Learn how to use English adjectives to describe nouns and how you can combine them to create an even richer picture of something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chihiro: Hi, everyone. Chihiro here. |
| Daniel: Daniel here. Beginner series, season one, lesson twenty-four. “That Tall Guy from Italy” Chihiro |
| Daniel: With us, you’ll learn to speak English with fun and effective lessons. |
| Chihiro: We also provide you with cultural insights and tips you won’t find in a textbook. |
| Daniel: In this lesson, you will learn how to describe things. |
| Chihiro: This conversation takes place somewhere on the campus of Innovative University, IU |
| Daniel: The conversation is between Tony and Jason, two students at IU |
| Chihiro: The speakers are friends |
| Daniel: Now before we listen to the conversation, |
| Chihiro: We want to ask you, do you read the lesson notes while you listen? |
| Daniel: We were wondering if you’ve tried it, and if so, what do you think of it? |
| Chihiro: You can leave us feedback in the comments section of this lesson. OK, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Tony: Hey, did you hear what happened to that tall guy from Italy? |
| Jason: Are you talking about Marco? That guy who always has multiple girlfriends at any time? |
| Tony: Yeah! Marco's his name! Well, anyways, I heard he was doing his usual, you know, inviting several pretty girls here and there for dates… |
| Jason: Let me guess…one of them found out and was pretty upset? |
| Tony: Wrong! Several of them found out and they were ALL pretty upset! So they decided to get back at him! |
| Jason: Really!? This sounds like an interesting story! What happened? |
| Tony: They got some of that really hot chili powder…you know the kind that's extra hot? And they sprinkled it…no, more like poured it onto his pizza… You can guess what happened after that, right? |
| Jason: No way! I don't believe you. That must have been a sight to see! I feel kind of sorry for Marco actually, that stuff really burns… I remember I couldn't feel my tongue for two days after I put too much of that stuff on my food. |
| Tony: Yeah, that's why I've never seen anybody drink so much water so fast before. It was at a record-breaking speed! |
| Jason: Wait, what do you mean "I've never seen?" |
| Tony: Oh, I was there at the student union, studying for my history exam! Front row seats! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chihiro: Sounds like Tony got to see the whole prank! |
| Daniel: Yeah, also sounds like he's spreading the news! What these two people are doing in the dialogue is gossiping. |
| Chihiro: This means that they just chat about people and things that are happening around them. When people gossip, information is passed from person to person which causes the original story to get changed. |
| Daniel: Right, the end story is always pretty different isn't it? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Daniel: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Chihiro: tall [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: above-average height |
| Chihiro: tall [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: tall [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Italy [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: country in the south of Europe |
| Italy [slowly - broken down by syllable] Italy [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: guy [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: man |
| Chihiro: guy [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: guy [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| girlfriend [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: female companion in a romantic relationship girlfriend [slowly - broken down by syllable] girlfriend [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: multiple [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: having several or many individual parts |
| Chihiro: multiple [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: multiple [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| several [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: more than two but not many |
| several [slowly - broken down by syllable] several [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: to get back [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: to have revenge |
| Chihiro: to get back [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to get back [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| to upset [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: to disturb emotionally or mentally |
| to upset [slowly - broken down by syllable] to upset [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: to sprinkle [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: to scatter in drops, to disperse in particles |
| Chihiro: to sprinkle [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to sprinkle [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| tongue [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: part of body in the mouth used for tasting food and speaking |
| tongue [slowly - broken down by syllable] tongue [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Daniel: OK, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Chihiro: The first phrase is, “Record-breaking speed”. This expression is an exaggeration of how fast something is. In the dialogue, Tony says, |
| Daniel: “I've never seen anybody drink so much water so fast before, it was at a record-breaking speed!” |
| Chihiro: This does not mean his speed literally broke a record, but rather he drank at a very, very fast pace. |
| Daniel: Right, this expression is meant to be a humorous way of expressing how fast something is. Here's another example. |
| Chihiro: He was late for the show, so he got ready in record-breaking speed. |
| Daniel: This means that the person got ready very, very quickly. |
| Chihiro: Right. OK, let's take a look at the grammar point for this lesson. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chihiro: The focus of this lesson is adjectives. For example, in the dialogue we heard the sentence, “That sounds like an interesting story!” Throughout the series, you've heard many adjectives used, no doubt. Adjectives are describing words that give details about a noun. |
| Daniel: In this lesson, we will look at two positions for adjectives, one that is before a noun and the other is after a verb. |
| Chihiro: In the conversation Tony says, |
| Daniel: “Did you hear what happened to that tall guy from Italy?” |
| Chihiro: Here, the adjective is “tall” and as you can see it comes before the noun “guy”. Several adjectives can also be used to describe the same thing with a comma in between them. For example, in the sentence, |
| Daniel: “That tall, dark and handsome guy” |
| Chihiro: The three adjectives all describe the guy. Daniel, can you give us another example from the dialogue? |
| Daniel: Sure. “Inviting several pretty girls here and there.” Chihiro, is there another one? |
| Chihiro: Yes, “This sounds like an interesting story.” The words “several” and “pretty” describe girls in the first example and “interesting” describes “story” in the second example. |
| Daniel: Good. Another place to put an adjective is after a verb, as in, “You know the kind that is extra hot?” In this sentence, “hot” describes the kind and comes after the verb “is”. Here is another example of this kind of positioning, |
| Chihiro: The movie was interesting |
| Daniel: In this sentence, the adjective “interesting” comes after the verb. |
| Chihiro: Be careful because some adjectives can only come before nouns, and likewise, some can only come after verbs. For example, the word “elder” in “an elder brother” can only come before the noun. If it were to come after a verb, the word must be “older” as in, “He is older”. Some other examples are as follows, |
| Daniel: A sleeping child, or the child is asleep. |
| Chihiro: A live deer or The deer is alive. |
| Daniel: And one last one. the frightened deer and the deer is afraid. |
| Chihiro: Good luck with these! |
Outro |
| Daniel: That just about does it for today. Now don’t forget to stop by EnglishClass101.com and pick up the lesson notes. |
| Chihiro: It has the conversation transcript, vocab, sample sentences, a grammar explanation, and a cultural insight section. |
| Daniel: Seeing the English really helps you remember faster. |
| Chihiro: But don’t take our word for it. Please have a look for yourself |
| Daniel: And let us know what you think. |
| Chihiro: Bye for now. |
| Daniel: See ya. |
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