Episode 135: Advance Your Fluency With Adjective Alternatives

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Paige: You are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I’m Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: So today we are going to have a little grammar lesson but we will keep it short and sweet. This is an important one for anyone learning a new language, even for people who it's their native language. It's trying not to be boring and stale and mixing up your vocab. So, we all do it regardless of learning a new language or not that we just say the same words for everything and so it's always good to learn new words so that you can mix it up a little and kind of be a little more entertaining. And when you're learning a language, it makes you feel like you're a little more fluent because if you just say the same basic words, you're not really pushing yourself and expanding your vocabulary. So, we're going to talk about adjectives today and just some new ones that you can throw in to make you sound really advanced. So again, as always, listeners, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Okay, so Ian, adjectives—we all use the same ones. We all have to kind of push ourselves to really use new ones. What's one that you often use a lot maybe in Spanish or English that you could probably spice up a little?

Ian: It's so funny because I talk with my students about this all the time. I say this is not only a great lesson for you for learning some new words, but it's a good reminder for me as well because, like you said, as natives, it's so easy for us just to say the same boring old adjectives all the time. If you can add some good synonyms to your lexicon, to your vocabulary. it's an easy way just to make yourself sound a little bit more fluent and it really does make a difference to a native speaker as well to hear that. If I hear someone say a more advanced synonym compared to the boring, usual one, I'll say “Wow they know that word. That’s great.” It makes them sound a lot better. So, the first one that I can think of that a lot of us use is our basic adjective “good”. This is one of our most basic adjectives, one of the first ones we learn with adjectives. And so, for example, we might hear an example of something like, “My boss is ‘good’. He always plans ahead.” This would be a really basic way of using it—as a way to use some other ones. So that I can think of a more advanced example we could use is a word that I think is great and that word is “strategic”. Instead of saying “My boss is good. He always plans ahead”, it would sound a lot better to say, “My boss is ‘strategic’. He always plans ahead.” This word “strategic” gives us a little bit more of a feeling of, it's someone who plans ahead, they're very aware of what they need to do, what needs to happen. Honestly “good”, it's just so basic and vague. It covers so many different areas, if we use “strategic”, we're understanding a little bit better how we're actually describing this person. So just to offer a few more adjectives that could work for us in this example, we could use “intentional”, “thoughtful”, “organized”.  Some words like this also give that definition of someone who thinks ahead, who plans. Which again, “good” doesn't do the best job of really encapsulating that so it's good to have these other alternatives.

Paige: Yeah, I completely agree. You can kind of get stuck in a rut with words where you know it, so you use it for everything. Like you said, it doesn't really give justice to what you're describing if you use it for everything. You want to be a little more detailed. Another one that I use all the time when I speak Spanish and I bet people when they're learning English do as well is “interesting”. It's a great word but it's overused in all languages, I think. So yeah, “this movie or this book was very ‘interesting’.” Another way that you could kind of push that a little more advanced, is that “this documentary was really ‘thought-provoking’.” It goes beyond just “interesting” and it describes okay, it really made you think. It was very “thought-provoking”. Another good one is “fascinating”, “compelling”, “intriguing.” If you say, “Oh, that's interesting.” but someone's like, “Oh, that was really ‘intriguing’.” You're like, “Oh, they're pretty advanced.”

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: No, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Ian: Okay, another one we use way too often, and I think to try to describe things, in general, is the word “fast”. So, for example, if we're talking about something in a basic way we could say, “When there's a lot of work to do in a short time, it's important to be ‘fast’.” Now, I think this word does a good job of describing that but we have some other ones that do a better job in replacing that. So, for me, I think of some other adjectives like “efficient”, “resourceful”, “expedient”. And what these words do is they're saying, we are fast, but you're also doing something in the right way. So, if we're talking about producing something, doing something, of course, it's important to be fast, but you could also do something fast and do a pretty bad job.

Paige: Yeah, I agree. The next one on the list, we all use, like I said, whether you're learning English or you’re native is “nice.” I think “nice” is often a word that people fall on when they don't know how to describe something. You know, “my coworker is very ‘nice’.” It's like, what does that mean? Do you like her? Do you not like her? I think that word, especially for natives, has become a word as a filler word. It's like, I don't not like this person but I also don't really like this person. So, they're very “blah”.  So, you're like, “Oh, they're ‘nice’.” So, I think if you actually mean they're nice, I think you should use a word more like “kind”, “friendly”, “thoughtful”, “empathetic” which really goes deeper of, I can describe them—they're a nice kind person, they're caring. So, I think too often, especially for natives, when you use “nice” to describe a person it generally means they're boring and you’re kind of like, I could take them or leave them. So, I think if you really are trying to describe someone as “friendly” or “kind”, use more of those words. I don't know about you and but for me, “nice” is kind of the politically correct term of saying someone's pretty boring. Like, “Oh, do you like your best friend's husband?” You’re like, “He’s ‘nice’.” So, it's like I don't not like him but I don't care if he comes to the party or not.

Ian: Exactly. It comes with that intonation too, right? He's “nice”. She's “nice”. But we're not really saying “nice” in a specific way in that case.

Paige: So, I think these other words are more clear.

