Stop Saying “Very Good”: 3 Stronger English Words

ENMartin, the restaurant was very good.

ENGood.

ENAnd Elena's English presentation was very good.

ENAlso good.

ENAnd the winner's performance was very, very good.

ENJulia, I think your vocabulary needs help.

ENBut everything was good.

ENYes. But not everything was good in the same way.

ENI see. This is going to become a vocabulary lesson, isn't it?

ENAn excellent vocabulary lesson.

ENWelcome to Your English Toolbox and Practice Arena Five-Minute English. I am Martin.

ENAnd I am Julia. Today we are replacing very good with three more precise words: excellent, impressive and outstanding.

ENLet us return to the restaurant.

ENThe food was fresh, the service was friendly and every dish was prepared perfectly.

ENThen the restaurant was excellent.

ENExcellent means extremely good in quality.

ENWe use it for food, service, work, ideas or general quality.

ENExcellent service. An excellent meal. Excellent work.

ENIt is a strong, clear alternative to very good.

ENNow, Elena's presentation. She has studied English for only six months.

ENAnd she spoke for ten minutes without notes, answered difficult questions and stayed calm.

ENHer English was not perfect, but what she achieved was impressive.

ENExactly. Impressive describes something that creates admiration or makes people notice it.

ENA difficult achievement or fast improvement can be impressive.

ENAnd an impressive presentation makes the audience think, “That took skill or effort.”

ENThere is a useful grammar difference here.

ENThe presentation was impressive. The audience was impressed.

ENImpressive describes the thing. Impressed describes how a person feels.

ENNow, what about the winner's performance?

ENTwelve people entered the competition, but one speaker was clearly better than everyone else.

ENThen her performance was outstanding.

ENOutstanding means exceptionally good, especially when something stands above the rest.

ENWe say an outstanding performance, student or result.

ENSo excellent focuses on very high quality.

ENImpressive focuses on the admiration something creates.

ENAnd outstanding suggests exceptional quality compared with others.

ENExactly.

ENCan one performance be all three?

ENYes. The words overlap, but the picture you choose changes.

ENThere is also a second meaning of outstanding.

ENAn outstanding payment is a payment that has not been completed.

ENBut today we are using outstanding to mean exceptionally good.

ENTime for a quick challenge. Say the best word before Julia answers.

ENSituation one. A hotel gives you perfect service from beginning to end.

ENExcellent.

ENSituation two. Your friend learns to play a difficult song after only three weeks.

ENImpressive.

ENSituation three. One student receives the highest result in the entire school.

ENOutstanding.

ENFinal situation. Complete the sentence: “The audience was blank by her progress.”

ENImpressed.

ENThink about something you saw or achieved this week. Was it excellent, impressive or outstanding?

ENComplete one sentence aloud: “Blank was blank because blank.”

ENQuick recap. Excellent means extremely good in quality.

ENImpressive means good in a way that creates admiration.

ENOutstanding means exceptionally good, often compared with others.

ENBefore you go, open this episode at Your English Toolbox dot com and turn these three words into active English.

ENFollow the interactive transcript, or enter Cinema Mode and watch each sentence appear with the audio.

ENCompare every line with Spanish, German, French or Farsi, and use the vocabulary section to review meanings, grammar, collocations and natural examples.

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ENEverything is organised to help you listen, understand, practise and remember.

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ENThree stronger words. Three clearer meanings. And a complete lesson waiting for you online.

ENMartin, how was my vocabulary today?

ENExcellent.

ENOnly excellent?

ENYour improvement was impressive.

ENAnd compared with everyone else?

ENJulia, let us not get carried away.

ENI was hoping for outstanding.

ENPerhaps next Thursday.