Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English lessons with Harry, where we try
to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. If you're preparing for those
proficiency exams, or indeed if you just want to improve your general conversational English,
well then you've come to the right place. We'll help you with vocabulary, use of English.
And in this particular lesson, this advanced English lesson, we're looking at vocabulary.
Other ways to say big. Yeah, a big day today. A big event, a big meal,
a big dog. So we can use big, of course, all the time. It's a very simple adjective. But
what we'll try to look at are other ways that that you can use big other words that you can
use to expand your vocabulary. So these are all adjectives or other ways to say big,
so we've got 12 of them in total. A lot of them have similar meanings. As I said,
they can all be used for big but I'll give you an example when you can use each of them.
Okay, let's get back to our lesson. The lesson today is an advanced English
lesson. Other ways to say big. Number one, astronomical. Astronomical. Okay,
well, astronomical we can talk about inflation. The prices of food are astronomical, really,
I don't know what has happened. Every time I go to the supermarket. The price of very simple products
has gone up the prices now are astronomical, all due to the rapid rising, inflation, astronomical.
Stupendous. And let's practice here the pronunciation as well. Stupendous,
stupendous. Now, this could mean good or bad. Yeah, I mean, his reputation
is stupendous. The way he played the tennis match, stupendous. Yeah, that's really really
this guy's top class. I really enjoy watching him now. But stupendous can also mean really,
really big. Yep, so stupendous, stupendous serve. So the tennis player,
many hits the ball so so hard. Can you imagine standing on the other side of the net when this
ball comes down at you at 130 kilometres per hour? Wow, you wouldn't even see it,
stupendous. So really, really big. But we use this often in an exciting way. Okay. Stupendous.
Colossal. Okay, well, colossal can be very, very big. Yeah. This guy he was, it was he was easily
2.3 metres tall. I mean, I've never seen a bigger guy. He was colossal. So he towered over me. I
mean, he was not just head and shoulders. I mean, he was almost twice my height. So he was colossal.
So one of these basketball players. I remember getting onto a plane in France, travelling to
Germany or travelling back to France once and it was a very small plane and this basketball team
got on and these guys they were colossal. One was bigger than the next. And two guys were sitting
in front of me. I could hardly move in my seat because when they sat down they squashed me and
so it was they were colossal. All extremely big, broad but just the height. Colossal.
Number four gigantic. The gigantic trees so if you've ever visited any of these forests in
America where they have these giant sequoia trees they are absolutely massive. Gigantic trees. You
stand there you couldn't possibly put your hands around the trunk of the tree. It would take four
or five of you. Or when you look up certainly for me I get a headache looking up because they just
go up and up and up they're gigantic trees like giants. Or if you see that third part of the Lord
of the Rings when there's the big battle scene at the end when the trees uproute themselves
and they marched to take part in the war. They are giants. Gigantic trees, gigantic, huge big.
Number five thumping. I woke up this morning with a thumping headache. Bom
bom bom really big. Really massive. A thumping headache. So really a great
way. So big never describes it. Thumping really describes the
headache like somebody playing the drums inside your head, a thumping headache.
Number six, tidy. Now, tidy usually means everything in its place. But we often use
this to describe something reasonably big. I made a tidy profit on the sale of my car.
I was really surprised I only bought it two years ago but at the moment there's a real
shortage of secondhand cars and somebody asked me what they wanted for the car and
they just picked it figure at the end. I told them and they said, Yeah, okay,
I'll buy it. Wow, I made a tidy profit. I have to say it was really really happy because I was
thinking of selling the car anyway. Okay, so tidy profit. A big profit. A good sum of money, tidy.
Number seven enormous. Well, this is quite a normal word to use. Everybody's heard of
enormous Yeah. So there was an enormous snowstorm two days ago, there was something like one metre
of snow fell in the space of 24 hours. Just there was no way you could drive on the streets. They
couldn't even clean them. So there's an enormous dump of snow. Yeah, so as they call it in America,
a Weather Bomb, yeah, when they drop lots and lots of water and lots and lots of snow, and the place
becomes deluged with snow or water. So we have these weather bombs or this enormous snowfall.
Number eight, hefty. So hefty is another word for big. Yeah, it's a hefty price to pay. So you
wanted to tell your boss what you thought of him, you weren't so happy with his way of treating you.
So you told him exactly. But you lost your job, he sacked you. So it's a hefty price,
a big price to pay for being honest. So you have to be really, really careful mind your
moments when you tell your boss, you don't really like him. So hefty price to pay,
a big price to pay. Yeah. Or if you're going to go away on a holiday, and your wife,
your partner wants to go to a certain location or you look at the the hotels. Wow, really,
really expensive. And you you tell her, Well, look, I'd love to go. But have you seen these
prices? We need to try and find some other way. Maybe there's Airbnb or something similar, because
the price of these hotels is really, really hefty. Really sizable, perhaps it's the time of the year,
perhaps, or some special festival at that time, but I've never seen prices like this.
So hefty price is something really big. You're really something that you can't afford to pay.
