Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

2 Jack doesn’t speakChinese butJill does.

3 Jack ____________ Swedish ___ Jill _____________ .

4 Jack ____________ German ___ Jill _____________ .

5 Jack ____________ Arabic ___ Jill _____________ .

6 Jack ____________ Welsh ___ Jill _____________ .

7 Jack ____________ Klingon ___ Jill _____________ .

8 Jack ____________ French ___ Jill _____________ .

9 Jack ____________ Hindi ___ Jill _____________ .

10 Jack ____________ Spanish ___ Jill _____________ .

Language

Jack

Jill

French

yes

yes

German

no

yes

Spanish

yes

no

Italian

no

no

Swedish

yes

yes

Chinese

no

yes

Arabic

no

no

Hindi

no

yes

Welsh

yes

yes

Klingon

no

no

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Dialogue 4

Helen takes an item of clothing back to the shop where she bought it.

HELEN:

Can I change this top? It was too small for me. Here’s the receipt.

ASSISTANT:

Unfortunately the next size up is sold out. Would you like your money back or would you prefer to choose something else?

HELEN:

Have you got any other tops in a bigger size?

ASSISTANT:

Certainly. Try some of these.

[ Helen holds them up against herself ]

HELEN:

These are all quite nice. Which one do you think looks best?

ASSISTANT:

That green one really suits you.

HELEN:

Better than the blue one?

ASSISTANT:

Oh yes, very nice – green is definitely your colour!

HELEN:

Are you quite sure?

ASSISTANT:

Of course I am! Look in the mirror!

HELEN:

OK – I’ll take the green one. How much is it?

ASSISTANT:

It’s the same as the one you brought back.

HELEN:

Perfect!

Language point 62 – ‘quite’, ‘very’

and ‘too’

When we use adjectives to describe things, there are special words we can put before the adjective to show different degrees of the quality described:

too

hot

highest degree

very

hot

This tea is

hot

quite

hot

not very

hot

not

hot

lowest degree

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Be careful!We can use aand thebefore very, but not before

 quiteand too:

This shirt is small

– it’s a small shirt

This shirt is very small

– it’s a very small shirt

This shirt is quite small

– ‘it’s a quite small shirt’

(but we can say – it’s quite a small shirt) This shirt is too small

– ‘it’s a too small shirt’

Quitehas two different meanings. When Helen says: These are all quite nice

she means that they are ‘medium-nice’ – not very nice, but nice enough. But when she then asks the shop assistant: Are you quite sure?

she means ‘Are you completely sure?’.

quite

=

[medium degree]

quite

=

completely

But not quite always means ‘not completely’: I’m not quite sure where to go

The food isn’t quite ready

I’m not quite convinced that this is the right thing to doYou will come across other DEGREE WORDs in colloquial English.

Here they are in approximate order:

High degree:

completely

quite

absolutely

(= completely)

extremely

really

awfully

terribly

very

Medium degree:

pretty

quite

fairly

165

Medium to low

rather(usually with bad or

degree:

negative meanings)

Low degree:

not very

a bit

slightly

Here are some examples of these:

This book is really boring

John’s absolutely certain he left his wallet on the table I’m fairly sure that’s our bus

This film is pretty good, isn’t it?

– Yes, it’s quite entertaining

This house is rather ugly

This food’s not very nice, is it?

My watch is slightly slow

I felt a bit sick on the way home after the party

Exercise 4

In Jim & Kate’s Coffee Shop they only sell one type of coffee, but at different temperatures. Can you put them in order, starting with the coldest and finishing with the hottest ? Here’s the menu.

Froth Fantasy

quite hot

Coffee Crikey

very hot

Bean Bonanza

not very hot

Radical Roast

extremely hot

Gorgeous Grind

not hot at all

Percolator II

too hot

Cafetiere Combo

rather hot

Steam Surprise

terribly hot

166

Language point 63 – ‘some’ and ‘one’

Some(and any) can be used with both UNCOUNTABLE nouns and PLURAL COUNTABLE nouns – review Language point 23 in Unit 4 if you need to remind yourself of these.

UNCOUNTABLE

Have you got any money?

– Yes, I think I’ve got some in my pocket

PLURAL COUNTABLE

Have you got any pens?

– Yes, I think I’ve got some in my desk

You can see from these examples that we can use them to avoid repeating a noun that has already been mentioned. More examples: UNCOUNTABLE

We’ve run out of milk!

– It’s OK, I’ll get some when I’m out

PLURAL COUNTABLE

Will we need sandwiches?

– Yes, I’ll bring some tomorrow

UNCOUNTABLE

Do you like Christmas pudding?

– I don’t know. I’d better try some

PLURAL COUNTABLE

I can’t find any biscuits

– I think there are some in the cupboard

With SINGULAR COUNTABLE nouns we use one, not some: I want a biscuit!