Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my English lesson where I tried to help you
to get a better understanding of the English language, particularly where you might be
aiming to improve your conversational English. Or you may be trying to
improve your opportunities for more promotion in your particular job and you want to really nail
down your English language. Well, we're here to help you. So what are we going to talk about today
we're going to talk about clothes and we're going to talk about adjectives to describe clothes.
But before I do that, just let me remind you that you can listen to me on my podcast,
you can download the podcast and don't forget to subscribe to the channel,
and you'll find the button down here on the left-hand side
and I give you my contact details later, should you wish to contact me or pass the details on
to your friend. Okay, so back to our lesson today we're talking about clothes.
And in particular, we're talking about adjectives that describe clothes so many,
many ways to describe the clothes that we wear. So let's look at a few of them tight-fitting. So
tight-fitting are clothes that don't leave much room for breathing so they're really
tight. You can see every inch of the person's body there,
particularly somebody who's really fit. They like to wear tight-fitting clothes that will show their
finger or their shape. Okay, so tight-fitting, not much room for breathing. Yep, so when you squeeze
into something that is tight-fitting, the opposite of tight-fitting will be
baggy. So some people like to wear baggy clothes. Baggy clothes are very loose lots of room in them.
And often we use the word trousers, baggy trousers or baggy shirts, something with
lots of room. Particularly particularly on a hot summer's day, you'd like to wear baggy clothes
that will allow the air to circulate around your body baggy trousers, very fashionable,
casual clothes so when we talk about casual clothes,
that the opposite to the form of clothes that we might wear the business suit, okay or the suit we
would wear for a wedding they're very very form for when something says casual clothes. It could
be something like this the T-shirt, it could be a shirt without a tie, or it could be loose
or stylish jacket or no jacket at all. And just a pair of casual trousers. So
casual clothes, the casual look so some people today most people enjoy the casual look to dress
casually when they go to the office. So the idea of a suit and a shirt and tie they seem
to have gone out of the window people don't use them so often. So that brings us on then
to formal so formal clothes are the clothes that we used to wear when I worked in an office many
many years ago. It was always a suit of colour and tie so you had many suits in your wardrobe if you
looked in my wardrobe now, no suits at all. Everything is casual. So if you get
an invitation to somebody's wedding unwritten along the bottom of the wedding invitation is
formal dress essential, meaning you have to wear a suit.
It might even be a black-tie one of those very specific suits we have a little black
tie and a white shirt and a black jacket and black trousers so it will tell you
how formal the dress code is but it might be the jacket and trousers for the man and
the full dress for the woman so look out on those invitations to say that it is a casual dress.
We can dress really the way you want or formula where you have to be very specific
either the suit for the man and the dress or trouser suit for the woman also
colourful so when we talk about colourful clothes when I and lots of other people like
to wear colourful clothes it would be nice bright orange or bright yellow or red or whatever your
favourite colour happens to be or it could be all of them so you end up with looking like a rainbow.
Okay, so colourful clothes, well that's a very colourful outfit that you have so
multicoloured really to suit that day in the middle of July in the middle of August when
hopefully the sun is shining. We'd like to wear those colourful clothes. plain clothes.
So again, the opposite of colourful when something is plain. It's very ordinary.
It's very dull. There's just one colour and usually, the colour could be a grey,
or a mushroom or the column my wife hates me wearing brown so if you ever see me in brown,
it means my wife's not home for the day because she doesn't like me wearing
brown so Brown, beige, mushroom, these could be described as plain colours. Not very attractive.
Not very interesting. We might call them sombre meaning a little bit dull. Okay, so plain clothes.
We have plain-clothes detectives in the police force. These are policemen that don't wear a
uniform so they blend in with the rest of the people. So they can walk around
and spot people and do their investigation, plain-clothes detectives. Okay?
Tasteful. So when something is tasteful, it looks nice. It could be tasteful for the
occasion and nice suit for a wedding very tasteful. Somebody could be
tastefully dressed when they go into a very important business meeting.
