Marked and unmarked Adjectives of measurement

Adjectives are one of the fundamental pieces of grammar in the English language, and surely you must be thinking that you have mastered them by now. However, adjectives can come in many different forms. In this blog post, we will be discussing some adjectives of measurement, specifically marked and unmarked forms.

Adjectives of measurement? Tall and short, right? YES, this is an example of adjectives of measurement. Here are some others:

– Old/Young
– Heavy/Light
– Fast/Slow

The word that is used for the bigger end of the spectrum can also be used to talk about the quality of something in general. We call these unmarked.

Examples:

She is very tall while he is very short – this is marked (as we know what the adjectives are describing.)
How tall are you – this is unmarked (in general – we would not say ‘how short are you’)
Lead is one of the heaviest metals (marked)
Scales measure how heavy something is (they don’t measure how light something is).
The worst thing about The Batman was its length (marked)
What is the length of that table (unmarked- not ‘what is the shortness’)?

Now that you have seen some examples of marked and unmarked adjectives of measurement, let’s test your knowledge with a quiz.

Marked and unmarked adjectives

Can you rewrite these sentences using unmarked adjectives?

Did you enjoy learning a little English today? If you can make a habit of practicing at least a little bit every day, your overall level will improve significantly.  Here are a selection of other resources you can use to continue your English journey: : https://scrambledeggsinglese.it/english-exercises/. Also, check us out on Instagram or come to our English school in Milan to say hello.

Learning a Language | English Vocabulary Challenge (Adjectives)

Adjectives make our conversations interesting. With interesting adjectives, you can describe perfectly your feelings and paint fantastic, accurate pictures in your conversations and writing. Everyone learns the most common adjectives first, good, bad, happy, sad. But these adjectives are used so much they become boring after a while! Well, now it’s time to expand your vocabulary with some excellent new adjectives. Read the text below about Diana’s experience of learning English and then try our quizzes below!

“I studied English for years in school in Greece. To be honest, I hated it. After 10 years of studying the grammar, doing exercises from textbooks and listening to our teacher talking, I was exhausted. The whole thing was so boring and tiring. At the end of school, we had exams in English for speaking, reading, writing and listening. During my revision for the exams, I was very on edge. I was very stressed and I couldn’t remember lots of things. This made me frustrated and I started to get angry with myself. After 10 years of studying this language, I still could not remember the difference between the present perfect and the past perfect.

Anyway, my exams came and went and then I was waiting for the results. I got the result of my writing test back… I got an F! In that moment I was so upset. I tried so hard in the test and all those years of studying were for nothing. I thought about all of the textbooks I had read, and all the hours spent listening to my teacher and it made me really mad. What a waste of time.

So in the end I decided I could never learn English. After a long time studying, I still couldn’t speak it. I got an F in my speaking test too! I was really annoyed, because during my classes, I never got the opportunity to speak, I just listened to the teacher! Later I decided I wanted to go travelling and find a job in London. I was annoyed because my English was still so bad but I really wanted to go. So I found a little English school in my town and started having online lessons. My teacher was great and the lessons were so interactive. I had lots of opportunities to speak and I was thrilled with this.

After a couple of months, I felt very confident and I booked myself an IELTS test. My teacher gave me lots of encouragement and I studied very hard for the exam. The results came back and I got an 8. I was so thrilled and relieved to finally get a good grade in English. I felt on top of the world. Now I can go to London, find a job and speak lots of English!”

Learning a Language | Definitions Quiz

Match the word to the correct definition

Learning a Language | True or False

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English Quiz: Adjectives for Describing Difficulty

Adjectives, adjectives, adjectives! The blog of the day is all about those little descriptive words that can completely change the feeling of a story, for better or for worse! How do you feel about your level of adjectives? Do you have a vast catalogue of descriptive words, like a Pantone color chart, or is it more like a rotation of 5 words, one for the most common moods out there?

Adjectives are an integral part of self-expression the English language. Instead of just saying the classic few English adjectives in your repertoire like “nice”, “bad”, “good” and so on, how about expanding upon ways to describe your feelings with one of our English Language Vocabulary quizzes today? We’ve prepared an exercise that will help you decipher the nuances between each adjective and help you express yourself to the fullest!

Adjectives for Describing Difficulty

Fill the gaps with the correct answers

 

How did it go? Are you on top of the world after your performance? Or are you mad because you didn’t do as well as you would have liked. After only a few questions, we’re sure you’ve still got enough energy left in the tank to keep going and do a few more exercises! Now that you’ve done the theoretic exercise, how about a listening exercise? Try the link below to put your ears to practice and see if you can improve your listening English skills!

 

Biggest Achievements – Esercizio Ascolto Inglese B1/B2