Hi there, everybody.
Welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry, where we try to help you to get a better
understanding of the English language.
Improve your vocabulary, expressions, grammar, whatever it is, we're here to help.
Okay.
And in this particular lesson, this advanced English lesson, we're looking at people.
And we're going to look at adjectives that can describe people.
So there's quite a few of them.
So I'll go through them one by one, we've got 14 in total.
And as always, if you liked this particular lesson, then please like the video, and if
you can subscribe to the channel because it really, really helps.
So advanced English lesson adjectives that we use to describe people.
So as I said, I've got 14.
Perceptive, perceptive.
Inspirational.
Overambitious.
Conscientious.
Obstinate.
Neurotic.
Open-minded.
Prejudiced.
Apathetic.
Insensitive.
Solitary.
Rebellious.
Mature and inquisitive.
Okay, so good adjectives to describe people.
So I'm going to give you a situation when we might use them to describe a particular
person.
And hopefully, you'll get a good understanding of them if you don't understand them.
And you check them out in the dia... in the dictionary, and you still need some help.
Well, as always, come back to me I'll try to give you a few more examples.
So perceptive.
When somebody is perceptive they see things that other people don't see, a little bit
of vision.
Yeah.
Oh, he's very perceptive.
He understands when there's a problem.
So you need to be very, very careful when you're talking to him.
You don't say something out of turn, because he picks up on small things.
So he's very, very perceptive.
Or somebody understands a situation you don't have to explain much to them.
Oh, yeah, you're quite perceptive, you understand exactly what I'm trying to say.
So to be perceptive to understand to know what's going on, or what message somebody
is trying to get across to you.
To be perceptive.
Inspirational.
Well, we've all heard I think of this word.
Inspirational is one of the well-known adjectives.
Somebody inspires you to do great things.
We look back in history, and we look on leaders that would be inspirational.
In the modern world, we look to members of a family, a father, or mother or grandfather,
whoever, who might have been inspirational, somebody to show you what to do, or somebody
who did something.
And you say, Well, that's exactly what I want to do.
That's what I exactly want to be.
So they provided the inspiration for you to go on, and maybe achieve your dream of a university
course, or whatever it happens to be.
Doesn't have to be reaching for the stars, but something that you found or somebody you
found inspirational.
Overambitious.
Well, there's nothing wrong with having ambition.
And indeed, it's a really good characteristic to have.
But if you're overambitious, then it means that you'd almost stop at nothing to get what
you want.
And that can be a little bit dangerous, and difficult, and people are often wary of people
who they consider to be overambitious.
The office worker who continues to work late every night, he lets his boss know that he's
always there till nine o'clock, he lets his boss know that he's there long after everybody
else has gone home.
So he's not so much of a friend to people in the office, you have to be really, really
careful.
So he's very ambitious.
He's overambitious.
He wants to get promoted.
Every time he's talking to the manager, something comes up well, what do you think about that?
Did they do well?
Did they do this?
So somebody who is a little bit overambitious.
Conscientious.
Well, conscientious is a really nice characteristic to have.
I would like it, if somebody would consider me to be conscientious.
And when you're conscientious you consider all aspects.
You are really conscientious about the work you do, you don't just put down your pen and
walk away from your desk when the clock ticks at 5 o'clock or 5:30 when you're supposed
to go home.
So you stay until the job is done.
Why?
Because you're conscientious, you make sure that the work is completed.
If there's an order that has to go to a client or a customer, you might follow up with an
email or a text message to make sure they got it.
Why because you're conscientious.
So you don't just send it off and hope that it arrives.
There may have been some trouble with the last order.
So this time, you want to make sure that it goes through that problems, so you send a
quick message.
Did you get the order?
Okay, it was dispatched this afternoon.
So you wait to get a reply.
So you show and demonstrate that you are conscientious about your job.
And bosses like people who are conscientious, dedicated.
Obstinate.
Well, again, obstinate can in some ways be a little bit positive, but mostly it's seen
as a negative adjective to describe you.
When you're obstinate, it just means you refuse to change your mind.
You refuse to listen to other people, you stick to your own opinion, even though it's
proved time and time again that you're probably wrong, very obstinate.
Ah, there's no talking to him.
He's as stubborn as a mule.
He's so obstinate.
Yeah, it's you can tell him that the sky is blue.
He won't believe you.
He'll argue that it's a different colour.
He's a very obstinate, he sticks to what he thinks is right.
Even though he's wrong.
He refuses to budge.
So obstinate or stubborn.
Like the mule that just won't move.
Neurotic.
Well, someone who's neurotic really has some psychological issues.
And they neurotic because they assume everything's gone wrong.
They assume something is happening, when really it isn't.
They might feel that somebody's listening to their telephone conversations.
They may feel that the boss is always watching over the shoulder, when in fact he isn't.
They just get very concerned.
And they become so concerned that they become neurotic, so very hard to talk to them, very
hard to persuade them.
There isn't anybody listening to your telephone calls.
There isn't anybody watching you from behind.
There isn't anybody who really cares enough to do that.
So just get on and do your work.
Don't be so neurotic, don't feel that you're constantly under observation because the fact
is, you're not.
Yeah.
Nobody really cares.
Neurotic.
Open-minded.
Well, it's great to be open-minded, as again, a very positive characteristic to have.
And when you're open-minded, you're willing to listen to everybody's opinions, all the
opinions you can get, you're open-minded, you may have your own views.
And you may be a little stubborn about things.
But you're sufficiently open-minded, to listen to other people who you believe might have
a better or different view than you have.
So to be open minded as a boss is great because then people can approach you in the office,
they can let you know what they think.
And you won't prejudge them, because you have an open mind.
