| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about three ways to use the word "enough." Let's get started. |
| Okay. First, let's take a look at this use of "enough." We can use "enough" to express an adequate amount or number of something. So, "adequate" means an appropriate amount or an appropriate number of something. With this use of "enough," we use a noun with the expression "enough" or "not enough." So, let's talk about how we make this. And then, we'll look at some example sentences and some example questions that feature this use. |
| So, first, to make this use of "enough," we follow this basic pattern. We have "enough" plus a plural noun. So, this plural noun part is important. Here's your hint for this section right here. If the noun you want to talk about is a countable noun, use the plural form. So, that means the noun form with the s at the end, for example, markers or teachers, and so on, the s ending. If the noun is an uncountable noun, you don't need to make any kind of change, for example, money or time. There's no s at the end of that. So, keep in mind, we need to use the plural noun form. When I use an uncountable noun, note there's no change to it. So, that acts as the plural form also. To make it negative, we add "not" in front of "enough." So, "not enough" noun or just "enough" noun. |
| So, let's take a look at some examples that use countable and uncountable nouns, and see how we can express this. So, here's a sample situation. Let's say 10 people are coming to a party. We are planning the party, or maybe, we are the host of the party. So, in this situation, there are 10 people we need to plan for. Here are the items we have for the party. We need to make some statements using "enough" with this information. So, first, we have 10 cups, 10 cups. How can we use "enough" with this information? We could say, "We have enough cups." "We have enough cups." Cups is a countable noun. It's in the plural form here. Using "enough" here means there's an adequate amount or an appropriate amount. We have 10 cups for 10 people. It's correct, in other words. Okay? |
| Let's look at the next one. One cake, one cake. We could say, "There's enough cake." "There's enough cake." So, "There is enough cake." So, again, "enough" before our noun expresses an adequate amount of that. |
| Next, we have eight chairs, eight chairs for 10 people. So, we can express this issue with, "There are not enough chairs." "There are not enough chairs." The negative "not enough" chairs in the plural here. If you want to express this to the person you're planning the party with, you might say, "We don't have enough chairs." "We don't have enough chairs." So, this, "we don't have" or "I don't have enough," is a very common expression when planning something. |
| Finally, one bottle of wine, one bottle of wine, one bottle for 10 people. So, "There's not enough wine." "There's not enough wine." So, wine is an uncountable noun. We don't say "wines." You could, I suppose, say bottles of wine. "There are not enough bottles of wine." But if your noun is just wine or another uncountable drink, you can use this pattern. So, we use "not enough" to express that the amount is not adequate or not appropriate. Okay. Great. |
| So, with this, let's next look at some questions. How can we make questions to refer to the amount or the number of something. First, "are there enough" countable noun in plural form, "are there enough" somethings, in other words. For example, "Are there enough cups?" "Are there enough cups?" This is a yes or no question. So, in this example, 10 cups for 10 people, "Yes, there are enough cups." Or, if there are only five cups, you could say, "No, there are not enough cups." So, we use this pattern for a countable noun in the plural form. |
| The next pattern is also a yes or no question, "is there enough" uncountable noun, "is there enough" uncountable noun. So, "Is there enough juice?" Or, we saw earlier wine, "Is there enough wine?" Again, we have a simple yes or no answer. "Yes, there is enough wine," or "No, there isn't enough wine," or "No, there isn't enough juice." So, keep in mind, depending on the noun, uncountable noun or countable noun, we do need to change the beginning of the sentence, "are" or "is." Okay. |
| Finally, the last question pattern I want to look at is, "do we have enough" noun, "do we have enough" noun. This is a very basic pattern you can use when you're planning something. This is a great and very useful question. For example, "Do we have enough food?" or "Do we have enough drinks?" So, in these situations, you don't have to worry about countable or uncountable nouns. "Do we have enough" noun, this is a really easy one to remember. If you're not sure if it's a countable or an uncountable noun, you can just ask, "Do we have enough of that thing?" and that'll work just fine. Okay. |
| So, we've talked about this way to use "enough" to express an appropriate amount or an appropriate number of something. Let's move to use number two, which is very different. So, when we use it in this way, we express adequate quality of something. So, in this example situation, or in this section of the lesson, we're going to look at using adjectives and adverbs with "enough." In Part 1, we looked at using nouns with "enough." So let's compare what's happening here. |
