Favourite things

This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. We focus on the part of the internet that most people don't know about. It's called the dark web. Undercover. Webb. From the BBC World. Secrets. Yeah. The nicest thing in my house, um Well it has to be my guitar, doesn't it? Um my guitar is very nice to me. I'm not sure if anybody else thinks it is a teeny tiny um snow globe uh magnet from Copenhagen. It's spherical uh glass. And I'm Phil. We've just heard of and Neil talking The noisy thing.

Today we're going to look at how to describe things using adjectives and adjective phrases. Now you can read along with this podcast using the transcript on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. So, Phil, what's the nicest thing in your house? Um I've just bought a really big lamp. It's orange, it's metal, it's about one meter eighty high and it looks like a massive desk lamp. Wow, one meter eighty? That's huge.

I think the nicest thing in my house is also new or new to me. Uh I now have a a piano. Um it's quite old um and it's quite big. Um it used to be in my parents' house but now I have it, which is exciting. Okay, now let's listen to Becca and Neil talking about the nicest things they have in their houses. Listen and notice how they describe things. What words and phrases do they use? I've got a couple of guitars. I'll talk about my acoustic guitar.

It looks like uh just an ordinary guitar. But I like the colour. It's uh kind of sunburst colour, which means it's dark around the edges and it gets lighter as it goes into the middle. So um yeah, it's it's a dark brown traditional looking guitar. The nicest thing in my house, I would choose one of my magnets from my collection. Uh I collect magnets when I travel around. Um, and I think the nicest one that I own Uh it's this teeny tiny um snow globe uh magnet from copenhagen. It's spherical.

uh glass and you shake it up and it looks like it's snowing on the statue of the little mermaid that you can find at the port in Copenhagen. So I heard Neil say the nicest item in his house is a dark brown, traditional looking guitar. And I heard Becca say that her favourite fridge magnet is spherical glass.

And you can shake it up and it looks like it's snowing. Okay. So we've got some adjectives and we've got at least one adjective phrase. You know who could tell us more about using these? Of course I do. I think I can hear her music.

Right, let's take a long, hard look at adjectives. Yes, we know they're describing words, but what else can you say about them? Okay, so when you're describing something, often one adjective on its own just isn't enough. We can put a few of them together. And when we do, there's usually an order that they go in. Listen to Neil and Becca again. Yeah, it's it's a dark, brown, traditional looking guitar.

It's spherical uh glass and you shake it up and it looks like it's snowing on the statue of the little mermaid that you can find at the port. The thing with adjectives is that we tend to use them in a particular order. We tend to say the shape of something before the material, like Becca does. It's spherical, uh glass.

Spherical, that's a round shape, comes before glass, which is a material. Now colour comes after shape, but it usually comes before the type of something. That's why Neil said this. Yeah, it's it's a dark brown, traditional looking guitar. The colour, dark brown, came before the type of guitar, a traditional looking one.

So as a general rule, we'd usually put our opinion of something first, then the size or shape, then colour, then where it's from, what it's made of, and then an adjective about purpose. The order can vary a bit, and it's unusual to use that many adjectives. What's useful to remember is that an adjective with a more general meaning, like our opinion about something, tends to go before something more specific, like the colour of something.

Opinions tend to come before descriptions. For example, it's a beautiful little house. Beautiful's my opinion, little is the description. Is there anything else we should think about for making our descriptions more detailed? Well, you don't just need to use single words, you can use compound adjectives that are made of more than one word, as well as adjective phrases. It's a dark, brown, traditional looking guitar.

Compound adjectives are made of more than one word. Neil said that his guitar was traditional looking. That's a compound adjective. We can also have adjective phrases in the Listen to Neil talking about his guitar again. It's a kind of sunburst colour, which means it's dark around the edges and it gets lighter as it goes into the middle. Neil didn't just say that his guitar is dark, it's dark around the edges.

Adjective phrases are phrases that contain an adjective but give more information. Thanks, Georgie. I think we all know a lot more about adjectives now and about Neil's guitar. Glad I could help. See you next time.

Okay Pippa, let's play a game to practice what we've learned. I'm gonna describe something in my house and you have to make just one sentence using adjectives. And for those of you listening to this, see if you can make the sentence before Pippa does. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. My favourite piece of furniture is a sofa. It's orange. It's a bit worn and it's made of fabric.

A slightly worn orange fabric sofa. Yes, that's right. My favourite piece of clothing is a jumper. It's blue and it's very warm. A warm blue jumper. Yes, perfect. And finally, the thing I like most in my living room is a record player. Japanese, it's made of plastic, and it's yellow. It looks interesting. Okay. An interesting looking yellow plastic Japanese record player. That's right. Excellent. Your house. Let us know by emailing us at learningenglish.

sounds before description when we're using adjectives. Bye for now. We focus on the part of the internet that most people don't know about. It's called the dark web. Undercover. US special agents are on a mission. Move in now. From the BBC World. World of Secrets. BBC Podcasts.