Learn the order in which you should use English adjectives
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Chihiro: Hey, everybody! I’m Chihiro. How Can the English Words for Time Help You Figure out Where She Is? |
| Ryan: Hey, everyone, it’s Ryan. |
| Chihiro: In this lesson, you'll learn how people can get upset. |
| Ryan: This conversation takes place at Teddy's place. |
| Chihiro: The conversation is between Drew and Teddy. |
| Ryan: The speakers are friends; therefore the speakers will be speaking casually. |
| Chihiro: Let’s have a listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Drew: Teddy, is that who I think it is? |
| Teddy: Who… |
| Drew: Three o'clock… |
| Teddy: Oh yeah, it's Sonya! |
| Drew: What the heck is she doing here? |
| Teddy: Hey, I didn't invite her; she must have heard from one of your friends… |
| Drew: I...I can't believe she had the nerve to come here… |
| Teddy: Oh, come on! That was ages ago now! You're not still mad at her, are you? |
| Drew: Mad? Are you kidding me! I'll never forgive her for what she did to me! I was a complete fool to ever trust her! I cried for weeks because of her!! |
| Teddy: Drew, calm down! That was a long time ago! Besides it was just a… |
| Drew: Just a what? Hmm? Just a what? Cowabunga was more than just a turtle to me! I should have never trusted her and her husband to look after him that summer…when I saw him that evening after my trip…on his beautiful dark green shell… |
| Teddy: …Hey…you all right? |
| Drew: (drinking one down) I need another drink… |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Drew: Teddy, is that who I think it is? |
| Teddy: Who… |
| Drew: Three o'clock… |
| Teddy: Oh yeah, it's Sonya! |
| Drew: What the heck is she doing here? |
| Teddy: Hey, I didn't invite her; she must have heard from one of your friends… |
| Drew: I...I can't believe she had the nerve to come here… |
| Teddy: Oh, come on! That was ages ago now! You're not still mad at her, are you? |
| Drew: Mad? Are you kidding me! I'll never forgive her for what she did to me! I was a complete fool to ever trust her! I cried for weeks because of her!! |
| Teddy: Drew, calm down! That was a long time ago! Besides it was just a… |
| Drew: Just a what? Hmm? Just a what? Cowabunga was more than just a turtle to me! I should have never trusted her and her husband to look after him that summer…when I saw him that evening after my trip…on his beautiful dark green shell… stiff…(getting emotional) |
| Teddy: …Hey…you all right? |
| Drew: (drinking one down) I need another drink… |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chihiro: Okay, house parties. |
| Ryan: House parties, do you like them Chihiro? |
| Chihiro: I like them if they're good! |
| Ryan: I agree with that. |
| Chihiro: I've been to really fun big ones before, and not so fun big ones before too. But parties are fun in general, I guess. |
| Ryan: Yeah, I tend to enjoy house parties when I know who the guests are. I feel more welcome that way, like I'm not stepping on anybody's feet. |
| Chihiro: Listeners, Although it depends on the party, people will invite other people for most large parties. |
| Ryan: That's why you'll see people you don't know and that's why Drew saw Sonya there, even though it was a party for him and he didn't want to see her. |
| Chihiro: Right, you can bump into almost anybody at a house party, so be prepared for the unexpected! I sometimes found out people I knew from elsewhere were friends with my close friends as well. |
| Ryan: Yeah, especially something in, like, a university community, many people tend to know many other people that you may know! |
| Chihiro: How are parties in your country? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chihiro: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Ryan: heck [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: word used in place of the swear word 'hell' that is not offensive |
| Ryan: heck [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: heck [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: to invite [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: to request the attendance of |
| Ryan: to invite [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: to invite [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: nerve [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: rude action that makes another angry |
| Ryan: nerve [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: nerve [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: to take ages [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: expression used when something takes a lot of time |
| Ryan: to take ages [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: to take ages [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: to forgive [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: to stop feeling anger towards something |
| Ryan: to forgive [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: to forgive [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: fool [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: silly person, person who lacks good judgement |
| Ryan: fool [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: fool [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: to trust [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: to rely on the truthfulness or ability of something or someone |
