Hi there, welcome back to advanced English classes with Harry. That's me,
Harry. So we're here to help you to improve and advance your English in the best way possible.
To understand the grammar rules, to understand vocabulary, how to use it. Expressions,
phrasal verbs, whatever it is, and whatever it takes, we're here to help.
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So what are we going to talk to you about today in the class? Well, in today's class,
we're going to look at adjectives, and we're going to look at adjectives to describe
relationships. We're all involved in relationships somehow in some part of our lives. Either
in the past or in the present, and hopefully, for those of you are not, in the future. So
relationships are a really, really important part of our lives. So I'm going to give you some
insight into the adjectives that we use to describe different aspects of our relationships,
both good and bad. Okay, if you have any questions relating to this, you can always come back to me
through email, I'll give you the contact details at the end of this particular class.
And if you have any other issues, well, as always, send me an email or send me an email,
I'd be very, very happy to include them in future lessons. So let's go that we've got
14 individual adjectives describing relationships. So I list them down one by one,
and then I'll go through them and give you an example as to what they mean and how to use them.
Supportive, distant, tight-knit, caring, close, tense, dysfunctional, dysfunctional,
insincere, hollow, fake, dishonest, weak, stable, and finally solid. Okay, let's go through them.
And remember these are adjectives. And they used to describe
situations, they're usually used to describe noun. So lots of these situations were describing
the person or the actual relationship itself.
So we'll start with number one supportive. So this will be used to describe a person, if a person is
supportive, then they're going to help. So giving support is all about giving help. So supportive,
when we have a problem. Supportive when we need to have a discussion about our work that we're
not happy with. Supportive when we had an argument with our parents or siblings or our children. So
in a relationship, somebody who's supportive is really, really important to be there,
at the right time, the right moment. Supportive to give help, or lend support.
Second, distant. This will be quite a negative adjective to use. So we're referring to somebody
as distant, that means they're not connecting with us, or they're cutting themselves off
from communication with others, or that they seem to be preoccupied.
So when you're trying to talk to somebody who is distant, they literally could be in another
location, they could be sitting in front of you, but their mind is somewhere else,
their thoughts are on something else, they're focusing on perhaps their job or focusing on some
other aspects of their life, but they're cutting you off. And therefore they look, they feel and
they... and you can sense that they are distant, they're not really there. They're in the same room
but they could be 100 kilometres away because they don't really communicate, don't connect.
Next word is tight-knit. So, when we use tight-knit, we often use it not only in
a relationship of two people, but in relation to family. So a family relationship we can refer
to it as a very tight-knit family. Tight-knit means they are really
supportive of each other. They spend a lot of time together. They are there when
they when each other needs something.The... the siblings, the brothers and sisters, the parents,
they spend a lot of time perhaps on holidays, weekends, dinner, a very
tight-knit family. If a problem happens for one member of the family, they're all there to lend
a helping hand. So tight-knit, meaning really close, bonded, really connected together. Okay.
Caring. Well, this is a very positive adjective to use. A caring personality. He has a very caring
personality. He likes to look after people. He's always there if his mother or father
need him. He's very caring. She's very caring with her elderly grandmother, she goes to visit
her every weekend, she brings food, she cleans the house. So she has a very caring
approach. So, caring means to take care of. Caring means to be kind and generous,
and genuinely look after those people who need our support, or who need our help. So to provide love,
and affection, and support when it is needed.
Close. Close relationship is a relationship, which is tight, okay. So a relationship,
which is not easily broken, a relationship which is built on trust and love. And both parties to
the relationship understand each other very, very well. We have a very close relationship.
Of course, in all relationships, you can have your ups and downs, you can have your difficulties,
you can have your arguments, but overall, if you're close, nothing is going to get
in the middle. So everything is close, very hard to break that to get in between, okay.
