Helping English language learners
“Incredible” and “incredulous” are similar words that have different meanings. They are often confused, even by native speakers of English. “Incredible” means that something is unbelievable. “Incredulous” means that someone doesn’t believe something. Examples:...
“Thick-skinned” is an English idiom used about someone who is not easily upset or insulted: “I don’t mind you criticising me. I’m very thick-skinned”. “It’s all right; she won’t feel insulted. She’s quite thick-skinned”....
“Precarious” is an adjective meaning dangerous. It is usually used about a particular situation. If I am walking in the middle of a busy road, I am in a precarious situation. If I only...
An adjectival clause (sometimes called a relative clause) is a clause that modifies (or ‘qualifies’) a noun. As with all clauses it must contain a subject and a verb. Examples: The man, who was...
Adjective phrases (sometimes called adjectival phrases) are phrases that do the work of an adjective. The main word in an adjective is usually an adjective. The words of an adjective phrase join together to...
Adjectives that derive from a proper noun have an initial capital letter. Examples: The English language An African country This Russian girl A Parisian cafe The Freudian theory
Adjectives usually appear immediately before a noun. Examples: A large table. Daniel’s blue book. Her new clothes. The thirsty horse. These are called attributive adjectives. They tell us about the attributes of something. Sometimes...
An adjective adds more information about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives are sometimes called ‘describing words’. More technically, an adjective is a word that ‘modifies’ or ‘qualifies’ a noun or pronoun. Examples: An old...
‘Excellent at’ is probably more common than ‘excellent in’: ‘She is excellent at English’. But ‘excellent in’ can often be used instead: ‘She is excellent in English’ is acceptable but doesn’t sound as good....
Historical is used to refer to things from or about the past. Historic is used to refer to things that are important or significant. ‘Any past event is historical, but only the most memorable...