| Ryan: to trust [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: to trust [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: to calm down [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: to become peaceful or relaxed |
| Ryan: to calm down [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: to calm down [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: trip [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: a journey from one place to another |
| Ryan: trip [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: trip [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Chihiro: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the phrases from this lesson. |
| Ryan: The first phrase is, |
| Chihiro: "three o'clock." |
| Ryan: What Drew is talking about here is not time, but rather the location of a person. What this means is that since he's talking with Teddy, he's indicating where a person is standing by giving him the hands of a clock imagining that Teddy is standing in the middle of the clock facing twelve. This way he can indicate where something is. |
| Chihiro: You might have seen this done in movies, to tell somebody the location of something secretly, without anybody knowing. |
| Ryan: And that's what Drew was doing, so he didn't have to point. |
| Chihiro: Okay, the next phrase we'll look at is, |
| Ryan: "Cowabunga was more than just a turtle to me!" |
| Chihiro: What Drew means by this line is that his pet turtle wasn't just a turtle to him – he meant much more. |
| Ryan: That’s why Drew uses this phrase to describe his turtle, Cowabunga. |
Lesson focus |
| Chihiro: Okay, the focus of this lesson is the order of adjectives. Believe it or not listeners, there's an order for adjectives in English. |
| Ryan: Yes, it's a prefered order, in which native speakers learn naturally, so if you ask an English speaker the order of adjectives they might be a little confused. |
| Chihiro: When you string adjectives together, you should say them in a certain order. But it's not necessarily not understandable if you don't get the order right. |
| Ryan: No, people will still understand you, but it'll sound more natural if you get the order right and it'll sound smoother. |
| Chihiro: Okay, now with that said, the order goes like this, first you have the Determiner, the Opinion comes next, followed by the Adjective, and then Size, Shape, Age, Color, Origin, and finally Material. |
| Ryan: In plain English now. The first one, determiner, are the words like "the" or "some" or "my". These come at the beginning of a string of adjectives. |
| Chihiro: The next one is an opinion adjective, in other words, something like "beautiful" or "silly" or "fun". That comes second. |
| Ryan: The third one is the size. In other words how big or how small something is. |
| Chihiro: And the fourth one in line is shape. Shape adjectives are words like "circular", "triangular", and perhaps even "irregular" |
| Ryan: So up to now, a string of adjectives may sound like this. "The ugly little deformed duckling." |
| Chihiro: That's "the" for the determiner, "ugly" as an opinion adjective, "little" for size, and "deformed" for shape. |
| Ryan: Moving along, the adjective after a shape description is age. How old something is if you need to mention it or a describing word, such as "young" or "middle-aged". |
| Chihiro: And the next one up is color. Is the noun "red" or "brown" or is it "reddish brown" |
| Ryan: What follows after that is the origin, or in other words, where it's from. Is it Brazilian or is it Chinese? |
| Chihiro: And then finally we have material. What is it made of? Is it cotton, is it plastic, metal or ceramic? |
| Ryan: And then at the end you place your noun. The main thing. Don't forget that one! |
| Chihiro: You won't of course have all of these adjectives to state every time you have a noun to describe, but you will have a variety sometimes to mention. |
| Ryan: When you do, you may want to keep this order in mind. As usual, the more you practice it, the more familiar it'll sound to you. |
| Chihiro: In the meantime, let's give some examples of a sequence of adjectives. Go ahead, Ryan. |
| Ryan: "The smart, tall, eight year old Nigerian boy." |
| Chihiro: Okay, here the sequence is "smart, tall, eight year old, Nigerian". Opinion adjective, size, age, origin. |
| Ryan: Remember to not add an "s" to the word "year" since it's an adjective here. Okay, give us another example. |
| Chihiro: Okay. How about, "A small, round, purple and orange rubber ball." |
| Ryan: So the adjectives were, “small, round, purple and orange, and rubber”. So Size, shape, color, material. |
| Chihiro: And here’s one last example for you guys, "my cracked, antique, Spanish tea set." |
| Ryan: "Cracked, antique, Spanish tea set." Shape, age, and origin. |
| Chihiro: Right. Okay, all three examples sound like they're in the right order. |
| Ryan: Okay, shall we end our grammar point there? |
| Chihiro: Okay, Ryan, let’s close our easy, understandable grammar point then. |
Outro |
| Chihiro: Okay, that just about does it for today. Okay, everybody thanks for listening! |
| Ryan: Bye for now! |
Comments
Hide