So when we're trying to establish a relationship, that is that is close, we have to understand the
other party, we have to respect the other party in the relationship. To understand what they want,
understand what their needs are. And also hopefully that they will understand
our needs, and our wants. Okay, so close.
Yes, I can see they have a very close relationship, they have been together,
since they were teenagers, they have been together since they were at college.
Nothing seems to upset them. Any difficulties,
they get through it together. So that will be a good definition of a close relationship.
Tense. So when a relationship is tense, not necessarily about the person,
although a person can be tense, or when you feel that all your muscles are tight, then you could
describe yourself as tense or you're waiting for something bad to happen, then you can be tense,
you can be on edge. But a tense relationship is not necessarily a good relationship.
A tense relationship is something that is waiting for a bomb to explode or something
to cause problems. It's never relaxed. It's nobody in the relationship is ever
at ease. So there are always problems likely to happen. Not now, but there could have been
a week or day. Or a few weeks or a few days ago or could happen in a couple of
days or a couple of weeks time. So there's that tenseness. Meaning there's some likelihood that
something small could start a row or start an argument. So... Now, it can be temporary.
There's a very tense relationship
because he's lost his job and he's on edge or he's a little bit nervy.
There's a tense relationship because she's not quite sure whether she wants to get married or
whether she wants to leave it for another little while she's quite happy living and
sharing the same house. But getting married is a big step. And she needs time to consider that.
So the relationship could be tense for a little while until she makes a mind up. So
tense can be permanent, not good and not good in relationship for either party.
Or can be temporary because there's some situation that has arisen, some problem that has arisen
that is causing this tenseness to be present for a period of time. Tense.
Dysfunctional. We often hear the expression a dysfunctional family. Dysfunctional means
it doesn't work. Okay. And a dysfunctional family is a family that seems to have no
rules, no boundaries, no manners, everybody is doing their own thing. And everybody's getting
into trouble for different reasons. Somebody's on drugs, somebody's in trouble with the law. One or
two members of the family are not working, they're living on benefits. All sorts of social problems.
And you could put it on to a little package and describe it as a dysfunctional family,
yeah. So everybody's doing their own thing. Nobody looking after the other. Nobody caring for the the
unity of that particular family. So dysfunctional, something that doesn't operate. So when we
use the word functional, it's if it's functional, it works.
This introduces this prefix, and it turns it into negative dysfunctional family. Okay,
something that just won't or doesn't work so easily.
Insincere. Another negative adjective insincere. And somebody is sincere, they truly believe in
what they say, they're sincere in their thoughts. So again using the prefix in- we turn it into a
negative. The opposite insincere. So thoughts or comments might look on the face of it to be
friendly, but you know in reality that these are quite insincere, there's nothing to them. Okay?
Oh, have a good weekend. Oh, yes, I'm really sorry for your trouble. Oh... They're just
words. And somebody doesn't come across as being sincere, and we can describe him or her as being
insincere. Or the comments that they make has been completely insincere. No love,
no respect, no real meaning or feeling of support behind them. So completely and utterly insincere.
Hollow. When something is hollow, it's empty, the hollow tree. So when a tree falls down in
the forest, and over the years, the inside of the tree rots and decays,
you're left with an empty trunk of the tree which is hollow, okay. The hollow branch where the
owl or the bird nests for that the spring. So that... this is a hollow branch, so it's empty.
So when a relationship is hollow, it means it's empty, there's no love,
there's no respect, there are no feelings. Well, of course, there may be feelings,
but the feelings may not be positive, so they are negative feelings, and you feel hollow inside.
So when we have this empty feeling within a relationship, we feel that there's nobody loving
us or caring or bothered about us. And if there's a problem, then we seem to be dealing with the
problem on our own. So it is and the relationship is completely and totally hollow or empty.
A hollow sound is an empty sound, you know, if you stand at the mouth of a cave and you shout,
you get the echo or the noise, reverberates on bounces off the walls because it is empty. Okay.
And that's the feeling when you have a problem and you've got a hollow relationship, you might
as well be talking to yourself because the echo will come back because nobody is listening.
Same way with fake the next word fake when a relationship is fake, it means false. Okay,
so it's something that it really isn't, okay. So if somebody tries to present a relationship as a
good relationship, but in reality, it's not then it's a fake relationship. If they try to present,
that they are a loving couple, or that they are a couple of care or whatever that might be. But
deep down both parties to the relationship,
know that the relationship is not really a true relationship,
then it is fake. And fake is a copy something that is not the original, like a fake painting.
Yeah, so you copy some famous painting and try to sell it as the original, of course,
it's not. So it is a fake. It's something that isn't. So you, you can do all you like you can
airbrush a photograph, you can do whatever you wish to but it's not the original. So
it's going to be fake. So relationships can be fake, they can be false.
Dishonest. When a relationship is dishonest, that can really... relate and refer to the person. If
he or she is done... dishonest. That means they're not being true to their word. Yeah.
So they tell you something, but then they break their promise. They tell you something, then they
they tell somebody else something different. So they are being dishonest. And in relationship,
particularly between two people, if it's supposed to be a loving relationship, then one of those
rules, those unwritten rules of the relationship should be honesty between the two parties.
If somebody's being dishonest, you're they might say of course I love you. Or, of course, we can do
that. Of course, you can do that. But in reality, they mean something else, then they are being
dishonest. And again, this is honest, the word adding the prefix dis- and we saw before in a
couple of words, we had a dysfunctional spelt dys-. Now we have dishonest. Spell dis- prefix
in front of honest, turns that into the negative adjective. So dishonest.
Weak. The relationship is weak, well, then it's the opposite of strong. So it will collapse at
any sign of trouble now, so if you don't have a strong relationship, how are you going to get over
any troubles, financial troubles, work related troubles, just general relationship troubles,
you know, we all go through those issues from time to time. But if the relationship is strong,
then it will withstand any of those pressures. If the relationship is weak, then it's like a
wet handshake. It's not really worth anything yet, okay. So, weak means something that cannot
stand any tension, cannot stand any pressure and when the pressure comes, the relationship will
collapse or it will break because it is fundamentally weak.
Stable, a stable relationship is something that is is flat, it is even. It's not up and down. Okay,
it's a stable. Yeah, we get through life because we have built stability around our lives,
stability in relation to our working life, stability in relation to our employment, stability
in relation to our... how we relate to our family, and above all, stability in our personal
relationships. So something that is rocky goes up and down, okay. Or like this... A rocky table
moves from side to side. But something stable is even, it's flat, you know exactly where you are.
Now, of course, in most relationships gets a little bit boring if it's stable all the time,
and there's no little sign of excitement. So
from time to time, you have to jizz and jazz up the relationship a little bit in
introduce a little bit of excitement. That's okay, that's what people expect.
But it doesn't take away from the fact that there is genuine stability in the relationship. Stable,
even, something that can survive the ups and downs of life, and particularly in the modern life.
And then finally, solid, it's a bit like stable. Solid is dependable, okay. The table is solid,
the wall is solid. So when something is solid,
and you're built on a solid foundation, then the relationship will withstand pressure points,
it will be able to survive the argument, it will be able to survive the disagreement, the
financial crisis, whatever the crisis that will happen from time to time.
Well, that's all about relationships. And remember, this is about adjectives relating
to relationships, I'm not giving you a relationship advice, I am the last one
to do that. But it's about the English, the adjectives you can use to describe
the relationships that you might have with family and friends or work colleagues.
So let me give them to you one more time. Supportive, distant, tight-knit, caring,
close, tense, dysfunctional, insincere,
hollow, fake, dishonest, weak, stable, and finally solid. As always,
and as I always say, if you want to contact me in relation to anything and to make some comments
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read them and listen to them. Certainly include any suggestions that are worth including. And
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