Friday, June 30, 2017

ADJECTIVES

Used to something

They say you can get used to anything.
The use of used to do something is explained here. However, used to has another meaning, it can be used as an adjective and we use it to talk about things that have become familiar, and are no longer strange or new.
Used to usually comes after verbs such as be, get or become.
  • After a while you get used to the noise.
  • She will become used to the smell.
  • was used to the web site.
You can also say that someone is used to doing something.
  • I'll never get used to getting up at six o'clock in the morning.
  • It took me a while until I was used to driving on the right-hand side of the road.

POSITIVE

a - ef - pq - z
adaptable
adorable
agreeable 
alert
alluring
ambitious

amusing
boundless
brave 
bright 
calm 
capable
charming 
cheerful 
coherent 
confident
cooperative
courageous
credible
cultured
dashing
dazzling
debonair
decisive
decorous
delightful
determined
diligent
discreet
dynamic
eager
efficient
enchanting
encouraging
enduring 

energetic
entertaining
enthusiastic
excellent
excitable
exuberant
fabulous
fair 
faithful 
fantastic 
fearless
frank
friendly
funny
generous
gentle 
good
happy
harmonious
helpful
hilarious 
honorable
impartial
industrious
instinctive
jolly 
joyous 
kind
kind-hearted
knowledgeable
likeable
lively 
lovely 
loving
lucky 
mature
modern
nice
obedient 
painstaking
peaceful
perfect 
placid
plausible
pleasant 
plucky

productive
protective
proud 
punctual 
quiet
receptive
reflective
relieved 
resolute
responsible
righteous
romantic
sedate
selective
self-assured
sensitive
shrewd
silly 
sincere
skilful
splendid 
steadfast
stimulating
talented
thoughtful 
thrifty
tough
trustworthy
unbiased
unusual
upbeat
vigorous
vivacious 
warm
willing
wise
witty 
wonderful 
zany 
zealous

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Superlative Adjectives

The superlative is used to say what thing, person, or idea has the most of a particular quality within a group or of its kind.
Superlative adjectives normally come before any other adjectives.
Attribution Some rights reserved by Ant Jackson
 Some rights reserved by Bart vanDorp
Snowdon is not the highest mountain in Britain. 
Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain.
Mount Snowdon is 3,559 feet high.Ben Nevis is 4,408 feet high.

 

FORMING THE SUPERLATIVE

FormRuleFor example
Words of one syllable ending in 'e'.
Add -st to the end of the word.
wide - widest
The Amazon River is the widest river in the world.
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end.Double the consonant and add -est to the end of the word.
big - biggest
In 2010 a dog called Giant George was given the title of the biggest dog in the world.
Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end.Add - est to the end of the word.high - highest
Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the word. (But it isn't the tallest mountain in the world.)
Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'.Change 'y' to 'i', and add -est to the end of the word.happy - happiest
In 2013 Australia was named the happiest country in the world.
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'.Place 'the most' before the adjective.beautiful - the most beautiful
Some people say that the Maldives have the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Don't forget that some adjectives are irregular:-
  • 'good' becomes 'the best'
  • 'bad' becomes 'the worst'
  • 'far' becomes 'the furthest'

Friday, June 23, 2017

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.
Subject pronounPossessive adjective

Singular

Imy
youyour
hehis
sheher
itits

Plural

youyour
weour
theytheir
For example:
  • I own a laptop. = It is my laptop.
  • You own this computer (I presume). = It is your computer.
  • David owns a black car. = It is his car.
  • Karen owns a house. = It is her house.
  • We hope you all enjoy these lessons. = They are your lessons.
  • The dog has a food bowl. = It is its food bowl.
  • We love this website. = It is our website.
  • Manchester United own a football ground. = It is their football ground.
!Note - You - Your = the same for singular and plural.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

ADJECTIVE ORDER

Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size, age, shape, colour, material, to more abstract things like opinion, origin and purpose.
We can use adjectives together to give a detailed description of something.
Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but it can sometimes depend on what exactly you want to emphasise.
For example: 


"That's a nice, big, blue bag." (You like the bag.)
"That's a nice blue." (You like the colour.)

