything else, but also they're friendly, and they're not pushing you to do this or that they're just very, very friendly, easy to talk to affable. Second word affluent, affluent affluent is to do with wealth. And generally people who are well off or have more than the average person, people can live in affluent areas of a city, this is an area where the price and value of the property would be a lot higher than the average property in that city. A person themselves who was affluent may have a nice cash balance in their bank account, they probably have a very good salary, good car, and generally don't have any problem with finding cash when they need it. Okay, so affluent children coming from affluent families are less likely to get into crime, or other anti social activities. So here we're using the word affluent to describe children who come from affluent families or come from well off families, that perhaps they get a better education and understand what needs to be done and what they should be doing to stay on the right side of the law, affluent families. most affluent countries, and cities invest heavily in bigger and better designed roads and motorways. So those affluent cities and affluent countries have a better infrastructure or more widely developed infrastructure that will help to attract new industry jobs, and the city and the country gets more and more affluent, so affluent, everything to do with the wealth, the value, the standard of living of the average person in that city or country. Our third word is deprived, okay, deprived. Now deprived usually means that somebody doesn't have as much as other people, okay. And perhaps they didn't have as good an education, perhaps the parents weren't working, and the level of income coming into the household was quite low. So they missed out on good food they missed out on entertainment, they missed out on better quality clothing. So they would be described generally has been deprived of things like that. Okay. So you got to make sure that you understand what that word deprived means. So I'll give you a couple of examples. The children look happy and content, despite the deprived conditions that they lived in, okay, so even though their family may have been deprived, low income levels, the children were still happy and content, which proves that you don't always need money to be happy. And you certainly don't need money to be content. It does help, of course, but if you don't have it, you can't buy these things. And therefore you might be described as deprived. But it doesn't mean you don't enjoy life or you can't enjoy life. Okay, so the deprived we can give another example, the floods. Let me just get the correct word in here. A teenager from deprived areas has been awarded a place at a medical school so a teenager from a deprived area has been awarded a place at a top level medical school. So what this means is that even though that boy or girl lived in or came from a deprived area, not so wealthy area, they were awarded a scholarship that allowed them to attend medical school, medical college and medical university, so deprived meaning lower standard of living than the average person. But despite that, they were able to achieve their goal and they got or gained a scholarship to a big university. Now, the next word is something similar. It's called destitute, destitute, okay? So again, we're talking about people on the lower end of the social scale, okay. So destitute means somebody who has almost nothing, okay. Now, it might be a temporary situation, they are destitute because they've lost a job or, you know, there was a massive earthquake or some real upheaval in their life, or it may be a long term thing that they are living on the streets and absolutely destitute. They've got nothing, no home, no job, no income, okay. So it can be short term or long term. Let me give you an example. The floods have left 1000s of people destitute, cutting them off from clean water, and food. Now, this is only a temporary situation. Okay? Yeah, generally they'll be okay. But some disaster hit the city or the country, huge floods, and the city was completely covered in water leaving 1000s and 1000s of people are destitute without clean water, places to live or dry places to live and sleep and no fresh food so destitute. Or something more long term. He looked destitute as he entered the the house perhaps his clothes were really tattered and torn. His shoes were worn down at the heel. Generally, he looked as if he had been sleeping rough for some time. So you could describe him as destitute. He was really in need of a hot meal, a hot bath, and some love and care and attention, destitute. Next word dexterous. Okay, so be careful with the pronunciation here. dexterous. Okay? See the spelling on the screen here. dexterous, okay, now dexterous means that you are very useful and skillful, particularly with your hands. So you have to make sure that when you're using this adjective, it's describing somebody who is has got good skills with their hands or could be somebody who's good at making things. Or it could be somebody who's very good at certain