Lesson

CORSO BASE DI LINGUA INGLESE

DIMENSION, SIZE AND DISTANCE

Listening

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Structure

Step 1

When describing things or people we often talk about size and dimension.
In fact, if we want to know about the dimensions of a river, for example, we can say:
How long/deep/wide is it? or else, What’s its length/depth/width? It’s about 135 Km long (...deep/ wide).
The opposite of deep is shallow, while the opposite of wide is narrow.

We use high and height when we talk about mountains. We can use both tall and high for buildings, especially if they are very tall and thin, like high-rise buildings or sky-scrapers. But we only use tall to describe people or trees and plants.
The opposite of high is low, while the opposite of tall is short.

Listening

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Structure

Step 2

When talking about clothes and shoes we say:
What size are you? What size do you take? Clothes may be classified as small, medium, large or extra large. Large can always be used instead of big, for example: " I had a very large breakfast this morning". When we want to say something is very big we can say it’s huge, while something very small is tiny. If something is the right size for you: it fits you.

The usual question to ask about distance is: how far is it (from….to)?
Here are some other useful questions and answers about distance:

- Is it far? - Yes, it’s about 15 minutes away by car. - No, it’s just up the road;

- Is it a long way? - Yes, it’s too far to walk
- No, it’s a few minutes’ walk.