Hello everyone, welcome to Learn English Fun Way! In this lesson, we are going to go over ten advanced English adjectives. And we want to do that for two reasons. Firstly, to help you expand your vocabulary and help you to express yourself in interesting ways. Secondly, 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 we 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.
Table of Contents
10 Advanced English Adjectives
1, Explicit
- /ɪkˈsplɪsɪt/
There’s a really tricky consonant cluster in there. 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.
You often see it being used when people are giving instructions or warnings or even threats. Therefore, this word is quite serious.
For example:
- 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’.
For example:
- I explicitly told you to stay in this room until I returned.
2, Exponential
- /ˌekspəˈnenʃl/
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.
For example:
- 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.
For example:
- Company profits grew exponentially throughout 2019.
- That means they increased rapidly or really, really quickly.
We 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 we want you to write it in the comments below so that we can give you some feedback and help you to increase your English skills exponentially.
3, Specific
- /spəˈsɪfɪk/
Although this word is quite common, it’s also quite commonly mispronounced, especially as an adverb. The stress is on that middle syllable.
Something being specific means that thing being connected with one particular thing only.
For example:
- There are specific areas within the festival where children are not allowed.
- For specific instructions, please refer to the guide.
We can use the adverb ‘specifically’ to express very similar ideas.
For example:
- 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.
- /spəˈsɪfɪkli/
There are lots of examples of this, for example:
- Realistically – /ˌriːəˈlɪstɪkli/
- Strategically – /strəˈtiːdʒɪkli/
- Logically – /ˈlɒdʒɪkli/
They’re all pronounced in the same way just like ‘specifically’.
4, Colloquial
- /kəˈləʊkwiəl/
That’s another tricky consonant cluster.
This word is used to mention about words and language used in conversation but not in formal speech or writing.
For example:
- That English expression is quite colloquial.
- We use that word colloquially.
So we 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.
5, Delicate
- /ˈdelɪkət/
The first syllable is stressed and the last one is unstressed.
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.
For example:
- The flavours of this dish are quite delicate.
We also use it when something is done in a really careful way so that it’s not damaged.
For example:
- He placed the fruit delicately into a box.
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 say it to them delicately and carefully.
6, Coherent
- /kəʊˈhɪərənt/
When something or someone communicates in a really clear and sensible way that people can understand, that’s coherent.
For example:
- The minister offered a clear and coherent explanation for the tax increase.
- We want to make sure that you are very coherent when you’re using English.
The opposite is ‘incoherent’.
For example:
- The email that he sent was poorly written and quite incoherent.
7, Eloquent
- /ˈeləkwənt/
The first syllable is stressed and the other two reduce down to become the schwa sound.
And just like ‘colloquial’, this adjective is related to language. It’s used when someone expresses themselves really clearly, and effectively, and almost beautifully.
For example:
- She gave an eloquent speech at the gala dinner.
- He spoke eloquently about his journey of personal development.
8, Exquisite
- /ɪkˈskwɪzɪt/
A lot of these adjectives that we’ve been learning today have this consonant cluster. 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’ means that something is extremely beautiful and delicate.
For example:
- We bought an exquisite hand-painted bowl from Japan.
- Her necklace is exquisite.
Do you own anything that you could describe as exquisite? Let us know in the comments.
9, Insatiable
- /ɪnˈseɪʃəbl/
The second syllable is the stressed one.
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.
For example:
- 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.
- Her work ethic is insatiable. She just doesn’t stop!
Furious little boy waiting for dinner. Holding a spoon and fork in the hand
10, Mischievous
- /ˈmɪstʃɪvəs/
‘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.
For example:
- 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 means bad behaviour (especially of children) that is annoying but does not cause any serious damage or harm.
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.
It is the end of our lesson today! We 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 and say them out loud. 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.
In order to get further explanation and practice your listening skills also, watch the video below. Thank you for reading and see you in the next writing!
Credit: Youtube Channel “mmmEnglish”
