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Episode 271 Common Mistakes Adjectives Use

Disclaimer

I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today, we will talk about common mistakes and we will focus on adjectives and how we use adjectives. So we will have some sentences with mistakes in them, and then I will help you. Spot and fix those mistakes. And of course, we will talk about why the mistake and how we can fix those.

[00:00:31] So without further ado, let’s start with some sentences where we have common mistakes, where we need to fix. And remember the focus is on adjectives. So I’ll start with these two sentences and I want you to think about them and maybe pause the episode and try to figure them out on your own before you listen to the explanation that I will give you.

[00:00:52] So the first sentence is I answered her as casual as I could. And the second sentence, when I first got the camera, it worked perfect. So what is wrong with these two sentences? Obviously the mistake is in the adjective. So think about it. What do you think. Well, the problem here is that when we want to say how we normally use an adverb, so we hear say casually, not casual now the adjective.

[00:01:21] And we say, for example, perfectly. Not perfect. For example, when we want to talk about how she speaks English, we say she speaks English fluently. We are describing a verb and adverb adds a detail to the meaning of a verb, not an adjective, or when we say he always listens patiently to what you say. So patient CLI not patient.

[00:01:48] I don’t use the adjective in this case, or when I say it’s rained heavily all day. So heavily the adverb, not the adjective, but not however that after a linking verb, we use an adjective. We say, for example, she was, or she looked or she stayed very calm, not calmly in this case. But that is only after linking verbs, not after regular verbs.

[00:02:13] So coming back to these two sentences, we started with, we said, I answered her as casual as I could. And here I am describing the way I answered her. So I should use an adverb instead of adjective. So we should say I answered her as casually as I could. And the second one we said, when I first got the camera, it worked perfect, but here perfect is an adjective.

[00:02:41] And I’m talking about how it worked. So I should use an adverb, I should say. When I first got the camera, it worked perfectly. So that was our first set of mistakes. Let’s move on to talk about the second problem or the second common mistake for today. Let’s take a look at these examples. It was an unusual, difficult question.

[00:03:04] Make sure that the spray is environmental friendly. So here, what do you think the problem is in these two sentences? Now the problem is again the same where using an adjective where we should use an adverb instead. And why is that? We don’t have a verb we’re describing here in the first one. We said it was an unusual, difficult question and.

[00:03:27] We said before with linking verb and verb to be happens to be one of them, we can use adjectives, right? Yes. But here I am using unusual to describe another adjective. So I cannot use an adjective to describe an adjective. I need to use an adverb to modify or to describe an adjective. So to modify an adjective, like difficult and friendly in our examples.

[00:03:55] We use an adverb. So we should say, instead of it was an unusual, difficult question, we should say it was an unusually difficult question. And in the second example, make sure that the spray is environmental friendly. That’s wrong. We should say environmentally friendly. So. Here we use an adverb to describe an adjective or the correct term to modify an adjective.

[00:04:24] Now let’s move on to the third common mistake we have for today. Let’s take a look at these two examples. World. Peace is a very common debated subject. These severe handicap children need special help. So it is a similar problem to be honest. And it shouldn’t be difficult by now for you to pinpoint the problem and fix it.

[00:04:46] Have you figured it out yet? Let’s see, to modify a participant used as an adjective, like in our examples here, debated and handicapped, we use an adverb. So for example, we say frequently discussed proposal. Frequently discussed, discussed here is the participant that we use as an adjective, or we say, for example, a badly managed company.

[00:05:12] So managed here is the participant that we use as an adjective. And if we want to modify the spotter supple, we use an adverb, not an adjective would say a badly managed company or poorly ventilated rooms or an amazingly boring lecture. I hope this is not an amazingly boring episode, but the point is, if you want to describe an amazingly boring something, it’s an amazing glee, boring, not amazing, boring, not an adjective to describe another adjective, even if this adjective is a part of supple, but we use it as an adjective.

[00:05:50] So it’s just like the common mistake we figured out earlier. So going back to our sentences, we can’t say world peace is a very common. Debated subject. We should see a very commonly debated subject or these severe handicap children need special help. It’s not severe handicap. It’s severely handicapped children need special help.

