Today we’ll focus on mistakes with adjectives and adverbs. The first one involves the word “enough”:

ERROR #72

Don’t say:

• This box isn’t enough big for all the books.

Say:

• This box isn’t big enough for all the books.

Enough goes after adjectives, adverbs, and verbs:

• Are you old enough to see this movie?
• She’s smart enough to take the advanced class.
• You sing well enough to be a professional!
• The teacher speaks slowly enough for me to understand.
• I play the piano, but I don’t practice enough.
• Make sure you eat enough now so that you’re not hungry later.

Enough goes before nouns:

• There are enough chairs for everybody to sit down.
• There isn’t enough information in this report; I need more details.
• We don’t have enough people to form a soccer team.
• Do you have enough money to buy that motorcycle?

ERROR #73

Don’t say:

• I can’t believe how much stubborn he is.

Say:

• I can’t believe how stubborn he is.

We only use how much and how many before nouns.

With adjectives and adverbs, we use only how:

• How tall are you?
• I want to see how comfortable the couch is before buying it.
• How quickly can they finish the project?
• This software measures how efficiently the employees are working.

ERROR #74

Don’t say:

• These are my favorites shoes.

Say:

• These are my favorite shoes.
• These shoes are my favorites.

Adjectives before nouns are always singular in English, even if the noun is plural!

• Our house has three small rooms.
• The forest is filled with giant trees.
• I have a couple of friendly dogs.
• I’ve finished this book, now I’ll read the other ones I borrowed from the library.

Some adjectives – especially “others” – can be used in plural form, if the noun was mentioned earlier (and is not directly after the adjective). Here are two examples:

• I have many pairs of shoes, but these red shoes are my favorites.

(= favorite shoes)

• The boss gave raises to some employees but not others.

(= other employees)

• Some of the shows on this channel are great, and others are terrible.

(= other shows on this channel)

ERROR #75

Don’t say:

• Last night I was a lot tired.

Say:

• Last night I was so/very/really tired.

The words so, very, really, are all used before adjectives and adverbs to add emphasis or describe something that is intense:

• This book is so/very/really interesting.
• She plays the piano so/very/really well!
• They moved here so/very/really recently.

A lot of / lots of are used before nouns to describe a large quantity:

• I ate a lot of / lots of pizza last night.
• There were a lot of / lots of kids at the playground.

Note that it’s always a lot and never alot.

We can also use a lot after verbs to describe something we do frequently/often:

• I read a lot.
• Do you exercise a lot?

ERROR #76

Don’t say:

• My new computer is more better than my old one.

Say:

• My computer is better than my old one.
• My computer is much better than my old one.

Let’s review how we form comparative adjectives:

• 1 syllable: fast → faster
• Words ending in Y: easy → easier
• 2+ syllables: popular → more popular
• Irregular: good/bad → better/worse

We only use “more” to make comparisons using adjectives of 2+ syllables: more popular, more interesting, more efficient, more comfortable, etc. The word “better” is already a comparative, so we shouldn’t add “more.”

If you want to add extra emphasis to a comparative, you can add “much”:

• My new computer is much better than my old one.

(not just a little bit better… MUCH better)

• This lesson is much easier than yesterday’s.
• My sister is much more popular than me.
• The problem is much worse than we imagined.

ERROR #77

Don’t say:

• My apartment is ten miles far from here.

Say:

• My apartment is ten miles away fromhere.

When talking about general long distances, we can say far from or far away from:

• My apartment is far (away) from here.

However, when talking about a specific distance, we say away from or simply from:

• My apartment is ten miles away from here.
• My apartment is ten miles from here.

This is confusing because the question might ask “How far…?” but we don’t use the word “far” when giving an answer with a specific distance:

• How far is the nearest gas station? / Where is the nearest gas station?
• It’s about two blocks away.
• How far is the museum from here?
• At least five miles – you should probably take the bus.

You can only use “far” in the answer when speaking in general terms:

• It’s not far. (it’s a short distance away)
• It’s pretty/quite/very far. (it’s a long distance away)

That’s all for now. The next lesson is our last one in the grammar section, and I’ll teach you about a number of mistakes that I’ve found in my students’ written English, which they’ve sent in for correction in other courses. See you next time!