| So, in this situation, in this case, we use adjective or adverb before "enough." Okay? In the first one, we saw "enough" before the plural noun. So, notice the position changes here. To make it negative, we just put "not" before the word, so, "not" adjective "enough" or "not" adverb "enough." |
| So, let's look at some example sentences, and break them down, so we can understand what they mean. First, "My grades were good enough to get a big scholarship." "My grades were good enough to get a big scholarship." Here, we have "good," an adjective, before "enough." So, this sentence means my grades were of a quality adequate to get a big scholarship, or in other words, I had such good grades I was able to get a good scholarship or get a big scholarship. So, this "good enough" shows that it was the appropriate level, or in my case, my grades were of a good quality, so, I got the scholarship. |
| Let's look at the next example. "This blanket isn't big enough." "This blanket isn't big enough." Here, we have a negative "is not big enough." This means, in other words, the blanket is too small. That's like the opposite sentence here. Here, we have "big," adjective, before "enough," in this case, "not big enough." So, we're saying the size of the blanket is not adequate. The size of the blanket is not adequate. But that's a very unnatural way to say this. Instead, we say, "This blanket isn't big enough." It's too small. Okay. |
| The next one, "That boat is large enough to live on." "That boat is large enough to live on." So, again, we have our adjective first, and then, "enough." So, this expresses the boat, the quality, in this case, is the size, it's large enough to live on. So, again, these are all sentences that relate to the quality of something, the quality of someone's grades, the size quality of something in this case, or both of these cases, really. |
| And, the next one is about music. "The music isn't loud enough." "Music isn't loud enough." So, at a party, maybe, you can't hear the music. You can say, "The music is not loud enough." So, in other words, the volume is not adequate. I can't hear it. The music isn't loud enough. |
| Finally, let's look at an adverb example. Sometimes, we use this with adverbs, too. Here's a good one. "That car isn't driving quickly enough." "That car isn't driving quickly enough." So, here, we have "quickly," our adverb, in front of "enough." So, again, we're talking about the quality of the driving, in this case. In this case, it's the speed, right? So, the car is maybe not moving quickly, right, or the car is not moving at the same pace as the other cars. So, we can express that with, "That car isn't driving quickly enough." Okay. |
| Let's look at some questions now that use this grammar pattern. First, "Is that restaurant nice enough for a date?" "Is that restaurant nice enough for a date?" Notice, this also, like we saw before, is a yes or no question. "Is that restaurant nice enough, nice enough for a date?" That means is the level of niceness appropriate for a date. So, "is this restaurant good enough," is another way to say that. "Is that restaurant good enough for a date?" Is it okay for a date? So, you can use "nice enough" to show you're thinking about the quality of the restaurant. |
| Next one, "Is it cold enough to need a coat?" "Is it cold enough to need a coat?" This is a question about the weather. "Cold enough," where "it" here means the weather. "Is the weather cold enough to need a coat," so, is the level of the cold high enough to need a coat? So, again, a yes or no question, like, "Yes, you should bring a coat," or "No, it's warm outside." So, you can answer this with very simple responses. |
| Finally, "Do you think this dress is pretty enough to wear to a wedding?" "Do you think this dress is pretty enough to wear to a wedding?" So, this question is asking about the level of prettiness of the dress. So, "Is this dress pretty enough to wear to a wedding?" You can say, "No, choose something more formal," or "Yes, it looks great." So, again, all of these are about the quality, kind of the level of quality, or the level of the adjective or the adverb before "enough." |
| So, this is how we use "enough" with this grammar pattern. As I said before, remember the position of "enough" is different from the first part we talked about. The position of "enough" is after the adjective or the adverb here, and it's before the noun in the first section. Okay. |
| Let's take a look at the last part for this lesson. The last use of "enough" is to express an adequate degree of an action, an action, in this case. So, you can see maybe that we are looking at different parts of speech with each of these categories, first was nouns, second was adverbs and adjectives. So, maybe, you can guess this part will feature verbs. |
| So, when we use "enough" in this pattern, we use verb plus "enough," verb plus "enough." And in these patterns, the verb can take many different verb forms. We don't always have to use present tense or past participle or the progressive or whatever. We can use a lot of different verb forms together with "enough." So, we'll see some examples of this. Of course, to make it negative, we put "not" before the verb. So, let's take a look at these example sentences, and break down what's happening here. |
