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Well hello! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
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Now I have to admit that I'm a huge fan of adjectives.
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I mean, I probably overuse adjectives
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if I'm being completely honest with you,
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but they are such a beautiful part of any language.
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They allow you to go into detail, to add colour, flavour
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and personality to all of your thoughts and your ideas.
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One of the most noticeable differences between
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intermediate level English speakers and advanced ones
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is their use of adjectives.
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Because yes, you can add meaning to your sentences
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by using simple adjectives
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like 'happy' or 'sad' or 'nice' or 'bored'
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but life can be so much more
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spectacular than that, can't it?
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Your English can be much more colourful than that,
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right?
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Using a wider range of adjectives will help you to
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be more expressive, to show emotions and feelings
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and to sound more interesting when you use English.
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So if you need to refresh your memory about
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how to use adjectives in English sentences,
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then check out that lesson up there.
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But right now, I've got ten adjectives for you
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and I've specifically chosen them
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because they're adjectives that English learners
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often mispronounce.
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They're all a little tricky.
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There's a few silent letters, some strange vowel sounds,
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different pronunciation of the same letter
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in the same word.
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But don't worry!
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By the end of this lesson, you're going to have
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all of these adjectives completely down!
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You're going to be saying them much more confidently
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and more often.
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Let's start with...
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Now if you haven't heard this word pronounced before,
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it looks a little tricky.
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There's two C's and two S's.
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Of course, you know that in English, a C can sometimes
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be pronounced in the same way as an S.
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Many of my students,
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they look at this word and take a guess and say
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"sussessful"
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which is a nice try, I can see why
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you would pronounce it that way but actually,
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each C in this word is pronounced differently
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and that's made clear
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when you look at the phonemic script.
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The first C is pronounced as a /k/ sound
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at the end of the first syllable
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and the second C is pronounced as a
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/s/ sound at the start of the second syllable.
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Now the second syllable is the stressed
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syllable in this word and that's why you hear it
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pronounced more strongly
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while the first syllable is short and lower in pitch.
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The final syllable is also unstressed.
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Successful.
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The pronunciation is the same
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throughout the word family. Success, successful,
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successfully.
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And as frustrating as it is, that the same letter
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is pronounced differently in the same word,
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just accept it, practise it, remember it.
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Successful.
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So 'successful' is used when someone achieves
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the result that they want.
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They're really happy and they're satisfied with the result.
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He's a successful businessman.
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We've had quite a successful year so far.
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Anxious. Are you anxious looking at this one?
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It's a little tricky!
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There are three consonant sounds here together
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which makes it quite challenging.
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In the first syllable, the stressed syllable,
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the strong vowel sound A
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is followed by the /ŋ/ consonant.
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And that consonant sound is usually made by the letters
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-ng like in 'song'.
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So my mouth is open slightly when I make this sound
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and the back of my tongue is right up at the soft palate
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in the back of my mouth.
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For the second syllable, you'll hear the /k/
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and the /ʃ/ consonant sounds.
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So you're pushing that air through your mouth
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to make the sound /kʃ/
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Make sure you exaggerate this sound
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while you're practising.
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Pretend you're like a superhero fighting a monster.
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And the following vowel sound will be unstressed,
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the weak schwa sound /ə/
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Anxious.
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So this adjective is usually used to describe a person
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and it's to do with their emotions or their feelings.
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An anxious person is worried or nervous because
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they think that something bad might happen.
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I'm feeling really anxious about my interview tomorrow.
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My friend doesn't like flying so he's always
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quite anxious when we go travelling.
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Valuable.
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Over the years as an English teacher,
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I've heard this word pronounced in several
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different ways and all of the problems coming from
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those two vowel letters in the middle.
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The first common mistake is assuming that there are
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four syllables but there's not, there's only three.
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And the first syllable 'val' is the stressed syllable
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the strongest one.
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But the second syllable is quite tricky.
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There's an extra consonant sound added,
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one that you can't see in the written word.
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Valuable.
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So this adjective is really handy to know
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because it can be used in a few different ways.
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Now you often hear this adjective used for things like
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jewellery or houses or cars
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to tell that something is expensive
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or worth a lot of money.
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My grandmother gave me her sapphire brooch.
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I think it's quite valuable, though I'd never sell it.
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It's quite valuable.
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But this is also an excellent adjective to describe
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a person's qualities
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and often used in a professional context.