Friday, June 16, 2017

Comparative form of Adjectives

When we compare things, people or even ideas we look at what makes them different from each other.
Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They normally come before any other adjectives.
!Tip - It's a good idea to learn opposites (antonyms) when learning adjectives.
For example:

TALL / SHORT

tallshort
The man on the left is taller than the man on the right. 

The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.
 !Note - Have you noticed that when we are comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing being compared.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?"

Simply put adjectives are descriptive words. Adjectives are used to describe or give information about things, ideas and people:nouns or pronouns.
For Example:-

The grey dog barked. (The adjective grey describes the noun "dog".)

The most common question an adjective might answer is "What kind of ...?"
The good news is that in English the form of an adjective does not change, once you have learnt it that's it and it does not matter if the noun being described is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object. Yay!
Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size colour etc (fact adjectives - can't be argued with).
Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about something or somebody - nice, horrid, beautiful etc (opinion adjectives - not everyone may agree).

There are different types of adjectives in the English language:

  • Numeric: six, one hundred and one etc.
  • Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough etc.
  • Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc.
  • Possessive: my, his, their, your etc.
  • Interrogative: which, whose, what etc.
  • Demonstrative: this, that, those, these etc.
!Note - The articles a, an, and the are a special kind of adjective called articles, and the possessives my, our, your, and their are sometimes known as possessive adjectives.

Colour

Adjectives can be used to describe colour.
rainbow
blue, red, green, brown, yellow, black, white, etc.
For Example:
  • "The blue bag." or "The blue bags".

Opinion

Adjectives can be used to give your opinion about something.
thumb up thumb down
good, pretty, right, wrong, funny, light, happy, sad, full, soft, hard etc.
For Example:
  • He was a silly boy. / She was a silly girl.

Size

Adjectives can be used to describe size.
tall/short
big, small, little, long, tall, short, same as, etc.
For Example:
  • "The big man." or "The big woman".

Age

Adjectives can be used to describe age.
oldchild
For Example:
  • "He was an old man." or "She was an old woman."

Shape

Adjectives can be used to describe shape.
circlecube
round, circular, triangular, rectangular, square, oval, etc.
For Example:
  • "It was a square box." or "They were square boxes."

Origin

Adjectives can be used to describe origin.
germany france
For Example:-
  • "It was a German flag." or "They were German flags."

Material

Adjectives can be used to identify the material something is made of.
tv
  • "A wooden cupboard." or "Wooden cupboards."
!Note - In English we often change nouns into adjectives.
For Example: glass - a glass vase / metal - a metal tray etc.

Distance

Adjectives can be used to describe distance.
  l -- o -- n -- g  / short
long, short, far, around, start, high, low, etc.
For Example:
  • "She went for a long walk." or "They went for lots of long walks."

Temperature

Adjectives can be used to describe temperature.
thermometer
cold, warm, hot, cool, etc.
For Example:
  • "It was a hot day" or "We eat ice cream on hot days."

Time

Adjectives can be used to describe time.
morning night
late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night, etc.
or Example:
  • "She had an early start."

 Purpose

Adjectives can be used to describe purpose. (These adjectives often end with "-ing".)
For Example:
  • "She gave them a sleeping bag." or "She gave them sleeping bags."
!Note - Have you noticed how the adjective stays the same, whether it is describing a masculine, feminine, singular or plural noun? Nice huh?
When using more than one adjective to modify a noun, the adjectives may be separated by a conjunction (and) or by commas (,).
For Example:
  • "Her hair was long and blonde." or "She had long, blonde hair."
More examples:
AdjectivePrettySeriousFastQuiet
For Example:She is a pretty girl.He was a serious boy.It could be a fast car.They were quiet children.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Using Collocations to Learn English

What are collocations in English?