sporting activities, particularly those that involve the use of your hands. So here's an example. In order to be the next, Michael Jordan, you have to be dexterous in basketball, meaning you have to have lots of skills but particularly with your hands, quick hands, fast hands, skillful hands to pass the ball, score a basket or drop the ball into the basket, whatever you have to do pass it to your opponent, or your colleague. Okay, so in order to be the next, Michael Jordan, you have to be dexterous in or at basketball. She was very dexterous with her hands and her embroidery was beautiful. So here we're using it to describe the skills that a lady had with needlework. So her embroidery looked really really beautiful. So she was obviously very skilled and dexterous. Yeah, okay, so she can sew with both hands and with great quality and ability. Next word dubious. This is number six on our list dubious. So when dubious is doubtful, okay, when you're dubious about something, you're not really sure that you believe in whatever you're being told. So somebody gives you a story or gives you some information, but you are dubious about how truthful that information is. So dubious means to be doubtful or unsure whether You can believe what somebody has told you. These claims are dubious and not backed up by science. So somebody could be making claims about life on Mars life on the moon, wherever it might be. But it's whatever claims he or she is making. They're not backed up by science. So these claims are dubious, they are doubtful you can take them with what we call a pinch of salt. She was very dubious about the idea, but they convinced her that it would be a success. So perhaps there was some product going to be launched or some new business that they were thinking of getting into. But she was a little bit dubious as to whether it will be successful. But finally, they managed to persuade her to think the way they were thinking and go ahead with the plan. Okay, so that's dubious. Now I've given you a lots of words. And in all of my lessons, there are lots of additional vocabulary words or expressions, so it's not so easy to remember all of them, the best way to remember them is to practice. And the best way to practice is to use a platform. So if you use platform like properly, you can get lessons on a one to one basis with teachers. And please remember when looking at prep early to click on the link in the description below, and you'll be sure to get your 50% reduction in your first lesson with prep early. Okay, back to the lesson. So, we've covered six then here's number seven. Number seven, is the word elaborate. Okay, elaborate. Now, something that is elaborate is usually very well or very highly decorated. Okay? Now, it could be thing like a cake could be a dress. Also, your language could be very elaborate. So you use lots of fancy words or big words or words that other people that don't normally use. Okay, so elaborate is something that very well decorated. So it could be as I said, a dress that's elaborate with lots of jewellery could be a birthday cake that elaborate with lots of coloured icing or candles or some decorations on the cake. Here's my example. They made elaborate preparations for his visit. So perhaps the new King Charles a third of England was visiting the country. So they made elaborate plans for his visit. The red carpet, the golden carriage, the horses, the military, whatever it might be to welcome the new King. So very elaborate preparations and elaborate preparation of a dinner or a ball that evening to welcome the king and his queen, officially to this particular engagement. So that lots of music and lots of dignitaries, ambassadors and all sorts of people invited for the gala dinner. Living in France will make you addicted to elaborate dishes and your occasional glass of wine during lunch. Excellent. Okay, so an elaborate dish not just a plain sandwich or toasty but some nice decorated really interesting food to have at your lunchtime that will be very very tasty and of course that beautiful glass only one glass of red wine or white wine if that's your preference. So an elaborate lunch. Next word is evocative. Okay, just be careful with the pronunciation evocative Okay, something that is evocative is something that generates or creates feelings or very specific images, okay. So it could be the music could be evocative. The images from pictures photographs could be very evocative, even language can be very evocative. So it generates or produces these very strong or deep feelings or images. That music was evocative, especially at the beginning of the play. All of the photos that appeared in the magazine were very evocative. Okay, so they really got people thinking, and that was the intention of the photographer was to get you thinking, get you to understand what he was trying to generate or what message he was trying to get across with his photographs are very evocative to generate deep feeling. Next far fetched, far fetched, but something that is far fetched is something that is a little bit out of this world literally, or very, very hard to believe, or a story