Touchstone 2nd Edition Language summary Level 3

Unit 1 Lesson B: Personality and character

Vocabulary
Positive qualities
considerate (adj)
creative (adj)
down-to-earth (adj)
easygoing (adj)
generous (adj)
helpful (adj)
(completely) honest (adj)
laid-back (adj)
patient (adj)
practical (adj)
(totally) reliable (adj)
safe (adj)
(incredibly) talented (adj)
(absolutely) wonderful (adj)

Negative qualities
arrogant (adj)
competitive (adj)
dishonest (adj)
disorganized (adj)
inconsiderate (adj)
selfish (adj)
unfriendly (adj)
unhappy (adj)
unreliable (adj)

Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 1, Lesson B, Page 1

Touchstone 2nd Edition Language summary Level 3

Intensifiers
absolutely (adv)
completely (adv)
extremely (adv)
fairly (adv)
incredibly (adv)
not at all (adv)
pretty (adv)
really (adv)
so (adv)
totally (adv)
very (adv)

Other words
basically (adv)
correctly (adv)
admire someone (v)
count on someone (v)
have a (great) sense of humor (v)
tell the truth (v)
trust someone (v)

Grammar
Adverbs before adjectives and adverbs
You can use some adverbs before adjectives and adverbs. Use these adverbs to make some
adjectives and adverbs stronger:

extremely incredibly really so very

She's extremely generous.

She's incredibly talented.

He's a really cool guy.

Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 1, Lesson B, Page 2

Touchstone 2nd Edition Language summary Level 3
We get along very well.

Use pretty and fairly to mean "more than a little":

He's pretty easygoing.

He's fairly laid-back.

Use absolutely or really (but not very) with adjectives that are already very strong:

She's absolutely wonderful.

He's really fantastic.

Use the expression at all to make negatives stronger. At all usually goes after the adjective:

She's not selfish at all.

Use completely and totally to mean 100%:

He's completely honest.

She's totally reliable.

Adjective prefixes
A prefix is a group of letters like dis, un, etc. at the beginning of a word. They add meaning to
the word.

You can use prefixes to make adjectives with opposite meanings. Different adjectives have
different prefixes:

patient impatient
considerate inconsiderate
friendly unfriendly
reliable unreliable
honest dishonest
organized disorganized

Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 1, Lesson B, Page 3