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So 'valuable' can not necessarily be about money
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but about how important or useful someone is.
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James is a really valuable member of our team.
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That's a valuable piece of advice. Thanks.
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Exponential.
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Now most of the pronunciation problems with this
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adjective relate to syllable stress.
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There are four syllables.
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The third is the strongest,
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though the first one is also stressed.
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The remaining two syllables are unstressed
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so they reduce down, they become the schwa sound
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which is always short and low in pitch.
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Can you hear how the two weaker syllables
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fade into the background?
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Exponential.
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This adjective is used when something is increasing
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or growing really quickly.
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The company has experienced exponential growth
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over the last two years.
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The renewable energy market is growing
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at an exponential rate.
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Complex. Now in standard British English,
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there's just one way to pronounce this word
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with the stress on the first syllable.
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Complex.
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In American English, there is a difference between
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the adjective 'complex'
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and the noun 'complex'.
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But the real pronunciation challenge here
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is the cluster of consonants that are pronounced
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at the end.
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The letter X usually produces a sound that has
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two consonant sounds pushed together,
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/k/ and /s/
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which is what makes this sound difficult.
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Two consonants together is tough.
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The sound is produced right at the back of the throat
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while the sound is made with the tongue and the teeth
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at the front of the mouth.
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So really, creating this sound successfully is about
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switching between these two these sounds smoothly.
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So this adjective is used to describe something
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that consists of many different and connected parts
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that makes it quite difficult to understand or manage.
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It's a complex issue but we need to find a solution.
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The relationship between the general manager
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and the marketing team is quite complex .
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They've never really seen eye-to-eye.
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Rural.
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The /r/ and the /l/
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sounds in this word make it a real challenge
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but there's actually a little variation
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between English accents for this word
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which is really common.
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Officially, the correct pronunciation is 'rural' with a /ʊə/
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vowel sound as the stressed syllable.
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But I want to share a little tip with you because
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in Australia, our pronunciation of this word is
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much more relaxed.
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So if you're having trouble pronouncing this word,
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put on an Australian accent and say 'rural'.
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You can use this adjective to describe characteristics
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of the countryside rather than the city.
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So usually it's
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farming land or a small village in the country.
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So the opposite of rural is 'urban'
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which is characteristic of cities and towns.
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The government will help rural communities
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affected by the floods.
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People are moving to rural areas
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to live healthier lifestyles.
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It's a bit of a tongue twister, isn't it?
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Rural areas.
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Specific.
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The stress is on the middle syllable here and there are
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two things to pay attention to with this word.
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One is the consonant cluster at the start of the word.
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The consonant sounds
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/s/ and /p/ together.
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So if you're having some trouble with this,
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we're going to go to the gym for a minute
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and do a little workout.
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Practising pronunciation is just like training at the gym.
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We just need to train your muscles in your mouth to be
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more comfortable doing something a little different.
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/s/ and /p/ are both unvoiced consonant sounds
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and the sound is made by pushing air
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through your mouth.
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So I want you to slowly bring these sounds together.
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Now are you ready for your workout?
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Take a deep breath and move back and forth
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between these sounds really quickly, ready?
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If these consonant sounds are too difficult
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for you to pronounce, you need to do this workout daily.
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Now the second challenge with this word is
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the final consonant sound - the consonant at the end.
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Make sure that you finish this word
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on the consonant sound.
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Don't get lazy and forget it. It's not 'specifi'
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It's 'specific'.
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And you can use it to explain that something is really
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exact or detailed.
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There are some general issues
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that I need to discuss with you
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but there's one specific issue that's quite urgent.
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If you have any specific questions about
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the accommodation, then please ask Sarah.
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Mischievous.
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There are a lot of vowel letters in this word
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which makes it a little confusing to work out
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how to pronounce each syllable
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and which one is stressed.
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The first syllable is the strongest, the others relax.
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For some reason this word is one
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that native English speakers
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sometimes get wrong as well. You might hear people
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say 'mischievous' with four syllables
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but that's incorrect. There are only three syllables here
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and the stress is on the first syllable /ˈmɪs/
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which means the second syllable reduces a little,
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the vowel sound is short and fast.
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There's also two difficult consonant sounds here 'ch' and /v/
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So with both of these consonant sounds,
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your lip position is really important
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so I want you to exaggerate the position of your mouth
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while you're practising with me just to make sure