[00:06:14] And now we will talk about. Another point. And that is when we use adjectives as nouns. But before we do that, let me remind you that there is a link in the description of this episode that will take you to our website, English plus podcast.com. You will go there and you will find a custom post for this episode where you will have everything you need to practice the things you’re learning here, and to have everything you need to improve your English.

[00:06:41] Every post is different based on the topic of the post. So sometimes we have a big PDF that you can download and practice. Sometimes we have other interactive activities. It depends on the topic. So take the link, go to our website and improve your English ticket to the next level. And if you like the content we’re creating and you would like to support us, you can take the second link.

[00:07:04] You can find in the description and go to our Patreon page and become our patron support English plus podcast and help us create more of the content you like and reach more and more people. Now, that being said, let’s move back to our episode and talk about some common mistakes we make when we use adjectives.

[00:07:24] As now, let’s take a look at this example. She has spent most of her life helping the bores. What’s wrong with that. Now, obviously you can see that or is an adjective and I’m using it as a noun. I said help the Poor’s or helping the Poor’s what’s wrong with that? Well, instead of saying poor people, we often say the poor using the adjective as a noun.

[00:07:50] Now adjectives used as nouns and EDD forms used as nouns do not take a plural ending. We say, for example, he is collecting money for the blind or the injured have been taken to hospital. But we don’t say the blinds or the injured, maybe the injured sounds weird. And you would never put an S after an ed, but for the blind or the poor, you might be tempted to add an S because you’re talking about all poor people or all blind people.

[00:08:23] And Blake here in the injured. We’re talking about all the people injured in this accident, for example. So it is plural and that’s true. The meaning is plural, but it cannot be in plural. It cannot take a plural form, even if it means plural. So here coming back, the mistake is obvious. She has spent most of her life helping the Poor’s.

[00:08:46] Well, I know. And you know, by now that yes, she’s talking about the poor people. She’s talking about plural, but we cannot put an S to this adjective when we want to use it as a noun, even if we mean plural by it. So we should say she has spent most of her life helping the poor, not the poor. And now let’s take a look at two more examples.

[00:09:08] His younger sister is a disabled and by acting as an insane, he managed to escape the death penalty. So what is wrong with that? Well, here again, as you can see, we are using those adjectives, disabled and insane as nouns, but is it okay to do that? Or is it okay to use it the way we use it in singular with a and N.

[00:09:34] Maybe that’s the problem. Some adjectives are used as nouns. Like we said, the poor, the blind, the insane, and some past participles are used as nouns, like the retired, the disabled, the uneducated, and these words are nearly, always used with the, and refer to all the members to a class or group. Now we say, for example, why do the deaf receive such little sympathy?

[00:10:01] And here, when we say the deaf, we mean all deaf people. And when we say, for example, the injured were taken to hospital, and that means all the people who were injured. But we cannot use them with determiners that have a singular meaning like a and another or each. And that is the problem. And that’s the common mistake we had in those two sentences.

[00:10:24] I told you about, so here we cannot say his younger sister is disabled. We can say his younger sister is disabled. We can use it as an adjective here. We cannot say she is a disabled. And we cannot say, obviously she is the disabled because she is not all the disabled people in the world. Right. And the same goes for the second one.

[00:10:44] We cannot say by acting as an insane, he managed to escape the death penalty. That doesn’t work. We cannot use determiners with singular, meaning we’re going to say an insane in this case. We can say by the way, an insane person. Okay. Because here N goes for person, not for insane. So here, what should we do to fix the problem or fix the mistake here?

[00:11:05] We should say by acting insane, he managed to escape the death penalty, not by acting as an insane by acting insane. So with that being said, that will be everything I wanted to share with you today. I hope you learned something new and I hope you learn something that will enable you to avoid these common mistakes in your own speaking and writing.

[00:11:25] Now, I will have to remind you again, that you have a link that will take you to our website English plus podcast.com, where you will have a chance to practice the things you’re learning here and there. There’s also another link. If you would like to support us on Patreon. You can take the link and become our patron on Patreon.

[00:11:42] With that being said, this is your host, Danny. I would like to thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcast. I will see you next time.