Collocation is words that are used regularly with a specific word.  For example, three collocation words for the word 'friend' are 'best, 'good,' and 'loyal.'  Here are some example sentences:


"She talks to her best friend every day."
(best)

"He lives with some good friends."
(good, close)
*The word 'close' is another collocation that can be used in the place of 'good' such as "He lives with some close friends."

"She has been a loyal friend for many years."
(loyal, real, trusted, true, faithful)
*All the words in the parenthesis can be used in the place of 'loyal.'  These are other examples of collocations for the word 'friend.'


Why is it important to study English collocation?


When we learn vocabulary, we might understand the meaning of the word using a dictionary, but many times, we do not know how to use the word in a sentence.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Intonation and Speed of Speaking

Intonation

Many people from different countries have improper intonation because their teacher had improper intonation. In many situations, being monotone is better than having bad intonation. The worst is when someone goes up and down too much on every word. Another thing you should avoid is to end high at the end of a sentence.
To correct improper intonation, you need to remember to start high and end low. You cannot do it any other way. I recommend going to the interview section and listening to one of the audio files provided by a native speaker. You will hear proper intonation. After listening to the audio, record yourself and listen to it. Does it sound the same? If not, then find the areas that are dissimilar and make the necessary corrections.
This advice is very trivial, but intonation is relatively easy to correct. You can fix your intonation with only a little effort. If you have a friend who is a native English speaker, you can usually fix intonation in a couple of lessons. Recording yourself and listening to yourself might be tedious, but having correct intonation can go a long way.
I have had many students who fixed their intonation after 2 small sessions. The advice I gave them was the same as the one above. This will work, and if you want to speak with proper intonation, please follow this advice.

Speed of speaking

A common mistake of people who obtain English fluency with improper pronunciation and intonation is the speed in which they speak. Because they do not have perfect pronunciation and intonation, it is difficult to understand people who speak too fast. This is the biggest problem I have seen from people who gain confidence in speaking.
In order to improve your communication, and to hear "excuse me" less often, it is important to have the correct speed of speaking. For people with confidence, my advice is to slow down and to speak clearly. Don't blend words together too much and make sure to separate words with a small pause for words that are difficult to pronounce.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Alphabetical List - U-V

Union is strengthA group has more force than an individual.
Unwillingness easily finds an excuse.A person who doesn't want to do something always finds a reason to avoid it.
Variety is the spice of life.Doing a lot of different things makes life more interesting.
Virtue is its own reward.You should not expect praise for acting in a correct or moral way.

Alphabetical List - W

Walls have ears.Be careful.  People could be listening.
Waste not, want not.If you never waste anything, you will have is when you need it.
(A) watched pot never boils.If you wait anxiously for something to happen, it seems to take a long time.
(The) way to a man's heart is through his stomach.Feed a man well and he will love you.
What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.If a person doesn't know about something, it cannot hurt them.
What a man says drunk, he thinks sober.People speak more freely under the influence of alcohol.
What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.People are less discreet under the influence of alcohol.
When the cat's away, the mice play.People sometimes misbehave when the person in authority, is absent.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.You should adopt the customs of the people or country you are visiting and behave in the same way.
When poverty comes in the door, love goes out the window.When a couple loses everything, their relationship becomes difficult.
Where there's life there's hope.As long as a person is breathing, there is hope for recovery.
Where there's a will there's a way.If you are determined to do something, you will find a way to do it.
Who makes himself a sheep will be eaten by the wolves.Possible interpretation: an easily influenced person can be mislead.
(A) wise head keeps a still tongueAn intelligent person knows when to stay silent.
Wisdom is better than strength.It is preferable to use one's intelligence than one's physical strength.
(The) wish is father to the thought.You think that something is true because you want it to be so.
(A) wonder lasts but nine daysThe effects of an amazing or stirring event last only nine days; after that, life goes on as before.
Wonders will never cease!Expresses surprise at an unexpected pleasure or event.
Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.Worrying over small details can make them seem worse.
(Two) wrongs don't make a right.It is wrong to harm someone because they have harmed you.