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6-minute vocabulary from bbclearningenglish.com.
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary.
I'm Rob and this is Catherine.
Hi.
And today we've got a fantastic programme for you.
It's all about strong adjectives.
Yes it is.
We'll give you a wonderful explanation of what they are and how to use them.
We'll also give you some very useful advice on how to use intensifiers with adjectives.
And there'll be a fabulous quiz.
And finally, we'll give you an absolutely amazing tip to help you learn vocabulary.
Wow.
OK, let's get going then.
There's no time to waste.
Here's Tom.
Now, he took his girlfriend to the cinema and then for dinner afterwards.
Very romantic.
Let's hear how the evening went.
While you're listening, try to answer this question.
Was it a successful evening out?
So, the meal didn't go too well.
Tom and Jenny had to wait a long time for their food, nearly an hour.
What do you think about that, Catherine?
I wouldn't last that long.
20 minutes and I'd be gone.
Well, luckily they liked the film.
Listen to this clip.
I thought it was quite funny, but Jenny thought it was hilarious.
Tom said he thought the film was quite funny.
Quite funny.
Now, when we use an ordinary adjective like funny, we can add a word like quite or very or just a little bit to give more information about the adjective.
So we can say the film was quite funny or very funny or just a little bit funny.
These words are called intensifiers and they're quite useful.
They're very useful, actually.
So, Tom thought the film was funny, but Jenny thought it was hilarious.
And the word hilarious means very, very funny.
Hilarious is a special kind of adjective.
It already includes the idea of very –
Right, and we call this type of adjective a strong adjective and there are lots of them.
For example, to mean very good, we can say… Wonderful, fabulous, amazing.
Thank you, Rob.
Three fantastic words there.
But most of the time we don't use intensifiers like quite or very or just a little bit, with these strong adjectives.
And that's because the idea of very is already in the word.
So, for example, hilarious means very funny.
So a little bit hilarious would mean a little bit very funny.
And that doesn't make sense, does it, Rob?
No.
Absolutely not, no.
OK, well back to the clip.
Tom used a couple of other strong adjectives too.
Listen again.
What's the strong adjective?
The food was not so bad, but the service was absolutely terrible.
Well, Tom used the ordinary adjective bad and he used it with an intensifier when he said not so bad, but the strong adjective was terrible.
Terrible means very bad.
And this time Tom used an intensifier that we usually only use with strong adjectives.
He said it was absolutely terrible.
So when we want to make a strong adjective even stronger, we need to use one of these special intensifiers like absolutely.
So we say very bad, but we say absolutely terrible.
And we don't usually say absolutely bad.
No.
So here's Tom using another strong adjective.
Listen carefully and see if you can catch it.
We waited for nearly an hour to get our food.
When it finally arrived I was absolutely starving.
Tom used the phrase absolutely starving.
Starving's a strong adjective, which means very hungry, and he used the intensifier absolutely to make it even stronger.
Absolutely starving.
And today our absolutely wonderful topic is strong adjectives and intensifiers.
And now it's time for a very quick quiz.
Question one.
What's the strong adjective for funny?
And the answer is hilarious.
Question two.
What is the strong adjective and intensifier for very bad?
And the answer is absolutely terrible.
Just one more question.
Can you name three strong adjectives that mean good?
And in the programme today we had fantastic wonderful, fabulous and amazing, which describes me, I think.
And if you got all those right, you're absolutely wonderful.
And we've just got time for that fantastic vocabulary tip we promised you.
When you're learning adjectives, make a picture in your mind of someone or something that reminds you of that adjective.
It will help you remember the word.
For example, I think that Rob is absolutely fantastic.
Oh, you're just saying that, Catherine.
Thank you very much.
There's more about this at bbclearningenglish.com.
Join us again soon for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
