This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
If there was a big red button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead.
From the BBC.
This is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world.
This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews.
It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life and all the bizarre ways people are using the Internet.
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
The nicest thing in my house?
Well, it has to be my guitar, doesn't it?
My guitar is very nice to me.
I'm not sure if anybody else thinks it is.
Teeny tiny snow globe magnet from Copenhagen.
It's spherical glass.
Hello and welcome to Learning English Grammar.
I'm Pippa.
And I'm Phil.
We've just heard Becca and Neil talking about the nicest things in their houses.
Today we're going to look at how to describe things using adjectives and adjective phrases.
Now you can read along with this podcast using the transcript on our website, bbclearningenglishcom.
So, Phil, what's the nicest thing in your house?
I've just bought a really big lamp.
It's orange, it's metal, it's about 1.80m high and it looks like a massive desk lamp.
Wow, 1.80m, that's huge.
What about you?
I think the nicest thing in my house is also new or new to me.
I now have a piano.
It's quite old and it's quite big.
It used to be in my parents' house, but now I have it, which is exciting.
OK, now let's listen to Becca and Neil talking about the nicest things they have in their houses.
Listen and notice how they describe things.
What words and phrases do they use?
I've got a couple of guitars.
I'll talk about my acoustic guitar.
It looks like just an ordinary guitar, but I like the colour.
It's a kind of sunburst colour, which means it's dark around the edges and it gets lighter as it goes into the middle.
So, yeah, it's a dark brown traditional looking guitar.
The nicest thing in my house, I would choose one of my magnets from my collection.
I collect magnets when I travel around.
And I think the nicest one that I own, it's this. teeny tiny snow globe magnet from Copenhagen.
It's spherical glass and you shake it up and it looks like it's snowing on the statue of the Little Mermaid that you can find at the port in Copenhagen.
So I heard Neil say the nicest item in his house is a dark brown traditional looking guitar.
And I heard Becca say that her favourite fridge magnet is spherical glass and you can shake it up and it looks like it's snowing.
OK, so we've got some adjectives and we've got at least one adjective phrase.
You know who could tell us more about using these?
Of course I do.
I think I can hear her music.
Right, let's take a long, hard look at adjectives.
Yes, we know they're describing words, but what else can you say about them?
OK, so when you're describing something, often one adjective on its own just isn't enough.
We can put a few of them together, and when we do, there's usually an order that they go in.
Listen to Neil and Becca again.
Yeah, it's a dark, brown, traditional-looking guitar.
It's spherical glass and you shake it up and it looks like it's snowing on the statue of the Little Mermaid that you can find at the port.
The thing with adjectives is that we tend to use them in a particular order.
We tend to say the shape of something before the material, like Becca does.
It's spherical glass.
Spherical, that's a round shape. comes before glass, which is a material.
Now, colour comes after shape, but it usually comes before the type of something.
That's why Neil said this.
Yeah, it's a dark brown traditional looking guitar.
The colour, dark brown, came before the type of guitar, a traditional looking one.
So as a general rule, we'd usually put our opinion of something first, then the size or shape, then colour, then where it's from, what it's made of, and then an adjective about purpose.
The order can vary a bit, and it's unusual to use that many adjectives.
What's useful to remember is that an adjective with a more general meaning, like our opinion about something, tends to go before something more specific, like the colour of something.
Opinions tend to come before descriptions.
For example, it's a beautiful little house.
Beautiful is my opinion, little is the description.
Is there anything else we should think about for making our descriptions more detailed?
Well, you don't just need to use single words.
You can use compound adjectives that are made of more than one word, as well as adjective phrases.
It's a dark brown traditional looking guitar.
Compound adjectives are made of more than one word.
Neil said that his guitar was traditional looking.
That's a compound adjective.
We can also have adjective phrases.
Listen to Neil talking about his guitar again.
It's a kind of sunburst colour, which means it's dark around the edges and it gets lighter as it goes into the middle.
Neil didn't just say that his guitar is dark.
It's dark around the edges.
Adjective phrases are phrases that contain an adjective but give more information.
Thanks, Georgie.
I think we all know a lot more about adjectives now and about Neil's guitar.
Glad I could help.
See you next time.
OK, Pippa, let's play a game to practice what we've learnt.
I'm going to describe something in my house and you have to make just one sentence using adjectives.
And for those of you listening to this, see if you can make the sentence before Pippa does.
Are you ready?
Yes.
OK.
My favourite piece of furniture is a sofa.
It's orange, it's a bit worn and it's made of fabric.
Hmm, a slightly worn orange fabric sofa.
Yes, that's right.
My favourite piece of clothing is a jumper.
It's blue and it's very warm.
A warm blue jumper.
Yes, perfect.
And finally, the thing I like most in my living room is a record player.
It's Japanese, it's made of plastic, and it's yellow.
It looks interesting.
Okay.
An interesting looking yellow plastic Japanese record player.
That's right.
Excellent.
What's the nicest thing in your house?
Let us know by emailing us at learningenglish at bbc.co.uk.
That's it for this episode.
We learnt that Neil really likes guitars.
And we learnt that opinion comes before description when we're using adjectives.
We'll be back next week to learn some more grammar tips.
Bye for now.
Bye.
If there was a big red button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead.
From the BBC.
This is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world.
This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews.
It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life.
And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet.
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
