Hi there, this is Harry, welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry,
where we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language.
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So what are we looking at this week? Well, in this particular lesson,
we're looking at advanced adjectives. And in particular, advanced adjectives
to describe places, different places out and about, what can we describe,
so I'll give you the adjectives and then I'll give you an example of how we use them. Okay.
So vast, secluded, or inspiring, sprawling, ramshackle, quaint, overpopulated, bleak, hectic,
and finally Scenic. Okay, so 10 adjectives, 10, advanced additives, how we describe places,
okay, so I'm gonna go through them one by one, and hopefully give you a good example. So here we go.
Vast. When something is vast, it is really open and expansive. Yeah. So the vast metropolis of
London or the vast metropolis of Cairo, whatever that particular city happens to be vast means
it spreads for many, many, many kilometres. So vast is this whole word describe something huge,
bigger than huge, humongous Yeah, so but it spreads in every direction. So the vast city.
Oh, London is a vast city, you couldn't possibly see it in three days, you really
need to come two or three times. So this is what you would advise visitors. So come for the first
visit and see something and then in the next visit something else. So eventually, over a few visits,
you get to see the vastness of the city, how far it spreads. And if you drive from the end of one
city to the other side of the city, it can take you several hours, lots of my students tell me
how long it takes them to drive, for example, from the east side to the west side, or the north to
the south takes hours because the city is a vast, sprawling spread, widespread metropolis. Okay.
Next, secluded. Well, when something is secluded, it's usually hidden, hidden away from the public.
Okay, so somebody who has a lot of money or is very publicity shy, might want to live in
a secluded residence. So their home could be surrounded by high walls, tall fences,
tall trees, something that is not obvious from the road. So when you drive past you might look
at it and think, I wonder who lives there, but you will never see the person because they drive
in and out the gates open electronically, they closed behind them, and you would not be able
to scale or to climb the walls without causing some confusion, of course, so you're not able to
see who lives there. So they live in a secluded residence. They're surrounded by wire fences,
walls, trees, whatever it might take to maintain that seclusion to maintain that secrecy. So when
you see Hollywood stars living in seclusion, you see actors, actresses, football stars,
they don't mind signing autographs for fans, but like everybody else, they like that peace
and quiet. And they like the idea of being away from people. So people will have to go to great
lengths to see them. So they live in a secluded residence, far away from the city. Secluded.
Awe-inspiring when we use the word or inspiring, we're usually referring to a view. Okay,
so if you stand on the top of a mountain on a high building, or on a hill overlooking a city,
it might look awe-inspiring. Or you see you look down on the city,
you see how large it is, how modern it is the old architecture, meeting new architecture,
how advanced the city is, so you can see that it is or inspiring.
Or indeed, if you're standing on top of the Grand Canyon, I have never done it
personally. But if you did stand at the top of the Grand Canyon and you're looking down,
I'm sure that particular view is what you could describe as awe-inspiring.
Looking at the tall trees in the cemetery park there could be also or inspiring so a
place that you really find very, very beautiful, very, very attractive, so does don't have to be
a really popular place doesn't have to be a place as popular as Grand Canyon,
it could just be some somewhere, simply that you find awe-inspiring.
On top of a mountain with the sun shining on the snow covered slopes when you're going to
go ski skiing, that could be certainly awe-inspiring. It was for me the first
time that I saw it, so you can use it in many, many, many different ways. Okay.
So number four, sprawling, when a city sprawls it spreads out in every direction. I live in the
city of Dublin at the moment. And we could call that a sprawling city because we don't allow for
a very high development. So very few buildings are over seven or eight storeys high. So as a result,
the city spreads out far and wide. So it would be considered to be a sprawling city. So almost
one city connects with the other. And when you're living in the suburbs, you're not so far from the
city because they're all connected, but you have to drive, and you get stuck in traffic
because the city sprawls and the connectivity is not so good. So a sprawling, widespread,
something that goes for miles and miles in every direction, north, south, east and west.
Ramshackle. When we describe a building as ramshackle, we sometimes refer into a slum or
ramshackle building as something that is falling down that perhaps is not fit for humans to live
in. But people do live there because they've got an alternative. The roof could be falling in,
there could be holes or damage to the walls, the windows may be cracked and broken, the floor
more boards may be damaged or just not covered. So everything about the property is wrong. Everything
I think about the property is unattractive, so you could describe it as a ramshackle
building. So these could be slums where people are living without paying rent. They could be slums,
where people are living because they can't afford unfortunately rents in better qualified or better
built apartments or homes. So whatever it is, we could describe it as ramshackle. Now,
we could just loosely describe some properties as ramshackle when we're trying to describe
something as not so attractive or a ramshackle building made of wood that was built at the
turn of the last century and has seen better days. So that's a way an author might describe
something that he comes across that he's not quite sure. Is there anybody living in it,
a tenement block of buildings that were built around the 1900s. You know, those that still
exist? Well, they could certainly be described as ramshackle if they haven't been upgraded,
updated and refurbished in the last 30-40-50 years. So ramshackle.
Quaint. Quaint is that word we use to describe that little picture postcard cottage or that
little village in the countryside where everything is very twee, all the cottages are painted white,
they've got roses growing around the doors, they've got very neat gardens, a few thatched
roofs on the on the cottages and the bungalow. So this would be regarded as a quaint village.
