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Welcome

Hello and welcome to Learn English Vocabulary. My name is Jack and I’m making this podcast for you to learn or revise English vocabulary. 

These podcasts are graded from A2 which is around lower intermediate all the way to C2 which is advanced. 

I hope you find these  podcasts useful. If you do, please leave me a rating and review as this will help other learners find these podcasts.  

Introduction

This podcast is B2 which means that the vocabulary I am going to present should be suitable for an upper intermediate student. The vocabulary this time is extreme adjectives. I’m going to talk about 6 extreme adjectives.  

For each adjective, I’ll also suggest what I think is the most commonly used intensifier. Before I start, I’ll remind you that extreme adjectives are called extreme because they can’t be graded. So you can’t use a bit or very in front of these words. For example: the adjective hot is not extreme. You can feel a bit hot. Or you could say that in Spain in the summer, it’s very hot. If you use the extreme adjective boiling which means very very hot, you can’t say very boiling or a bit boiling. You’re boiling or you are not boiling. However, for emphasis, you can use really. It’s really boiling.

The adjectives I’m going to talk about are: gorgeous, hideous, furious, hilarious, fascinating and tedious. I’ve chosen these adjectives because I like them. There are lots more extreme adjectives and I’ll talk about them in the future. 

Gorgeous

Let’s get started with gorgeous. This means very beautiful. You can use it to describe a person and it’s not related to gender; men and women are described as gorgeous. You can use it to talk about clothes or design and even food. You can say that something is gorgeous, or something looks gorgeous. And it’s quite common to imagine gorgeous things when people are telling you a story – you can say that sounds gorgeous. The most common intensifier is really, but you can also describe a person as drop-dead gorgeous. A quick google revealed that lots of people think that Margot Robbie is drop-dead gorgeous.

Hideous

The next adjective is hideous. This means very very ugly. It’s generally used as an adjective to talk about monsters and beasts. One common collocation that surprised me a little is a hideous grin – meaning a really horrible evil smile. In this case, the ugliness is in the intention and not the face. I have heard it used to talk about clothes and interior design. If you are talking about monsters and beasts, the best intensifier to use would be really. If you are talking about clothes or decorations, I think completely is the best intensifier. The monster was really hideous. Those curtains are completely hideous.

Hilarious

Next is hilarious. This means very funny. You can use this to talk about a joke or an anecdote or story and also about a person if they are good at making people laugh. My children are watching a TV programme that they think is absolutely hilarious – they are laughing their heads off. I don’t think that there’s one intensifier that goes with hilarious, you can be really hilarious, completely hilarious or absolutely hilarious.

Furious

Furious means very very angry. I like this word because fury has a really strong meaning and so furious feels like a powerful word. I was furious when I heard the news. An interesting intensifier that you can use with furious is simply. She was simply furious when he told her. However, I think that really and absolutely are more commonly used.

Fascinating 

Fascinating means very very interesting. The best use of this word is as an exclamation when you find out something amazing. Did you know that some sharks can live up to 500 years? Fascinating! I love learning about the natural world and find the subject endlessly fascinating. Though, my family is less interested so probably use the word fascinating in a sarcastic way most of the time. You can use endlessly fascinating to talk about topics and really and absolutely as intensifiers.

Tedious

The last word I’m going to talk about is tedious. This is the opposite of fascinating. It means really really boring. The most commonly used intensifiers are incredibly and extremely. I think that American Football is incredibly tedious. I don’t really, I just chose that as an example. Long meetings can be extremely tedious. I hope that this podcast isn’t tedious. 

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If you have enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a comment or a review and don’t forget that you can read the transcript for this podcast and complete some language activities on LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk.

Thanks for listening.

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