How to make your English strong? Base Adjectives vs Strong Adjectives

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You know what; in English there are some words that are called base words. What’s that? And some words that are called strong words, yes. And they are used to punch away other words, like very, absolutely, too much, so much. If you have been using many of these words lately and you want get rid of them, then please join me, Michelle your tutor for the day.

Let’s start this lesson with a vocabulary check. So let’s look at the words on the board. Base adjectives. The word base here means that these words do not have the idea of very, do not have, very and these words here, strong adjectives already have the idea of very. For example, very scary. Here scary is a base adjective but if we have a strong adjective instead, we do not need to use the word, very. We are punching it away. So cool, isn’t it? They have the idea of very. We need to know one more word and that is intensifier. Have you ever heard about the word amplifier that increases the volume? Yes, the same way intensifiers increase or add on to the meaning of a word, add to the meaning. So the way very here is adding to the meaning of scary, so something that is double scary or triple scary, is very scary. So you’re adding to the meaning and very is an intensifier but this lesson is all about kicking away and punching away the intensifiers. So we’re gonna cut this very and use another word, to talk about something that is, very, very, very, very scary. Okay let me give you a situation first. So if you’re late for a meeting at office or at work, how do you feel? You feel terrified. Yes, that’s the word, terrified. So terrified means something that is very, very, very scary. But we don’t always get rid of intensifiers. We’re getting rid of boring intensifiers but we also have some interesting intensifiers like when you are late at work, you feel utterly terrified. Utterly, here gives the idea of even more. So you’re scared, you’re terrified but you’re even more terrified. That means utterly terrified.

Let’s look at the next one. Really crowded. So your favourite mall on a Sunday how is it? Is it really crowded, isn’t it? Yes and if you don’t want to use the word really, you can instead say, that my favourite mall on a Sunday is, packed, yes, packed. Here as well, you can use another intensifier, like completely packed, yeah. So completely packed means there is just no space, you can’t move around in the mall and there are just so many people on that day.

Okay, let’s look at the next one, very dirty. How does your mom like your room? Very dirty? No, my mom hates my room when it’s very dirty. She likes my room spotless, that means absolutely clean but that would be an opposite. We are talking about very dirty here. So if you wanna talk about something that is very clean, we’d rather say spotless. Something that is very clean. I’ll change this for you, would be called spotless. So let’s say if this board was entirely clear and there was not even a single spot on the board, a spot of ink, no spot of ink at all, well that’s spot. so it would be called spotless. you can also say, it’s perfectly spotless. yes, that’s a nice intensifier that you can use. it’s perfectly spotless.

Okay with that we move to the next one. very fat, yes fat is a rude word and I don’t think anyone would like to hear that, even if they are very fat. so you could instead say to them, obese. now if you think, you are very fat, a better way of saying it is that, I’m a bit obese, I think daily exercise will help me overcome it. obese, quite obese, the word quite here gives the idea of even more obese, yes.

With that we move to the next one, unusually hungry which means very hungry. unusually is also another intensifier that you can use, which has the same meaning as very. but when you are really unusually hungry then you can use a much better word that has the idea of very hungry and that word would be famished. when do you feel famished? think of it, I’ve always felt very famished or I’ve always felt exceptionally famished in a classroom when the teacher is teaching. I really feel famished then or starved, yes. starved as well. famished or starved. exceptionally famished.

Let’s look at the next one, particularly ugly. we have another word of saying this and that is awful. what do you think about a red shirt and yellow pants? Oh they’ll look completely awful. completely, that’s an intensifier and you can also use the word, so awfully has a negative connotation when you’re talking about something ugly but it can also be used not so literally to say that may be I’m awfully in love with you means too much in love with you. there, it has a positive meaning. so be careful about that connotation.

Let’s look at the next one, really messed. Okay, I’ve something for you, stay there, just stay there. okay so when you wear a hat or a cap, what happens to your hair? oh they are all messed up or they are really messed or maybe you can say they are utterly filthy, which means messed or dirty, utterly filthy. instead of utterly, you could also say, they look absolutely filthy. utterly or absolutely.

Now let’s look at the last one, very surprising. what do you think about a beautiful landscape with lovely hills and horses running in the meadows, it’s really astounding for me, really astounding, astounding. but if we don’t want to use the word, really because that’s exactly what we’re trying to get rid of, then you could say, it’s remarkably astounding, remarkably astounding. now have you seen something in this particular section? we have used certain words very often and which are those words? words like really, very, really very. so these are some common intensifiers that you can use with base adjectives if you at all have to use them and these are some of the common intensifiers that you can use with strong adjectives. there’s something you need to very careful about. you cannot use the word very with both a base adjective and a strong adjective. just try, it looks hideous. very clean and very packed, doesn’t sound correct, isn’t it? that’s why we’re using the word completely in place of very because this is the correct word that you must use and how about really? really messed, really astounding, that’s okay. so really is one word that you can use both with base adjectives and strong adjectives. isn’t that fun? now I’m really tired, no I think I’m utterly exhausted, so I’m gonna leave you with all of these words, so that you can use them and punch away all the boring base adjectives and use some interesting strong adjectives. I’ll miss you, you take care, see you very soon with another fun learning lesson, bye.