Number nine immense Yeah, when something is immense, it's big. Yeah,
he had an immense impact on my career. So somebody can point to a school teacher,
somebody a sports coach, somebody who was act as a sort of way of guiding you, you know,
in this sense that they took you under their wing, and they give you some extra training
because they saw that you had potential. So you could say, Well, this guy had an immense
impact on my career. An immense impact on what I decided to do after school. An immense impact on
my sporting career thereafter. Okay, so immense means a big impression, they really helped you,
they act in some way where they give you extra training, extra help, extra assistance. So you're,
you're really really had this mentor by your side, somebody who, as I said to you under their wing,
and therefore you got that special, extra bit of attention. And this immense act on their part,
left an immense impression or had an immense impact on your future career.
And indeed, if you liked this particular lesson, then please like the video,
and if you can subscribe to the channel because it really, really helps.
Massive, okay, massive crowd, big crowd. So you went to the football match,
or you went to the concert, and this group hadn't played for maybe two or three years,
you certainly hadn't seen it advertised. And when you when you went there, you weren't expecting
the crowd that you saw. It was absolutely massive. I mean, place was really thronged,
overcrowded, people everywhere, they seem to be in every little corner of the room. In fact,
some part looks a little bit dangerous, but there was a massive crowd waiting to see them. Or at the
end of a football competition and one team wins and they go home to celebrate, they usually go on
an open top was driving around the city. And every vantage point is taken by spectators wanting to
get a glimpse or catch a glimpse of their team or their favourite player and they're waving
flags and hanging from lampposts. So there's a massive, massive crowd on the streets massive.
Okay, number 11. Tremendous. And again, we use tremendous to mean big, of course, because that's
what we're describing here. Big but tremendous can be your good or can be bad. So oh, how was
the holiday? Tremendous! Yeah. How was the meal? Tremendous! How's the new job? Tremendous, so
we can use it in lots and lots of ways that would describe really, really wonderful, but when we're
talking about big, tremendous, yeah, this was something big happening. There's something really,
really monumental, big Yeah, so we can use tremendous. We want a tremendous order. You know,
it's the biggest order we've ever had. I mean, this will keep the factory going for two or three
years. So it's really really is a wonderful day for the company, a tremendous achievement. We've
made tremendous advances in terms of technology. So all of us can talk about the tremendous,
the big, the most amazing development we've seen in our lives as a result of technology
from those old desk top computers, to the old flip-over phones, wherever they are. Now,
we've got massive, massive amount of technology at our fingertips. That has been a tremendous
improvement in technology, what we can do, how quickly we can do things. Tremendous.
And then finally, whopping. Now, just be careful with the pronunciation here,
you can see the spelling on the screen. Whopping means big. A whopping whopping ice cream. Yeah,
so you go to the ice cream van standing in the park and a hot summer's day,
and you ask for a 99, this is a really popular ice cream in Ireland and the UK,
and you get this whopping whopping amount of ice cream on your cone. Wow,
you take a look. And it'll it'll be melted before that you get a chance to to eat it. Yeah, okay,
or you decide to go out, you're really, really hungry. You've been on a bit of a diet for a few
weeks, and you ask for the steak with all the trimmings. And when it arrives on your plate as
a whopping whopping amount of food, you're not sure how you're going to get through even half
of it because you've been on it. Quite a strict diet. So whopping means really, really big. Yeah,
there could be a whopping reaction to something some big reaction to some news and it's all over
the newspapers all over the internet, on the radio whopping something really, really big.
Okay, so that 12 particular words connected or that can be used instead of big let me get into
your one more time. Number one, astronomical the prices are astronomical. They've gone
through the roof. Stupendous, stupendous. The reaction to my article was stupendous really,
really big. Colossal, he was huge. He was over two metres tall, colossal, the biggest guy
I've ever seen. Gigantic. Wow, this I mean, this improvement has been gigantic. Yeah, some really,
really big improvements are the trees you stamp side and you look up and they reach up to the sky,
gigantic. Thumping. I woke up with a thumping, a really big headache. Thumping. To make a
tidy profit. Tidy it might mean neat, but tidy means big in this sense, tidy
profit of a really acceptable amount of money. Enormous, enormous improvement in the service,
a big improvement in the service. Hefty, a hefty price to pay a big price to pay for speaking your
mind to lose your job. Hefty price. Immense. A big influence on your life on your career.
An immense impact. Massive. Massive improvement, massive crowd, massive amount of energy consumed
every day. Tremendous, a tremendous achievement. So he won the race, he hadn't ever run a marathon
before. And he ran in two minutes and sorry, two hours and two minutes. So a new world record,
it was a tremendous achievement for somebody running his first marathon. And then whopping,
a whopping meal a big big huge plate of food comes that you're you're not able to finish whopping.
Okay, so 12 particular words that can be used instead of big, so like all of these,
you won't use them all all of the time. But try to avoid just using the simple English like big
and large. So here you want to use other words, they're not so difficult. Take one or two of them,
see how you can use them. You know, look at what you're trying to describe and see it as one of
the words one of these 12 words that I've given to you can it go or can it match can
collocate with that particular now. Okay, and if you need any help need any practice,
come back to me and I'll give you some other examples as always, I'm here to
help you www.englishlessonviaskype.com Okay, this is Harry saying goodbye for now. Thanks
for watching, and thanks for listening. As always, join me for the next lesson.