Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha.
In this lesson, I'm going to talk about a way to level up your adjectives. This lesson, I'm going to focus on the word "good." So, with "good" as the base adjective for this lesson, I'm going to talk about some other adjectives that share the meaning of the word "good," but that have kind of a deeper or a more specific meaning of this word.
So, let's get started!
For this lesson, I'm going to use what's called an adjective wheel. So, the layout for this is our base adjective is in the middle of the wheel, in this case, "good." And in the next layer, there are kind of these additional adjectives that have a slightly deeper meaning than just good. Finally, on the outermost layer, on this outside layer of the wheel, there are even more specific adjectives.
So, the aim of this lesson is to help you understand some differences between these kinds of adjectives and to give you some example situations where you might use these words.
So, I want to begin with this part of the wheel here.
So, the first sort of more specific adjective, the first deeper adjective is the word "pleasant." /Pleasant/, this is the pronunciation. Something that is "pleasant" is good, is nice, is favorable. We have a good feeling about it. It's used for like situations and it kind of sounds a little bit formal.
Within "pleasant," I have these two adjectives. They are "superb," superb and "wonderful," wonderful. So, something that is "superb," maybe you can see here, the root here, we have the word "super" in the middle; "Super + B," "superb," superb. So, "superb" sounds much more formal than "super" and we use it something… for something that is really good, that is very pleasant and it also sounds a little bit formal.
The other word here, "wonderful." If we break this word down, we can imagine this means "wonder + full" meaning full of wonder or causing us to feel full of wonder. So, this expresses something happy, something positive, again, something pleasant. This is less formal than "pleasant" or "superb."
So, let's look at some example sentences that use these adjectives.
Okay, first one:
"Have a pleasant stay!"
This is something you would hear at a hotel or another kind of accommodation's place.
"Have a pleasant stay!"
Like I said, this word is a little bit more formal, so it sounds quite natural to use in polite situations or in, like customer-staff relationships.
The next example sentence:
"Dinner last night was superb."
So, we want to express kind of formally that dinner was good, but a better word than "good" is "superb." Using "superb" here suggests that the dinner was very, very good and maybe kind of expensive, maybe somewhat formal. So, we use "superb" in more formal situations.
Finally:
"I'm happy to have lots of wonderful friends."
So here, we're using this in kind of a more casual situation. We're talking about friendship, so our "wonderful friends." So that means they're great people. They're really, really good people. We can use "wonderful" to express that naturally, yes, and it sounds better than just "good friends." So "wonderful" like shows that they're amazing, they're fantastic, also words that mean "wonderful."
Okay, let's move on to the next section of this wheel.
Let's move to this part right here, these three adjectives.
The first word, the base word here is "useful."
So again, we can kind of take the same approach we took to "wonderful" and break this word down. "Useful" means something that is full of uses, so that means we can use it for something and that's a good thing.
The next word here is "talented."
So, someone who has a talent, we use this adjective for people. Someone who has a talent or who has a skill and we tend to use this to mean that that person therefore is useful, so it's a good thing to be talented.
Finally, in this section, the word "reliable."
So here, we see this "able" or the pronunciation in this case is /able/ meaning able to do something like it's possible to do something. And the base here, the spelling is a bit different, but the base here is "rely," to rely, like the verb "to rely." So someone who it is possible to rely on or we can trust that person. We do not say "trustable," we say "reliable" or we could say "trustworthy" if you want, but "reliable," so someone or something we can rely on.
Let's look at some examples with these words then.
First, "useful":
"I hope this lesson is useful."
Meaning, I hope that inside this lesson, you find something you can use, you find something useful, this lesson is useful.
The second example sentence:
"I heard that guy isn't very reliable."
So here, I'm using the negative, "He isn't very reliable." That means, maybe we can't rely on him. So, it's not a good idea to rely on him. So, "reliable" is typically a good thing, so if you or something in your life is not reliable, that's a negative thing.
Finally:
"We have a talented team!"
So here, "team" refers to a team of people. A "talented team" means a lot of people or a group of people who have talents, so this could be multiple talents, it could be the same talent, whatever, a talented team, so a very positive comment.
Okay, let's move along to this part, the bottom part of the wheel here.
This part, the base is the word "beneficial."
So here, the root here is "benefit." So it's like we receive something good, we get a benefit. When we want to express this in the adjective form, we call something "beneficial."
The other two words here are "advantageous" and "profitable."
The first word here, "advantageous," this is, kind of interesting because the pronunciation changes a little bit. We have the noun "advantage." When we pronounce this adjective though, we say /advantageous, advantageous/. So, the emphasis comes on this /advanta~/ syllable, "advantageous," instead of "advantage" as in the noun form. So please be careful of this. So, an advantageous thing is something that gives us an advantage, so we get like a higher position somehow. We get a good position or a better position than someone else or than something else.
This word here, "profitable," the root here, we have "profit" and then again, we see, "able" here at the end, so possible to. So "profit + able" means something that will maybe possibly give us profit. So "profit" is money, so we get money from something.
So, let's take a look at some example sentences that use these.
Let's start with the word "beneficial."
Here:
"Our new health care plan will be beneficial for millions of people."
So, "beneficial for millions of people" means millions of people will get a benefit, they will get something good because of this health care plan. So this will be beneficial for millions of people.
The second example sentence:
"This contract is advantageous for both of our companies."