that you just couldn't imagine to be true. Children often tell stories that are very far fetched, they had a dream about somebody coming from the moon or they had somebody coming from deep in The Forest look quite unusual or scary some far fetched idea. The story I read on social media was a little bit far fetched, very hard to believe. And, you know, to understand that I could really happen in this day and age, there may have been some truth to it. But it may well have been told in a way just to create some interest in the social media app, or the podcast, whatever it might have been. So the story I read on social media was a little bit far fetched, I found it very hard to believe. Many thought it was a far fetched idea that would never work. But they have again, proven everyone wrong, it was a great event. So perhaps, they decided to have some special Christmas event, some Halloween event or some special festival or celebration. And the ideas to celebrate were little bit far fetched, not the usual type of celebrations they have, and everybody thought they got it wrong. But as they proved, they were right. People loved it. 1000s and 1000s of people flocked to see it, the numbers were up, the visitor numbers were up, and it was a great success. So despite being far fetched in the minds of some people actually proved to be very, very successful. So not everything that is far fetched is a disaster. Not everything that is far fetched, is something that you cannot believe in. Next word number 10. frivolous, frivolous, okay, now, frivolous. What does it mean? Frivolous is something that's not so useful. Not so valuable, and not so important, okay, frivolous, we can have frivolous ideas, we can waste our money on frivolous things. Okay. So the things are not really important in this day and age, small things, trinkets, things that really don't have a lot of value. Rich people spend money on frivolous things. Rich people like to spend money anyway because they have it. And often they spend it just because they have it. And the things they use can be easily and readily discarded so they can buy it today. Throw it out tomorrow frivolous things. She was a young, frivolous woman who spent most of her days going to parties. Okay, so that's somebody that doesn't really have a great idea of what real life is about. So she wasted her time going to parties every day, not spending a lot of time studying, perhaps the parents were very wealthy, and she knew that she was going to come into a lot of money. And the idea of getting a full time job was a little bit beyond her. So lots of her time was spent going to frivolous parties or parties that turned out not to be so interesting. And she could be described as a frivolous young woman, somebody who had ideas that weren't really so important when you look at all of the problems that we have in the world today frivolous number 11 gleeful. So what is gleeful Glee is to do with happiness. Okay, so when somebody is gleeful, they are happy, so they are full of happiness. A gleeful smile is a big smile. And you can see that somebody has had really good news or just generally they're happy person. A young baby likes to smile when they're well fed and they've got a clean fresh nappy, so they get a big gleeful smile. Yeah, so the big toothy grin. So Mrs. Wilson gave a gleeful smile that made her look younger than her years. So smiling makes people happy, makes people look well. So we should always be happy and smile because it might make you feel and look a little bit younger. So in this example, Mrs. Wilson gave a gleeful smile that made her appear younger than her years. He was gleeful at the way his job was going. So it was really, really happy. He changed his job, wasn't quite sure, but he made a big impression on the bosses. He made a big impression on all his colleagues, and everything was going really, really well. So he had a gleeful smile on his face, most of the time. So gleeful, all about happiness, looking happy, feeling happy, doing good things, happy things, gritty. Now gritty is an interesting word because it has a couple of meanings because it can mean just little bits of dirt, in gritty dirt in your eyes when the wind blows and you have to wash your eyes and clean or wipe your eyes because it will annoy you. But when we're talking about people gritty is to have a determination about you are really talking about gritty performances. It doesn't mean you're the best person you're the most skilled individual, but a gritty performance as a strong determined performance even though you may not be the best So if you could imagine a situation where you've got a tennis player, and he is drawn against Roger Federer, and one of the best players in the world, this player, he might have been beaten at the end of the day. But he gave a very gritty performance, he really dug in deep, he won several key points. In fact, he even took a set from Roger Federer and the papers the next day reported a really gritty performance by the young French tennis player. So this will be something that will be will stand to him in the future, he didn't win. But he showed that