| First one, "Make sure to drink enough water every day." "Make sure to drink enough water every day." Here, we have "drink," just the basic infinitive form of the verb. Next, we have "enough." "Make sure to drink enough water every day." This means, make sure to drink an adequate amount of water every day or an appropriate amount of water every day, maybe, eight glasses a day, I think it is. So, "Make sure to drink enough water every day." |
| The next one here we have a negative. "I didn't sleep enough last night." "I didn't sleep enough last night," a very common expression, maybe. So, we have the negative form of the verb, here. "I did not sleep enough last night." This means my sleep was not at an adequate level. Okay. |
| Next one, "We've worked enough today. Let's go home. "We've worked enough today. Let's go home." Here, you can see we have a perfect tense pattern, right? "We have worked enough today." This is a past participle verb. But, again, we have this "enough" after it. "We've worked enough today." That means the level or the amount of our work that we did today is adequate. Let's go home. Let's be finished for the day. So, we can use this verb form, as well. |
| One more, "He eats enough for two people." "He eats enough for two people." In this sentence, we're talking about someone's regular habit or regular activity. So, someone who eats a lot of food, we could express that with, "He eats enough for two people." This means he eats so much food, that the amount of food he eats could feed two people. That's what this means. Okay. |
| So, as you can see, we can use lots of different verb forms with "enough." And, again, this use talks about the degree of the action. So, in this case, drinking an adequate amount or sleeping an adequate amount, working or eating, and so on. We're talking about the degree of an action. Okay. |
| I want to make one more point before we get to the last part of the lesson. I want to mention there's this one other expression that we commonly use with "enough." And, there are other expressions with "enough." But, this one is very common. So, I want to include it in this lesson. It is this expression, "fair enough," "fair enough." So, this is maybe kind of similar to Part 2 that we talked about before, but, we don't quite use it in the same way. We use "fair enough" in conversations to mean, "All right. That's reasonable." "All right. That's reasonable." When we're having a discussion and sharing opinions usually, and the other side makes a good point, you might hear someone say, "Ah, fair enough," which sounds like, "That's reasonable," or "That makes sense. Okay." So, you might hear "fair enough" used in a lot of different situations. So, I wanted to include that here. Okay. Let's go to the last part, then. |
| So, we have our verbs. Let's take a look at how we make some questions with this grammar. So, first, "Have you had enough to drink?" "Have you had enough to drink?" So, "Have you had enough to drink," means "Have you had an adequate amount to drink?" So, in other words, "Are you thirsty?" This is another way to ask, "Are you thirsty?" but it's less direct. "Have you had enough?" It sounds like, "Do you want some more?" This is another way of asking this kind of question. Or, "Have you had enough to eat," is another very common one, especially from the host of a dinner party to their guest. "Have you had enough to eat? Can I bring you something else? Are you okay?" These are all expressions that we use to check in with other people. |
| Let's look at one more. "Are you exercising enough these days?" "Are you exercising enough these days?" Here, we have a progressive verb. Yeah. "Are you exercising enough?" So, that means right now, like in part of your maybe daily schedule, or part of your regular exercise habits, "Is this going on for you?" So, we use this progressive form to do that. "Are you exercising enough," so, an appropriate or an adequate amount these days. And, you can see here "are." It starts with "are." That's our big hint that it's a yes or no question. "Are you exercising enough these days?" "Yes, I'm exercising enough," or "No, I'm not. I'm lazy." So, we can use different verb forms in our questions, as well. Again, the key with this use of "enough" is that we're talking about the degree of an action. |
| So, I hope that this lesson helped you understand the different uses of "enough" with the different parts of speech. As you can see, we have to think about the placement of the word, of course. And, we also need to think about these grammatical issues, too, like countable and uncountable nouns. But with practice and with time, this will become easier. Also, keep in mind, all of these uses of "enough" refer to an adequate or an appropriate amount of something, so, in this one, with the nouns, an appropriate amount or number of something, in this one, an appropriate quality of something, and here, an appropriate degree of an action. So, this might be a good keyword to keep in your mind when you think about "enough," thinking about the level of something, how appropriate or not is that. |
| Okay. That is everything for this lesson. I hope that it was helpful for you in understanding how to use this word. If you have any questions or comments, or if you want to practice making some example sentences with this information, 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. |
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