So an open-minded boss is a really strong boss, somebody who can listen somebody who
can take other opinions and is not afraid to change their mind that they in fact might
be wrong.
Okay, so open-minded.
Prejudiced.
Well, here's a negative.
Prejudiced.
When you're prejudiced, you don't consider other things so well, you have a closed mind.
And you have a stereotypical approach to lots of things.
It may be to do with people's colour.
May be to do with people's religious beliefs and maybe do to do with the difference between
people with or without physical disabilities, okay.
So we are prejudiced in those situations, and we shouldn't be we should be open-minded.
So if you're prejudiced, your mind is somewhat closed, and you won't consider other people
because of these stereotypes.
Like, certain people talk too much, or certain people are aggressive and they're fighters.
Yeah.
So in those situations, that's a really, really strong negative and you'll become particularly
prejudiced if you judge people based on nationality, or religion, or colour, whatever that might
be.
So you have to have that open mind, you can't afford to be prejudiced.
Apathetic.
Well, when somebody is apathetic, it really means they don't care.
They're full of apathy.
Okay, apathetic.
It's, Ah, sure, what do I know?
I don't care.
I mean, I get paid at the end of the month.
So why do I need to do any more than just my nine to five?
Do they want me to work a little bit of overtime, but they're not going to pay me?
Why should I bother?
So when you're apathetic, it means you really don't care.
So that's the opposite of the person who said before might be conscientious.
So the conscientious worker, even though he may not get paid for the extra work is prepared
to do it.
Those who suffer from that apathy or that apathetic approach just won't bother.
Why should I bother what's the differences are going to make to me if I stay an extra
half an hour an hour, but the work will get done next week.
I'm off.
I'm off for the weekend.
So somebody with a lot of apathy, apathetic.
Insensitive.
Insensitive means we normally don't take into account other people's feelings as much as
we should.
We might say the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Somebody's just lost their pet dog or cat.
And we make some joke about it, very insensitive.
Somebody is about to lose their job when we start talking about unemployment, a little
bit insensitive.
So we have to be aware of and take into consideration other people's feelings around us before we
make comments, so that we cannot be accused of being insensitive.
Okay, some people are very sensitive, or very emotional.
And if we are insensitive, then we're likely to upset them and cause them some problems
or some anxiety.
So insensitive.
Solitary.
A solitary person is somebody who usually likes to be on their own.
They like to work on their own.
They probably live on their own.
They don't socialise at lunchtime.
They don't socialise definitely on a Friday evening with that beer in the local bar.
They're very solitary person.
They might be lonely.
They might be shy, they might be nervous, but they're very definitely solitary.
Yeah, they live and exist all on their own.
Solitary.
Rebellious.
Wow, they're always great people to have.
When I was at school, we had lots of rebellious individuals, people who don't like to live
by the rules.
Yeah.
So when they're rebellious, they, they go against the rules.
No smoking.
Definitely, they're the guy you could find at the back of the bicycle shed smoking.
You know, they had to wear a tie, they never had a tie in there around the neck, they might
have it in the pocket, and we'll put it on if the, the teacher insisted on it.
Okay, so rebellious by nature.
Okay, so to be rebellious is to go against the rules go against the laws.
I'm a little bit like that myself.
Yeah.
So you have to be really, really careful.
Of course, you have to be careful, you're not too rebellious.
But it's no harm to be rebellious from time to time.
It's an... it's not a good idea that we're all exactly the same.
So rebellious, we rise up against rule, we rise up against laws and we don't like too
many regulations.
So rebellious.
Mature.
Well, of course, we all hope we are mature.
And as we get older, we definitely mature.
In years of not in our in our way we operate.
So a mature individual who's somebody who thinks before speaking somebody, who thinks
about the... the likely outcome before they take an action.
Somebody who thinks about how it will impact on other people before they do something.
So a mature person is mature in their thoughts, mature in their actions in and mature in their
deeds.
The opposite is immature.
So usually, young people up to the age of 14 or 15 might be somewhat immature.
And as they get beyond the those adult... those sorry, those young adolescent years,
they become a little bit more mature.
And it's well known fact that boys mature less quickly than girls.
So to mature is to see things in an adult way to make sure that we understand things
and we don't make rash decisions or rash judgments mature.
And then finally inquisitive.
Well, I think it's always good to have an inquisitive mind, an inquisitive mind is a
mind that constantly asked questions.
Why?
Why do we need that?
Why do we do that?
What are they doing?
What's that for?
Yeah, an inquisitive mind.
Kids at the young age of four and five and six, when they start to find their words,
often start with "Why" Why this, why that.
And it can drive parents a little bit mad.
It did me when my kids were were young, so you have to be careful why this why that.
But having an inquisitive mind is absolutely great because they find out a lot.
They get a lot of information, and we shouldn't let age be a barrier.
We should always be inquisitive, asking why is this happening?
Why did we do that?
How was that?
Yeah, okay.
So be inquisitive, ask questions, look for information, look for answers.
Inquisitive.
Okay, so there the 14 different adjectives that we can use to describe people.
Okay, so let me give them to you one more time.
Perceptive, inspirational, overambitious, conscientious.
Be careful with that pronunciation conscientious.
Obstinate, neurotic, open-minded, prejudiced, apathetic, insensitive, solitary, rebellious,
mature and then finally inquisitive.
Okay, so as I said,
and you know the drill by now, if you want to learn these, you have to practice them.
You won't remember them all.
So try putting them into sentences.
Try and practice a few that you know.
Have a look at people that you know in your family in your office, see which of these
particular adjectives might be associated or might describe that particular person that
you know.
It's a good way to practice.
If you need any help you contact me.
I'll give you some more examples.
Okay, as always, thanks for listening.
Thanks for watching, Harry's saying goodbye until next time, see you soon.