he could do his best and could produce some good tennis when it was needed. So a gritty performance as a strong, determined performance really dug deep, and showed a high level of skill. So what examples have we got, the first half of the book was gritty and harsh, but the second half was a little bit more predictable. Okay, so gritty, real, determined efforts strong. The team was gritty and resilient, it was enough to put them into first place, okay, so they put in a really, really strong performance, a really gritty performance. So they dug deep, and they eventually won the game and it put them into first place. Number 13, gullible. Gullible is when we believe anything anybody tells us. It's a similar to the word naive. Okay, so someone somebody is gullible, there's a good chance that one of what you tell them, they will believe you. So usually when we are young, inexperienced, and naive, we tend to be a little bit gullible. But as we get older, we understand Yeah, hopefully, we understand. So here's my examples. He was gullible enough to believe that they were doing him a favour. So perhaps they weren't doing him a favour. They were doing themselves a favour, but it looked like they were helping him and he was gullible enough to believe it. So he went along with the idea. scammers use gullible people to make money. So if you're a little bit gullible, and you get that email from somebody, looking for your bank details, you know, and if you're unfortunate enough to believe it, you'll send the details and you're going to lose some money. So scammers get their money by hunting and looking for and finding those naive or gullible people in society. So you have to be really, really careful why anybody is asking you for your bank details or your PIN code, whatever it might be. So gullible. Next number 14, immense, immense has now been something great, something big, okay. So, you know, something can be of immense value to you, it might not have a real value, but to you it has immense value, perhaps if it was left to you by a grandparent or godparent, his contribution can be immense, meaning really significant. So all the effort he gave, and the contributions he made over the years was of immense value to the company, when the company was struggling, he put in effort and pulled the company through many, many difficult situations, okay, so immense, great, large of huge benefit of great value to somebody. So here are my examples, this book will be of immense value to mechanical engineers. Why? Because it will show them ways in which they have never considered their skills to be used, so will be of immense value. Hopefully, my lessons are of immense value to those of you wishing to improve your vocabulary, or improve your speaking and conversational skills. Okay, so the next word is imposing number 15. So something that is imposing is something very large, something that dominates the room, the skyline. Now, it could be a person who's very imposing a larger than life figure, not only in their physical size, but also in their presence, they could be quite imposing. So a very determined and domineering chairman of a company could be quite imposing. And when you meet him, you feel a little bit well, below them subordinate to them, okay, so you have to be really, really careful, or a massive, huge skyscraper in the centre of a city can be very imposing because everything is focused on that. So here are the examples. The large wardrobe was too imposing a made the room look really small. So you're trying to decorate your house, and somebody puts in a wardrobe into the smallest bedroom and the Wardrobe was huge, just too big for that room. And oh, no, this is too imposing and makes the room look even smaller than what it is we need something a little bit smaller, this wardrobe will fit much better in the big bedroom, okay, so it's very imposing. Okay, so for example, Donald Trump would have been regarded as quite an imposing figure, not only in terms of his personality, but often in the way he used to send his messages on Twitter or the statements that he would make from time to time. So, you know, we could have an example the former mayor or president is still an imposing figure in the political arena means he's, even though he's not in office, he's still there. And people can still sense His presence, which you can certainly do in American politics. When you consider Mr. Trump, in the case of the former mayor or president is still an imposing figure in the political arena. All right, number 16. mind boggling Oh, that sounds a mouthful. mind boggling. Well, something that is mind boggling. Something that's going to confuse you or cause your mind to be a little bit confused, something that you're not able to handle or understand very, very quickly. For example, modern mathematics is mind boggling. I just don't understand. Literally, I don't I don't understand modern mathematics, mind boggling. The government's pension reform is is mind boggling. What are they trying to do when they're trying to make it simple? They've made it more complicated. So the government's pension reform is mind