It might be formal, but it certainly will be very tasteful. A nice suit, a nice shirt,
a nice tie. So depending on the occasion, you dress to fit that
particular occasion so tastefully dressed. Okay, so something that really really looks good.
We can have unfashionable clothes, so unfashionable clothes are clothes that
are not really in at the moment so you'll find out from your young children and your teenagers.
What are fashionable clothes so you walk out of the bedroom and they look
what are you wearing that looks like it came out of the ark Yeah, so you're wearing something that
you like something's very comfortable. But as far as they're concerned, it's unfashionable. It's not
really fashionable to wear that type of jacket or those type of jeans or even those type of shoes.
Ah, come on, Dad! You have to be fashionable, you have to keep up with the times.
But as I always tell them, what was fashionable 10 years ago may be unfashionable today but in
five years time if you hold on to it long enough, guess what it's going to be fashionable again so
fashionable or on fashionable. It depends on your mood.
Smart so everybody likes to be smartly dressed or most people
like to be smartly dressed so it doesn't have to be formal. It doesn't have to be casual.
It just has to be smart meaning the shirt has been ironed recently. The trousers have
been washed or cleaned. The shoes have been polished. Okay, so Oh he looks very smart.
So that young boy coming for his first communion or his first day at school and he's
wearing the clothes that will really make him look smart. Even if it's only just for
one day and tomorrow there'll be creased and whatever grass stains whatever else happens to
kids clothes so yeah try to be smartly dressed for the occasion to
dress smart so it's not casual. It's not formula just means clean. Well pressed well presented
and not ripped or torn or up like this like that. Whatever it might be so nice and smart.
Trendy, well. This is a modern word trendy so what is trendy mean what
usually it means something that is fashionable at the moment so is it purple or is it move or is it
orange? What's the trendy colour what's the colour that's in fashion? Or if I go out and I wear a
T-shirt which is cut off at the the arms here somewhere so all that's very trendy, I haven't
seen you wearing that before. So by yes it takes 20 years of your look. So to have something trendy
Have you worn glasses or they've got a blue tinge of some different colour? They could
be described as trendy because they they look modern. They look really chic. They're
something that you didn't get from your granddad or your
or your grandmother, okay, so something trendy, something fashionable, something modern.
Scruffy. Well, anything scruffy is something that was dirty so we actually use the two words
together off that scruffy dirty Why didn't you take it off and put it in the washing machine or
wash it and you can wear it tomorrow? No ma'am I like to wear this so the kids when they're going
to university or school that they like to wear what they like to wear not what you want them
to wear. And okay some jeans look a little bit scruffy some t-shirts look a little bit scruffy.
You know they like to dress real loose and casual clothes so
unfortunately sometimes they look scruffy. Look, your shoes are scruffy! What were
you doing? Were you running through a field? Yeah. So scruffy clothes,
scruffy dirty, something really not as clean and not as smart the word that we we also used.
And then finally sleeveless. But... This is a sleeve, okay. And this is a sleeve. So
jumpers have sleeves. Some shirts have sleeves. Jackets have sleeves. But if you're wearing a
T-shirt, it is sleeveless. Meaning it is cut off here or cut off there. Cut off here cut off there.
So sleeveless, something that has no sleeves, they're not long sleeves. They are short sleeves
or sleeveless. So you go into the sport shop and you asked to buy Can I have a sleeveless top or
a sleeveless t-shirt or whatever particular item that you're going to buy but if it's sleeveless,
it's cut up at the top or very close to the top of your arms. Okay, so let me give them to you again.
So we've got tight-fitting, baggy, casual, formal, colourful, plain.,
tasteful, unfashionable, smart, scruffy, trendy.
And finally, sleeveless Okay, all different adjectives describing clothes. Okay, well,
I hope you've enjoyed that. As I said before, if you want to contact me, then you can do so on
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teachers for you, whoever it might be. Okay, well thanks for listening in and join me again soon.