This means, in this case, this contract, this document or this agreement gives this company, Company A and Company B an advantage. It's good for both companies.
Finally, the third example sentence:
"We expect our new product line to be quite profitable."
So here, I've used "quite" to modify "profitable." This means very. "Quite" means very. Be careful, it is not "quiet" or or "quit," but "quiet," quite profitable. So this means we expect our new product line will help us get lots of money. So "profitable" means it's going to bring in money in some way.
You may notice too that these example sentences are in, like business situations or more formal situations. So these words here might be very useful in more business English settings, so these words all sound a little bit more formal. We don't use this so much in everyday conversation, though they're common in the news and other, kind of like meeting and planning-related sessions.
Okay, let's move on to this next group here.
The next part, the base is "perfect," the word "perfect."
So, "perfect" means there's no problems with it or it's just right. So "just right' means it fits a situation or it suits a situation, so it's exactly as needed.
Inside "perfect" then, there are these two words, "pure and flawless."
So "pure" means that it is untainted, something that is untainted.
So, "untainted" means like it's not dirty or there's never been a problem with it or it's exactly as it was when it was created. We'll see an example of this in a moment.
"Flawless," we can break this word down into "flaw" and "less" so less means having none of (something), no of (something), zero of (something). So, "no flaws," so a "flaw" means a problem or like some kind of damage or some issue, something negative. So no flaws in something.
So, let's see some examples of how to use these words.
First:
"Wow, this cake is perfect!"
This cake is perfect.
So, you might use this at, like a children's birthday party, for example. "Oh, this cake is perfect." That means, like it's great for the party. It's exactly what we need for the party or maybe the cake is very well made, so the flavor is perfect, you could say. "This cake is perfect" can have a few different meanings, but you can be specific about what you want to say by maybe changing this part here, "Wow, this cake tastes perfect" or "This cake is perfect for the party." But more generally, you could just say, "This cake is perfect." So "perfect" just shows you feel like it's just right. It's exactly as needed.
Okay, the second example sentence is a question, actually.
"Is this pure fruit juice?"
So this means, is this 100% fruit juice? Is this natural, 100% natural fruit juice? So maybe you've seen at supermarkets, sometimes, there's fruit juice that's like 20% fruit juice or 30% fruit juice, so that's not pure fruit juice. If you want to express something that is pure, so nothing is added to it, nothing has been changed, you can use "pure" to talk about that. Like many people will say, like, "Oh, children are so pure," you know, like they're unchanged, so they're still learning. There's no, like damage, nothing has been added to children, so like, "Children are so pure," for example.
Finally, this one with "flawless":
"He did a flawless backflip!"
So a "backflip" means jumping in the air and flipping backwards, flipping backwards. So, "a flawless backflip" means he did this trick perfectly. So, that means there was no problem with it. It was exactly correct. It was flawless. We would not say "a pure backflip." We wouldn't say that because a backflip is, like kind of a skill. So, we tend to use "pure" more for things that are like, maybe like for people or for things that are naturally created. We use "flawless" for things related to, like our skills or our abilities, so we would not use that "pure" here and we would not use "flawless" in front of fruit juice. So kind of, try to remember, "pure" is more for natural things, "flawless" is for skills and abilities.
Okay, let's move on to the final group here, the final three.
The base is the word "real."
So, of course, there is the world "real" which means like "true" like something in reality, in the real world, in the actual world.
So, we can use "real" more specifically with these two words.
First is "legitimate." We often shorten this word to "legit." This is a very casual word, but it's very commonly used. So, "legitimate" means true or correct or real, yes, but it's often used in like business or in like people's relationships to mean sincere or like legal or correct. I'll show an example of this in a moment.
Finally, this adjective is "proper."
So "proper" also means correct, but it means like as expected. So something that is real is true, yes, and then "proper" means like it's as it should be, it's supposed to be that way.
Okay, so let's look at some example sentences.
First:
"Have you ever seen a real dinosaur skeleton?"
So this means, because we have "real" included here, it's like saying not a fake skeleton, so not a plastic skeleton, but a true skeleton, a real one, so this was actually a dinosaur in the past. "Have you ever seen a real dinosaur skeleton?"
The second example sentence uses "legitimate" or we could say "legit" as well.
"I'm not sure he's running a legitimate business."
This means I'm not sure this person is running, "running" means operating, so I'm not sure this person is running a legit business means I don't think like his business is legal. So when you see "legitimate" or "legit" used to talk about business, it's a question of legality. Is the business legal or is there maybe something that's going on maybe behind closed doors that we can't see? So, "legitimate with business" is often talking about this kind of uncertainty. So, we can use "legit" or "legitimate" to express that.
Finally then, "proper."
"It's important to eat 3 proper meals a day."
So here, "a proper meal" refers to a like well-balanced nutritious meal. So, something that we expect, something that is like supposed to be a meal, we should eat that thing. So, that means a proper meal is not like junk food, is not something unhealthy. It's lots of like fresh vegetables or fresh fruits or something, so that's a proper meal. Something correct, something that is as it is expected to be. That's "proper."
So, this is just an introduction to a few more words that mean "good." So, there are actually quite a few words that mean "good," but I hope that this gives you kind of a good basis for some of the different ways that we can use this word and like some more specific adjectives that you can choose to better describe yourself and to describe your situations. So I hope that this was helpful.
Of course, if you have questions or comments or if you want to practice making a sentence with any of these words, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye!

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