Something you might see if you drove or you were driving through the Cotswolds in the UK.
It's something that you'd really like to look at, but could be quite expensive to purchase. But if
you've got a tin of biscuits or chocolates, it's the sort of picture that you see on the on the
tin of those biscuits or chocolates are really quaint village of quaint town, something that
you might think was the turn of the century, but has been very, very carefully renovated,
but really, really pretty and really attractive, but perhaps not so practical to live in,
depending on where it's located. So, quaint property, a quaint cottage, a quaint village.
Overpopulated. When something is overpopulated, it just simply means there are too many people living
there. So lots of cities around the world are very heavily overpopulated cities like Cairo, a
lot of cities in India, where they have huge, huge population. And there are lots of modern buildings
now, but also lots of old shacks that poor people live in and these cities are bursting at the seams
with people and we could certainly describe them as being overpopulated. So when a city gets a
huge influx of foreign people or immigrants or refugees, or people coming from the their
own country into the city, then we can loosely describe the city as overpopulated not enough
properties for people to live in. Now we could actually say that about Dublin today,
the city of Dublin, we don't have enough places for people to live, it just simply means that
they are not building them fast enough. There's a lot of space but we're not building the properties
fast enough. So not quite overpopulated but relative to the availability of apartments
and homes, and perhaps it is a little bit overpopulated more people than we can cater for.
Countries like the Netherlands, that can often be described as somewhat overpopulated.
Small country, huge, vast number of people living there, so somewhat overpopulated.
Bleak. Something bleak is usually cold, dark and wet. The weather can be very bleak.
You can wake up in the morning, the clouds are low, the wind is blowing,
the rain is lashing against the window. That's a bleak day. Okay? So when something is bleak,
then as a place to live, then it could be built of old cold grey slate, something that's not so
warm when you look at it, it could be just bleak because of the weather conditions. So
lots of places in the the middle of the UK or in some parts of some older cities where they
weren't so concerned about the architectural benefits of the properties, but they certainly
built them just to accommodate people. These could largely be described as bleak or too
bleak place to live particularly in winter. That wind blowing the rain coming down straight, yet
you want to be somewhere else. It's a bleak place to live so cold, uninviting, not so attractive.
Hectic, a hectic city or town is one that is full of hustle and bustle people moving here and there
and everywhere. So lots of large cities in Africa. Lots of large cities in the in Asia where there's
street markets people going here and there and bicycles and rickshaws and motorbikes and
scooters and cars and horses and carts, whatever it might be. These are hectic cities, you can hear
the noise Beep, beep, beep beep, the shouting the screaming just the daily activity of of life in
that particular city so you could really describe it as hectic game, so a hectic place to live.
New York sometimes can be described as hectic because it's constantly on the go,
as the song says, the city that never sleeps. So whenever you go to New York,
you can get that sense of a hive of activity there honking of the horns of the taxi drivers as they
drive along Fifth Avenue or Times Square. Just the hustle and bustle the noise of the
people. The flashing lights it's a really hectic city to live in and to visit hectic.
And then finally scenic. Well something can be scenic. When you look down something similar
to or inspiring, so scenic, beautiful scenes of waterfalls, Niagara Falls comes to my mind
lovely scenes of vast forests spreading over the mountains in every direction
as far as the eye can see beautiful green trees so they can be described as scenic.
Or the snow covered peaks of mountains the green valleys below of a Swiss town or village again,
very very scenic something that brings up images of beauty and some place relaxing and
quiet and peaceful where you'd like to spend a few weeks or even a few months. Okay, so scenic.
Alright so we've got 10 advanced adjectives describing different places let me give them to
you one more time. Last huge spreading forth far and wide, secluded very quiet peaceful away from
people's view away from those paparazzi who might be trying to take photographs of well known people
or inspiring something that's real beauty standing on top of the Grand Canyon and looking down.
Sprawling spread out east west north south, whichever direction you look, the city is
sprawling apartments here houses. They're ramshackle, broken down in need of repair broken
windows doors, hanging off the hinges. Yeah, you can get the picture, ramshackle of a building.
quaint, very pretty, very neat. Very tidy. That typical little Cotswold cottage in the UK. Yeah,
quaint, overpopulated big cities. Lots of people very hard to move around traffic
everywhere. blocked roads, buses getting stuck. That's an overpopulated city. Bleak, wet, grey,
dull, miserable, windy, cold I can go on and on but that's certainly describes a bleak place.
Hectic, full of activity, but no coordination or looks like there's no coordination or it's
not organised properly so cars here cars they're people running across the road. The honking of
cars horns beeping, the engines moving and people really really busy but nobody quite sure what
people are doing hectic. And then finally scenic peaceful. You can sit back and relax breathe in
the fresh air no noise maybe perhaps the noise of a bird singing in the background scenic.
Okay so they are 10 advanced adjectives to describe places try to practice them
try to understand what they mean what they refer to have a look at some books or some
pictures and try to see can you match those particular words and descriptions with the
pictures that you look at it's a good way to practice is a good way to to try if you have
any questions you need any more examples you know where I am you can contact me as always,
really appreciate it when you join us really appreciate you watching. Join me again soon