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My 8 Favourite English Adjectives

Hello! This is Emma from mmmEnglish! In this lesson, I want to share some of my favourite English adjectives with you, specifically, adjectives that are used to describe people. Now, saying that someone is nice or friendly is good but adjectives like ‘incredible’, ‘generous’ or ‘inspiring’ are just so much stronger and more meaningful. To be expressive and to show emotion and feeling and to sound more interesting when you’re speaking English, you need to start pushing your vocabulary further.

Now, this lesson is sponsored by the mmmEnglish imitation lessons and later on I’m going to tell you how you can build your vocabulary and your speaking skills to describe people using these lessons up here. Okay, so you already know what an adjective is - there are lots of them in English! They’re used to describe or to give more information about a noun. They’re also a really exciting and interesting part of the language. They help you to be really expressive, to add colour and emotion to your English.

Now, before we start let me just remind you about where these adjectives should go in an English sentence, because this is one of the most common mistakes that English learners make. In English, you need to use your adjectives like this: ‘a’ or ‘an’ with the adjective followed by the noun. We can also use adjectives with this structure: a noun or a pronoun with the be verb and the adjective. So, in this lesson I’m going to share eight of my favourite adjectives with you to help you build your vocabulary for describing people.

Now, I’m including positive and negative adjectives here and lots of them can be used to describe places and things too but the focus in this lesson is on describing people. I’ll link to another lesson about describing places and things at the end of this lesson. So, let’s start with ‘exceptional’. Say it with me: exceptional. Notice where the stress is there. On the second syllable, exceptional.

The stress is always important with adjectives because pushing down on that stress syllable will help you to emphasise it and make the meaning even stronger. When someone’s exceptional they’re much greater or much better than usual, especially when you’re talking about their skills or their intelligence. So, it’s a much stronger way of saying that someone is good! She is an exceptional student. Tom is an exceptional lawyer. We highly recommend him. They are exceptional musicians. I’d love to see them play again. Now, a synonym for exceptional is remarkable. It has the same strong meaning. So, now you’ve got two extra adjectives to use!

Exceptional, remarkable. What about ‘aggressive’? Now, this adjective definitely describes negative behaviour, someone’s negative behaviour. So, when someone is being angry or rude and they’re doing it in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable then this is a good adjective to use. Now, aggressive can be physical, like someone wants to hit you or hurt you. Or, they could be arguing with you and being angry or rude with their words. Sarah’s colleague can be a bit aggressive, don’t you think? Responsible. Responsible. Responsible. Hear how those unstressed syllables reduce down? Now, this adjective can be used in a few different ways. A responsible person is someone who can be trusted to do the right thing. They’re reliable and sensible.

She’s very responsible for an eight year old. But it can also mean that someone is in charge of making something happen or making sure that people are looked after. Ben is responsible for that project. You’ll have to ask him. Or, Mrs Brown is responsible for 28 children in her classroom. Generous. Generous. Now, being generous is about giving more than what’s expected. People can be generous with money or with gifts but they can also be generous with their time and assistance. It’s not just about cash! Thank you for the tickets. You’re so generous.

He’s very generous with his time, he’ll help you if you need it. She gave some very generous donations to several charities. Ohh… Independent, independent, independent. An independent person doesn’t rely on others for money or help. They prefer to do things on their own, in their own way. So, you can use it to describe children; Tom is a very independent boy. He likes to do everything on his own. She’s a fiercely independent woman. He was thrilled that he was finally financially independent. Sophisticated. Sophisticated. Say it with me!

Sophisticated. Now, a sophisticated person is someone who understands and is a part of the modern world. They’re often very up-to-date with the latest trends in culture and fashion and the arts. Sophisticated people tend to be pretty cool people! Her daughter is very sophisticated. The public is becoming more sophisticated when it comes to drinking coffee. Intelligent. Intelligent. Intelligent. Now, you probably know this adjective already but I’ve included it because I want you to start using it more! It’s a synonym of smart or clever but it’s just a more sophisticated way of saying it!

It means that someone is good at thinking quickly and clearly and understanding complex ideas. Paul is a very intelligent guy. Sarah’s the most intelligent person on our team. Valuable. Valuable. Notice this ‘u’ here, when I pronounce this word. Say it with me. There is a /j/ sound here. It’s not val-oo-ble or val-oo-ua-ble, it’s valuable.

Now, you often hear this adjective being used for things like jewellery or cars or houses, to tell us that something costs a lot of money or it’s important to someone but it’s also an excellent adjective for a person and it’s often used in a professional context like at work or at your job.

So, valuable in this context is not necessarily about money but about how useful a person is. Crystal and Yana are both valuable members of my team. Thanks to our valuable volunteers who donate their time every year. Can you think of someone who’s valuable, at your job or at school? Anyway, they are my favourite adjectives for describing people.