Ian: Definitely. So, another one that I can think of, earlier we talked about “good”, so if we go to the opposite adjective of its meaning we have “bad”, which also is very, very overused when we're describing something. Now, I think in this case, “bad” can be used in a lot of different ways. So, it's important for us to really look at the context of how it's used as well. So, I can think of a basic example of saying something like, let's say we're working on a work project and we say something like, “There are many problems with the current project, it's very ‘bad’.” Well, first of all, “bad” is not a word that you want to really use to describe your professional work. It's not doing yourself or your company any favors. So, of course, most people know this. You shouldn't use such a negative word around your boss or coworkers. So, a way that we can take this word and really change its meaning to sound more positive while sort of describing the difficulties of what we're doing is changing it to words maybe such as “challenging” or “difficult”. We could even use some other words like “stressful” or “overwhelming”, but in my opinion, these two words also sort of have a meaning that is a more negative meaning in that sense. So, I think if we stick to a word like “challenging” or “difficult”, we're just saying, look, this is not easy what we're doing, but we're also not saying it's bad. We're not describing it in a negative tone, which, again, like I said, that's it's not very professional to talk in that way. So, taking a word like “bad” and changing it to “challenging” I think is a great way to substitute that word to give it a more specific meaning to what we're trying to say.

Paige: I agree. Another one that's used quite often is “fun”. You know, “working with people is ‘fun’.” I think “fun” is really, really overused and honestly, I noticed with a lot of my students that it's improperly used. I think we've talked about it in a past episode where there's a difference between “fun” and “funny”. Like, “fun”, “enjoyable”, had a good time, we're hanging with friends and they’re more social. Where “funny” is just humor. It makes you laugh. “Fun” can get misused a lot so it's better to use different words like “enjoyable.” “The experience was very ‘meaningful’. It was very ‘rewarding’.” I had a good time, so it's good to mix that word up.

Ian: Exactly. And I think even those two words that you mentioned, we can even take to an even further level. So, “fun” and “enjoyable.” it's like a topical or like we had a fun time at the party. We enjoyed ourselves. And then if we use words like “rewarding” or “meaningful”, we can actually be describing something that it has a deeper meaning to what you're doing. So, you could say even something like “teaching people English is both ‘fun’ and ‘rewarding’.” It's we have fun while we're doing it but for me it also makes me feel really good inside when I have a student who I can tell is learning and speaking well. So, I think these kinds of adjectives can also take that meaning a little bit further even beyond that. And today our last word—our last adjective— that will describe I think is one of the, maybe, is the most common one that I've seen and hear with students, and that adjective is “fine.” Oh my God, I hear “fine” so much and it's okay because in English we use this as native speakers a lot too, but it's very easy to get in a trap of saying “How are you? I'm ‘fine’.” “I'm ‘fine’.” “You're ‘fine’.” “It's ‘fine’.” “How was the party? It was ‘fine’.” “How was the meeting? It was ‘fine’.” So, it's good for us to try to stray away from the super commonly used one and replace it with some other words that I'm thinking of right now such as “productive”, “useful”, “effective”, “constructive.” So, it's like we're saying it was “good”, it was “fine”, but to take it a little bit further. It's like saying “We were successful in what we were doing. We got a lot done. We talked about a lot of things. It was productive.” If you say “We had a ‘fine’ meeting.” I don't really know what that means. That could mean really anything. It really makes you need to ask more questions. So, they're all great, I encourage all of our listeners to try to use these and, again, just changing one word, it really is going to make you sound more fluent.

Paige: And I think as we talked about too, it's okay to use these words but they are so vague that if, say, you said the meeting was fine, have details. Say, “The meeting was fine. Not everyone showed up. If they showed up, they didn't have all the work prepared. Or if you have details to these words, that's going to really expand it as well, because if you just say “the party was good.”—I have several questions. If you say “the party was good. They had live music, there was free booze, all my friends were there.” So, I think it's okay to use these words. It's good to challenge yourself and put new vocab words as you describe things but add details that will really help describe what you mean when you use these words that have lots of meanings.  

Ian: Yeah, the context is so important. That's a great thing to bring up so use those new words but if you do want to use these more basic words, just make sure you follow up with some context so whoever you're talking to has a better idea.

Paige: Exactly. And so, listeners, as always, if you get lost, check out that audio guide. It will have all these words and synonyms on there so really check it out at www.dynamicenglish.cl and as always, thanks for listening.

Ian: We'll see you next time.

Ian: “Coffee with Gringos” officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile”. And that’s thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so make sure to rate sure to rate, review and share us.  

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     stale (adjective): no longer interesting or exciting.

a.     It’s good to use new words and not only the same stale ones.

2.     to throw in (phrasal verb): to add or mix in with something else.

a.     Try to throw in new words to conversations to practice and sound more fluent.

3.     to spice up (phrasal verb): to make something more exciting or interesting.

a.     Synonyms are a great way to spice up any conversation.

4.     vague (adjective): uncertain; unclear; not specific.

a.     Using vague adjectives makes it harder to understand what is being said.

5.     to encapsulate (verb): to express; to summarize.  

a.     It is difficult for me to encapsulate the way that I feel about her.

6.     stuck in a rut (idiom): to be in a difficult situation that seems difficult to escape.

a.     It can be easy to feel stuck in a rut sometimes when learning a new language.

7.     to give justice (idiom): to be totally accurate or fair when describing something.

a.     The way I describe the movie doesn’t give it justice. You need to watch it yourself.

8.     politically correct (adjective): socially appropriate.

a.     It’s important to know what’s politically correct in a language.

9.     intonation (noun): the rise and fall of the voice in speaking; the sound of speech.

a.     The intonation of words when speaking changes their meanings.

10.  to substitute (verb): to replace something with another.

a.     I like to substitute new words that I learn into my normal conversation.

11.  to stray away (phrasal verb): to move away from or change from something.

a.     I want to stray away from using the same words over and over.

12.  to expand (verb): to grow or make larger.    

a.     It’s always a good idea to expand your vocabulary when you can.

13.  booze (noun): alcohol.

a.     Did you bring booze to the party?