12 Confusing English Adjectives

Eager or Anxious? Effective or Efficient? Sensible or Sensitive? Which words describe you? Upgrade your English right now by learning the exact meaning of 12 commonly confused English adjectives, including envious and jealous, famous and infamous, advance and advanced, and more. Speak correctly and confidently – at a meeting or a party, on Zoom or an exam, in a boardroom or a classroom. You can do it! https://www.engvid.com/12-confusing-english-adjectives/

Correct even more common English mistakes with my online course: https://10.bexenglish.com
Next, watch:
12 Confusing English Nouns https://youtu.be/Cy1mv5OVNZU
12 Confusing English Verbs https://youtu.be/TIUuTNoLPWE

In this lesson:
0:00 12 Confusing Adjectives in English
0:59 "Eager" or "anxious"?
2:21 "Advance" or "advanced"?
3:57 "Famous" or "infamous"?
5:33 "Envious" or "jealous"?
7:14 "Effective" or "efficient"?
8:49 "Sensitive" or "sensible"?
10:31 Review
11:28 Quiz

TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. I'm Rebecca. Today, you'll learn the difference between twelve confusing adjectives, which are actually six pairs of adjectives, okay? Some of them sound the same, some of them look the same, however, they're not the same, okay? So, let's make sure that you understand the difference between these twelve very commonly used adjectives. Now, if you enjoy this kind of lesson, then please make sure to also check out my online course. I'll give you a link to it below. There, we correct over 160 errors, not only in spelling, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, everything, okay? So, if you're interested, please feel free to check that. In the meantime, let's get started with our twelve adjectives for today.

So, I'm going to read you a sentence, and there are two possibilities. So, think about it. If you want to pause the video, you can do that. If not, just come along with me. Number one. Do we say, "The children are eager to open their gifts", or do we say, "The children are anxious to open their gifts"? Which is the right adjective? Okay. So, the correct one here would be the first one, "eager". So, what is the difference between "eager" and "anxious"? "Eager" is something positive. When you want to do something and it's something good, it's something you're looking forward to, you're really happy to do that. And "anxious" is when something's going to happen and you're feeling nervous and scared and worried, maybe before an interview or an exam or something like that. But this is not something to feel scared of or nervous about. "The children are really happy to open their gift." They're waiting to do that. Or you might be eager to meet someone, an old friend who you haven't seen in a long time. Okay? So, whenever it's about something good, then we say, "I'm eager to do something", and if you're nervous or scared, then you can say that somebody is feeling anxious about something. Alright? Got it? Good.

Next, number two. "This course is for advanced students." Or, "This course is for advanced students." A subtle difference, small difference, but a really important difference. Do you know which one is right? So, the correct answer is this one. Okay? And I can't tell you how many places this mistake is made. Make sure you're not making this mistake. There's a huge difference. So, the correct answer we said is "advanced", right? So, like we have beginner, intermediate, and advanced level students, right? So, "advanced" with the "d" is talking about the higher level students or the higher level course, correct? "Advanced" just means - the other word "advanced" just means in - before, before you have to do something. So, for example, you have to pay in advance. You have to pay before you receive delivery, for example, right? So, that is meaning before something happens, and this is talking about a level of something. Advanced technology, advanced courses, advanced programs, alright? So, make sure you get this right because a lot of people are making mistakes with that, so please be really careful. They sound almost the same. The spelling makes a huge difference, okay?

Number three. Do we say, "He's a famous, well-respected scientist", or do we say, "He's an infamous, well-respected scientist"? You might have never heard this word before, right? It actually exists in English. What do you think is the right answer here? So, actually, the answer is this, but let me start by explaining what "infamous" and "famous" mean. "Famous" just means well-known, okay? In general. A lot of people know that person, okay, or that place or whatever. Usually, here, we're talking about people, but "infamous" means that you're well-known for doing something bad, something really bad, usually. So, here, we said - we know it's famous and not infamous because we said that this scientist was also well-respected. He's highly regarded. So, he's a famous, well-respected scientist. He's well-known by a lot of people for good things that he or she has done. […]