boggling. Okay? So something that causes a lot of anxiety, you're just not able to understand it. And you're really sitting there scratching your head wondering what is happening. Number 17, perceptible, well perceptible. Something that is noticeable. Yeah, something that you can really notice the change. So if the temperature drops significantly over two days, it's perceptible. You notice when it goes from plus 15 to plus six in 24 hours, the change in temperature is perceptible something that you notice and you notice quite easily. The improvement in our living standards is barely perceptible them. Okay. So it means that the government have introduced some changes in the budget tried to help and alleviate some of the problems with high inflation, yet, those changes are barely perceptible. You'd hardly notice the changes even though they say they have spent billions of euros to help us. The change is barely perceptible. It's barely noticeable. Okay? So perceptible. Something that you notice notice quite easily, barely perceptible means but you can hardly notice the change. Okay, number 18. This word is petrified now petrifies about fear, okay. It's a really high level of fear when somebody is petrified, we might say the scared stiff, so they could be petrified of anything, they could be petrified of the dark. They could be petrified of the noise. They could be petrified of somebody or something. Okay, so but petrified means to be really, really scared. She was petrified when she heard she was losing her job. What am I going to do? How am I going to pay for my mortgage? How am I going to make ends meet? She was petrified. What am I going to tell my husband when I go home? I was petrified when confronted by a large dog when I was walking in the park. So there I was walking in the park. And this monster of a dog came out with a hedge. He looked at me I looked at him. He didn't look so friendly. So I was petrified when I was confronted by that Doc. Okay, next we have plausible This is word number 19. plausible. Plausible is something that is believable. Yeah. Okay. Often we talk about this when we're talking about excuses that people make for being late for not doing the homework for not doing something they were supposed to do. And people make up all sorts of stories, some of them implausible, not believable, some of them very plausible. His excuse for not doing his homework was actually plausible this time. So perhaps the other three or four times he had excuses about the dog eating his homework or whatever happened. This time. He simply said the alarm didn't go off. My mom didn't wake me. So I was I was wasn't able to do my homework before I came to school. So the excuse is quite plausible. The agent's reasons for cancelling the concert were not plausible that nobody believed the story. So the agents reasons for cancelling the concert were not plausible. They were implausible. Okay, so plausible, something that really Yeah, you could understand that you couldn't believe it, even though parts of it you might not quite believe. And then finally, we've got the word rusty. rusty means something that needs a bit of armour like a rusty gate with squeak when you open it. So you put a bit of oil on it, and it'll open without the rust. But rusty can mean something that's out of practice. For example, our language skills can be a bit rusty. Yeah. Okay, so our French was very rusty. But with the aid of a dictionary, we were able to get around the problem. So our French was rusty. So if you're planning a holiday to France, Italy, Spain, you usually dig out the phrase book and try to learn a few of the phrases in advance of the holiday to brush up on your language skills. So they're not so rusty. I'm pretty rusty at this game. I haven't played golf for years. I mean, I'm sure when I tried to hit the ball, it won't go more than 10 metres. So if you're rusty, it needs to do a bit of practice. You need to get into training again to improve your skill so that you're not so rusty. Okay. All right. So rusty, something that hasn't been used for a while. Physically if something is rusty that hasn't been used for a while a bike in the garden, then the you get the rust, this reddish problem with the metal and that deteriorates. So that's where it comes from. And when we use rusty about our skills, they just haven't been practised enough. Okay, so there you have it, you've got 2020 adjectives of the you're a really high level to help you to improve your vocabulary and your speaking skills in English. So these are advanced adjectives to help you with that. As I've said before, you won't remember all of them, but try and practice some of them. Try to put them into sentences and try to introduce one or two of them into your conversations. If you have any further problems, you know where I am always happy to help you. Always happy to hear from you. Thanks for listening. Join me again for the next lesson.
B1 UK gritty rusty deprived petrified gullible elaborate 20 Advanced Adjectives (C1) to Build Your Vocabulary | Advanced English 19 1 林宜悉 posted on 2022/12/13 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary