[Music]
well hello I’m Emma from mmm English now
I have to admit that I’m a huge fan of
adjectives I mean I probably overuse
adjectives if I’m being completely
honest with you but they are such a
beautiful part of any language they
allow you to go into detail to add color
flavor and personality to all of your
thoughts and your ideas one of the most
noticeable differences between
intermediate level English speakers and
advanced ones is their use of adjectives
because yes you can add meaning to your
sentences by using simple adjectives
like happy or sad or nice or bored but
life can be so much more spectacular
than that carnot your English can be
much more colorful than that right using
a wider range of adjectives will help
you to be more expressive to show
emotions and feelings and to sound more
interesting when you use English so if
you need to refresh your memory about
how to use adjectives in English
sentences then check out that lesson up
there but right now I’ve got 10
adjectives for you and I’ve specifically
chosen them because they’re adjectives
that English learners often
mispronounced they’re all a little
tricky there’s a few silent letters some
strange vowel sounds different
pronunciation of the same letter in the
same word but don’t worry by the end of
this lesson you’re gonna have all of
these adjectives completely down you’re
going to be saying them much more
confidently and more often let’s start
with now if you haven’t heard this word
pronounced before it looks a little
tricky there is
two seas and two S’s of course you know
that in English a sea can sometimes be
pronounced in the same way as an s many
of my students they look at this word
and take a guess and say successful
which is a nice try I can see why you
would pronounce it that way but actually
each see in this word is pronounced
differently and that’s made clear when
you look at the phonemic script the
first C is pronounced as a sound at the
end of the first syllable and the second
C is pronounced as a sound at the start
of the second syllable success success
now the second syllable is the stressed
syllable in this word and that’s why you
hear it pronounced more strongly while
the first syllable is short and lower in
pitch success success the final syllable
is also unstressed full successful
successful the pronunciation is the same
throughout the word family success
successful successfully and as
frustrating as it is that the same
letter is pronounced differently in the
same word just accept it practice it
remember it successful successful so
successful is used when someone achieves
the result that they want they’re really
happy and they’re satisfied with the
result he’s a successful businessman
he’s a successful businessman we’ve had
quite a successful year so far we’ve had
quite a successful year so far anxious
are you anxious looking at this one it’s
a little tricky there are three
consonant sounds here together which
makes it quite challenging in the first
syllable the stressed syllable the
strong vowel sound ah is followed by the
continent and that consonant sound is
usually made by the letters M G like in
song so my mouth is open slightly when I
make this sound and the back of my
tongue is right up at the soft palate in
for the second syllable you’ll hear the
and the shh consonant sounds Shh so
you’re pushing that air through your
mouth to make the sound
make sure you exaggerate this sound
while you’re practicing pretend you’re
like a superhero fighting a monster Shh
and the following vowel sound will be
unstressed the weak
so this adjective is usually used to
describe a person and it’s to do with
their emotions or their feelings an
anxious person is worried or nervous
because they think that something bad
might happen I’m feeling really anxious
about my interview tomorrow really
anxious I’m feeling really anxious about
my interview tomorrow my friend doesn’t
like flying so he’s always quite anxious
when we go traveling quite anxious
he’s always quite anxious when we go
traveling valuable over the years as an
English teacher I’ve heard this word
pronounced in several different ways
and all of the problems coming from
those two
letters in the middle the first common
mistake is assuming that there are four
syllables but there’s not there’s only
three and the first syllable val is the
stressed syllable the strongest one but
the second syllable is quite tricky
there’s an extra consonant sound added
one that you can’t see in the written
word you you you valuable valuable
so this adjective is really handy to
know because it can be used in a few
different ways now you often hear this
adjective used for things like jewelry
or houses or cars to tell that something
is expensive or worth a lot of money my
grandmother gave me her sapphire brooch
I think it’s quite valuable though I’d
never sell it it’s quite valuable but
this is also an excellent adjective to
describe a person’s qualities and often
used in a professional context so
valuable can not necessarily be about
money but about how important or useful
someone is James is a really valuable
member of our team a valuable member of
our team that’s a valuable piece of
exponential now most of the
pronunciation problems with this
adjective relate to syllable stress
there are four syllables exponential the
third is the strongest though the first
one is also stressed the remaining two
syllables are unstressed so they reduce
down they become the schwa sound which
exponential can you hear how the two
weaker syllables fade into the
background exponential exponential this
adjective is used when something is
increasing or growing really quickly the
company has experienced exponential
growth over the last two years
exponential growth the company has
experienced exponential growth the
renewable energy market is growing at an
exponential rate at an exponential rate
it’s growing at an exponential rate
complex now in standard British English
there’s just one way to pronounce this
word with the stress on the first
syllable complex in American English
there is a difference between the
adjective complex and the now complex
but the real pronunciation challenge
here is the cluster of consonants that
are pronounced at the end the letter X
usually produces a sound that has two
which is what makes this sound difficult
two continents together is tough the
sound is produced right at the back of
the throat while the sound is made with
the tongue and the teeth at the front of
the mouth so really creating this sound
successfully is about switching between
so this adjective is used to describe
something that consists of many
different and connected parts that makes
it quite difficult to understand or
manage it’s a complex issue but we need
the relationship between the general
manager and the marketing team is quite
complex they’ve never really seen
eye-to-eye it’s quite complex rural the
ER and the all sounds in this word make
it a real challenge but there’s actually
a little variation between English
accents for this word which is really
common officially the correct
pronunciation is rural with a vowel
sound as the stressed syllable but I
want to share a little tip with you
because in Australia our pronunciation
of this word is much more relaxed
roo-roo
so if you’re having trouble pronouncing
this word put on an Australian accent
and say rural rural rural you can use
this adjective to describe
characteristics of the countryside
rather than the city so usually it’s
farming land or a small village in the
country so the opposite of rural is
urban which is characteristic of cities
and towns the government will help rural
communities affected by the floods rural
communities the government will help
rural communities people are moving to
rural areas to live healthier lifestyles
rural areas
it’s a bit of a tongue twister isn’t it
rural areas people are moving to rural
areas specific the stress is on the
middle syllable here and there are two
things to pay attention to with this
word one is the consonant cluster at the
start of the word the consonant sounds
and together so if you’re having some
trouble with this we’re going to go to
the gym for a minute and do a little
work out practicing pronunciation is
just like training at the gym we just
need to train your muscles in your mouth
to be more comfortable doing something a
little different and are both unvoiced
consonant sounds and the sound is made
by pushing air through your mouth so I
want you to slowly bring these sounds
together now you’re ready for your
workout take a deep breath and move back
and forth between these sounds really
if these consonant sounds are too
difficult for you to pronounce you need
to do this workout daily now the second
challenge with this word is the final
consonant sound the consonant at the end
make sure that you finish this word on
the continent sound specific don’t get
lazy and forget it it’s not specific
it’s specific and you can use it to
explain that something is really exact
or detailed there are some general
issues that I need to discuss with you
but there’s one specific issue that’s
quite urgent one specific issue there’s
one specific issue that’s quite urgent
if you have any specific questions about
the accommodation then please ask Sarah
specific questions if you have any
specific questions mischievous there are
a lot of vowel letters in this word
which makes it a little confusing to
work out how to pronounce each syllable
and which one is stressed the first
syllable is the strongest the others
relax for some reason this word is one
that native English speakers sometimes
get wrong as well you might hear people
say mischievious with four syllables but
that’s incorrect
there are only three syllables here and
the stress is on the first syllable
miss miss which means the second
syllable reduces a little the vowel
sound is short and fast mischief
mischief there’s also two difficult
consonant sounds here and you so with
both of these consonant sounds your lip
position is really important so I want
you to exaggerate the position of your
mouth while you’re practicing with me
just to make sure that you are a prep
your pronouncing and your producing the
correct sound so furch see how my lips
are really flared exaggerated
exaggerated and this sound is controlled
by my tongue in a similar way to the
sound the tip of my tongue but also my
tongue is tense all the way along the
sides here and they’re pushed up against
the inside of my top teeth so we move
through through the unstressed vowel
sound to mmm making sure that your top
teeth are touching your lower lip
mmm choo-choo this mischievous
mischievous mischievous now if you have
cheeky children in your life this could
be the perfect adjective to describe
them so usually it’s an adjective to
describe children but it’s okay to
describe adults with it sometimes or
even pets it describes someone who has
fun by being silly
and creating a disruption but not in a
negative way not in a way that’s really
annoying or that really harms anyone
it’s kind of a cute or funny attribute I
was quite a mischievous child a
mischievous child I was quite a
mischievous child there are a few
mischievous children in the classroom
mischievous children there are a few
mischievous children detrimental now
this is a wonderful descriptive
adjective that means harmful or damaging
in some way so looking at this word it’s
the third syllable that is the strongest
and just like exponential the first
syllable also has a secondary stress so
we can hear that one clearly as well
which means that the other to reduce
they’re true men too detrimental but the
second syllable is the most difficult
here because of the consonant cluster a
true with an unstressed vowel sound tree
so it’s like the noun tree but with a
shorter weaker vowel sound tree tree
dead tree detrimental so as I said the
adjective detrimental suggests that
something is creating a negative effect
it’s hard
full or it’s damaging in some way it had
a detrimental effect on the company’s
growth a detrimental effect the
infection was detrimental to our
recovery
it was detrimental the infection was
detrimental to her recovery comfortable
I’ve talked about this adjectives before
in another pronunciation lesson but it’s
so common and it’s so often
mispronounced that it had to be included
in this lesson as well the correct
pronunciation of this word uses only
three syllables which means that this
vowel is completely silent Kumpf to fool
so notice that the first syllable is the
stressed one and the following syllables
reduce down to the schwa sound come to
full now you may hear native speakers
using a tiny tiny tiny extra syllable
and say comfortable which is fine too
it’s just a difference in accent or
dialect and you may think that it’s
easier to pronounce this word with four
syllables particularly if it’s difficult
for you to pronounce the and consonant
sounds together of course people are
going to understand you whatever you say
but please please please make sure that
that syllable is super super tiny fit
should come fit comfortable comfortable
so hear how short and quick those schwa
sounds are comfortable for a bull for a
bull like I said comfortable is the more
common pronunciation so I recommend that
you practice using that one I’m not
comfortable doing that I’m not
comfortable
I’m not comfortable doing that
are you comfortable with the decision
are you comfortable
are you comfortable with the decision
well that’s it 10 tricky English
adjectives that English learners often
mispronounced so I hope that this was a
useful lesson for you remember that if
you haven’t subscribed yet to the
English Channel please do it you just
need to hit that red button right down
there you can turn on the notifications
so that I notify you when I’ve got a new
lesson ready but if you are ready right
now to keep practicing with another
lesson then check out these ones right
here thanks for watching today and I’ll
see you for another English lesson next week bye for now
well hello I’m Emma from mmm English now
I have to admit that I’m a huge fan of
adjectives I mean I probably overuse
adjectives if I’m being completely
honest with you but they are such a
beautiful part of any language they
allow you to go into detail to add color
flavor and personality to all of your
thoughts and your ideas one of the most
noticeable differences between
intermediate level English speakers and
advanced ones is their use of adjectives
because yes you can add meaning to your
sentences by using simple adjectives
like happy or sad or nice or bored but
life can be so much more spectacular
than that carnot your English can be
much more colorful than that right using
a wider range of adjectives will help
you to be more expressive to show
emotions and feelings and to sound more
interesting when you use English so if
you need to refresh your memory about
how to use adjectives in English
sentences then check out that lesson up
there but right now I’ve got 10
adjectives for you and I’ve specifically
chosen them because they’re adjectives
that English learners often
mispronounced they’re all a little
tricky there’s a few silent letters some
strange vowel sounds different
pronunciation of the same letter in the
same word but don’t worry by the end of
this lesson you’re gonna have all of
these adjectives completely down you’re
going to be saying them much more
confidently and more often let’s start
with now if you haven’t heard this word
pronounced before it looks a little
tricky there is
two seas and two S’s of course you know
that in English a sea can sometimes be
pronounced in the same way as an s many
of my students they look at this word
and take a guess and say successful
which is a nice try I can see why you
would pronounce it that way but actually
each see in this word is pronounced
differently and that’s made clear when
you look at the phonemic script the
first C is pronounced as a sound at the
end of the first syllable and the second
C is pronounced as a sound at the start
of the second syllable success success
now the second syllable is the stressed
syllable in this word and that’s why you
hear it pronounced more strongly while
the first syllable is short and lower in
pitch success success the final syllable
is also unstressed full successful
successful the pronunciation is the same
throughout the word family success
successful successfully and as
frustrating as it is that the same
letter is pronounced differently in the
same word just accept it practice it
remember it successful successful so
successful is used when someone achieves
the result that they want they’re really
happy and they’re satisfied with the
result he’s a successful businessman
he’s a successful businessman we’ve had
quite a successful year so far we’ve had
quite a successful year so far anxious
are you anxious looking at this one it’s
a little tricky there are three
consonant sounds here together which
makes it quite challenging in the first
syllable the stressed syllable the
strong vowel sound ah is followed by the
continent and that consonant sound is
usually made by the letters M G like in
song so my mouth is open slightly when I
make this sound and the back of my
tongue is right up at the soft palate in
for the second syllable you’ll hear the
and the shh consonant sounds Shh so
you’re pushing that air through your
mouth to make the sound
make sure you exaggerate this sound
while you’re practicing pretend you’re
like a superhero fighting a monster Shh
and the following vowel sound will be
unstressed the weak
so this adjective is usually used to
describe a person and it’s to do with
their emotions or their feelings an
anxious person is worried or nervous
because they think that something bad
might happen I’m feeling really anxious
about my interview tomorrow really
anxious I’m feeling really anxious about
my interview tomorrow my friend doesn’t
like flying so he’s always quite anxious
when we go traveling quite anxious
he’s always quite anxious when we go
traveling valuable over the years as an
English teacher I’ve heard this word
pronounced in several different ways
and all of the problems coming from
those two
letters in the middle the first common
mistake is assuming that there are four
syllables but there’s not there’s only
three and the first syllable val is the
stressed syllable the strongest one but
the second syllable is quite tricky
there’s an extra consonant sound added
one that you can’t see in the written
word you you you valuable valuable
so this adjective is really handy to
know because it can be used in a few
different ways now you often hear this
adjective used for things like jewelry
or houses or cars to tell that something
is expensive or worth a lot of money my
grandmother gave me her sapphire brooch
I think it’s quite valuable though I’d
never sell it it’s quite valuable but
this is also an excellent adjective to
describe a person’s qualities and often
used in a professional context so
valuable can not necessarily be about
money but about how important or useful
someone is James is a really valuable
member of our team a valuable member of
our team that’s a valuable piece of
exponential now most of the
pronunciation problems with this
adjective relate to syllable stress
there are four syllables exponential the
third is the strongest though the first
one is also stressed the remaining two
syllables are unstressed so they reduce
down they become the schwa sound which
exponential can you hear how the two
weaker syllables fade into the
background exponential exponential this
adjective is used when something is
increasing or growing really quickly the
company has experienced exponential
growth over the last two years
exponential growth the company has
experienced exponential growth the
renewable energy market is growing at an
exponential rate at an exponential rate
it’s growing at an exponential rate
complex now in standard British English
there’s just one way to pronounce this
word with the stress on the first
syllable complex in American English
there is a difference between the
adjective complex and the now complex
but the real pronunciation challenge
here is the cluster of consonants that
are pronounced at the end the letter X
usually produces a sound that has two
which is what makes this sound difficult
two continents together is tough the
sound is produced right at the back of
the throat while the sound is made with
the tongue and the teeth at the front of
the mouth so really creating this sound
successfully is about switching between
so this adjective is used to describe
something that consists of many
different and connected parts that makes
it quite difficult to understand or
manage it’s a complex issue but we need
the relationship between the general
manager and the marketing team is quite
complex they’ve never really seen
eye-to-eye it’s quite complex rural the
ER and the all sounds in this word make
it a real challenge but there’s actually
a little variation between English
accents for this word which is really
common officially the correct
pronunciation is rural with a vowel
sound as the stressed syllable but I
want to share a little tip with you
because in Australia our pronunciation
of this word is much more relaxed
roo-roo
so if you’re having trouble pronouncing
this word put on an Australian accent
and say rural rural rural you can use
this adjective to describe
characteristics of the countryside
rather than the city so usually it’s
farming land or a small village in the
country so the opposite of rural is
urban which is characteristic of cities
and towns the government will help rural
communities affected by the floods rural
communities the government will help
rural communities people are moving to
rural areas to live healthier lifestyles
rural areas
it’s a bit of a tongue twister isn’t it
rural areas people are moving to rural
areas specific the stress is on the
middle syllable here and there are two
things to pay attention to with this
word one is the consonant cluster at the
start of the word the consonant sounds
and together so if you’re having some
trouble with this we’re going to go to
the gym for a minute and do a little
work out practicing pronunciation is
just like training at the gym we just
need to train your muscles in your mouth
to be more comfortable doing something a
little different and are both unvoiced
consonant sounds and the sound is made
by pushing air through your mouth so I
want you to slowly bring these sounds
together now you’re ready for your
workout take a deep breath and move back
and forth between these sounds really
if these consonant sounds are too
difficult for you to pronounce you need
to do this workout daily now the second
challenge with this word is the final
consonant sound the consonant at the end
make sure that you finish this word on
the continent sound specific don’t get
lazy and forget it it’s not specific
it’s specific and you can use it to
explain that something is really exact
or detailed there are some general
issues that I need to discuss with you
but there’s one specific issue that’s
quite urgent one specific issue there’s
one specific issue that’s quite urgent
if you have any specific questions about
the accommodation then please ask Sarah
specific questions if you have any
specific questions mischievous there are
a lot of vowel letters in this word
which makes it a little confusing to
work out how to pronounce each syllable
and which one is stressed the first
syllable is the strongest the others
relax for some reason this word is one
that native English speakers sometimes
get wrong as well you might hear people
say mischievious with four syllables but
that’s incorrect
there are only three syllables here and
the stress is on the first syllable
miss miss which means the second
syllable reduces a little the vowel
sound is short and fast mischief
mischief there’s also two difficult
consonant sounds here and you so with
both of these consonant sounds your lip
position is really important so I want
you to exaggerate the position of your
mouth while you’re practicing with me
just to make sure that you are a prep
your pronouncing and your producing the
correct sound so furch see how my lips
are really flared exaggerated
exaggerated and this sound is controlled
by my tongue in a similar way to the
sound the tip of my tongue but also my
tongue is tense all the way along the
sides here and they’re pushed up against
the inside of my top teeth so we move
through through the unstressed vowel
sound to mmm making sure that your top
teeth are touching your lower lip
mmm choo-choo this mischievous
mischievous mischievous now if you have
cheeky children in your life this could
be the perfect adjective to describe
them so usually it’s an adjective to
describe children but it’s okay to
describe adults with it sometimes or
even pets it describes someone who has
fun by being silly
and creating a disruption but not in a
negative way not in a way that’s really
annoying or that really harms anyone
it’s kind of a cute or funny attribute I
was quite a mischievous child a
mischievous child I was quite a
mischievous child there are a few
mischievous children in the classroom
mischievous children there are a few
mischievous children detrimental now
this is a wonderful descriptive
adjective that means harmful or damaging
in some way so looking at this word it’s
the third syllable that is the strongest
and just like exponential the first
syllable also has a secondary stress so
we can hear that one clearly as well
which means that the other to reduce
they’re true men too detrimental but the
second syllable is the most difficult
here because of the consonant cluster a
true with an unstressed vowel sound tree
so it’s like the noun tree but with a
shorter weaker vowel sound tree tree
dead tree detrimental so as I said the
adjective detrimental suggests that
something is creating a negative effect
it’s hard
full or it’s damaging in some way it had
a detrimental effect on the company’s
growth a detrimental effect the
infection was detrimental to our
recovery
it was detrimental the infection was
detrimental to her recovery comfortable
I’ve talked about this adjectives before
in another pronunciation lesson but it’s
so common and it’s so often
mispronounced that it had to be included
in this lesson as well the correct
pronunciation of this word uses only
three syllables which means that this
vowel is completely silent Kumpf to fool
so notice that the first syllable is the
stressed one and the following syllables
reduce down to the schwa sound come to
full now you may hear native speakers
using a tiny tiny tiny extra syllable
and say comfortable which is fine too
it’s just a difference in accent or
dialect and you may think that it’s
easier to pronounce this word with four
syllables particularly if it’s difficult
for you to pronounce the and consonant
sounds together of course people are
going to understand you whatever you say
but please please please make sure that
that syllable is super super tiny fit
should come fit comfortable comfortable
so hear how short and quick those schwa
sounds are comfortable for a bull for a
bull like I said comfortable is the more
common pronunciation so I recommend that
you practice using that one I’m not
comfortable doing that I’m not
comfortable
I’m not comfortable doing that
are you comfortable with the decision
are you comfortable
are you comfortable with the decision
well that’s it 10 tricky English
adjectives that English learners often
mispronounced so I hope that this was a
useful lesson for you remember that if
you haven’t subscribed yet to the
English Channel please do it you just
need to hit that red button right down
there you can turn on the notifications
so that I notify you when I’ve got a new
lesson ready but if you are ready right
now to keep practicing with another
lesson then check out these ones right
here thanks for watching today and I’ll
see you for another English lesson next week bye for now
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