Describing Objects (Basics)
The simple adjectives you need to describe everyday objects: new, old, broken, expensive, and more.
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Flashcards
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Listen to the word and type it. Great for practicing spelling and pronunciation.
Match
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Terms in this deck
- newrecently made or bought, not used before
- oldhaving existed for a long time
- usedalready owned by someone else before, not new
- brokendamaged and not working or in pieces
- workingoperating correctly, not broken
- expensivecosting a lot of money
- cheapcosting little money
- heavyweighing a lot
- lightnot weighing a lot
- biglarge in size
- smalllittle in size
- cleanfree from dirt or stains
- dirtycovered in dirt or stains
- fullcontaining as much as possible
- emptycontaining nothing
- wetcovered in or full of liquid
- drynot wet, with no liquid
- hardfirm, not easy to press or break
- softeasy to press, not hard
- roundshaped like a circle or ball
- squareshaped with four equal sides
- shinyreflecting light, bright and smooth
- dullnot bright or shiny
- plainsimple, with no pattern or decoration
- colorfulhaving many bright colors
- stripedhaving a pattern of stripes
- patterneddecorated with a repeated design
- matchingthe same as another thing, or looking good together
- dustycovered in dust
- stainedhaving a mark that is difficult to remove
- crackedhaving a thin line where it broke without falling apart
- chippedhaving a small piece broken off the edge
- rustycovered in rust from being wet or old
- worndamaged from being used a lot over time
- woodenmade of wood
- miniaturemade in a much smaller size than usual
- hugeextremely large
- tallhaving a large height
- straightnot curved or bent
- bentnot straight, curved out of shape
- valuableworth a lot, even if not expensive to buy
- worthlesshaving no value at all
- solidfirm and not hollow all the way through
- hollowhaving an empty space inside
- antiqueold and valuable, often collected
- fancydecorative or expensive-looking, not plain
- plasticmade of plastic
- metalmade of metal
- glassmade of glass
- papermade of paper
- leathermade of leather
- spottedhaving a pattern of round dots
How to study this deck
With these basic adjectives you can describe almost any object: condition (new, old, broken), size (big, small), weight (heavy, light), texture (hard, soft) and shape (round, square). Practice with objects at home using two or three adjectives per object, always before the noun: "a small round table".
The trickiest words
- light: here it means not heavy (opposite of heavy). In other contexts it means light or pale.
- plain: it means simple, without decoration: "a plain white shirt".
- used: it means second-hand, not new. It is pronounced "yoozd".
Examples in context
She bought a new phone.
I found a cheap umbrella.
The bottle is full.
The table is round.
She chose a patterned tablecloth.
The old bike is rusty.
The fork is bent.
He gave her a fancy watch.
Mini dialogue
- A: Is that laptop new or used?
- B: Used, but it is still working well.
- A: It looks light and shiny.
- B: And cheap. The old one was heavy and broken.