100 Other Elaborate Words To Use Instead of 'Good'

The word "good" is definitely one of the most commonly used adjectives of all time. It's flexibility has allowed us to use it regularly that we find so few other words to describe what kind of 'good' something or someone is. And oh, how difficult it was to limit the list to 100. As vocabulary connoisseur Brian Wasko said, "Good is such a broadly-used word, covering so much ground, it has literally hundreds of potential synonyms depending on context and the specific type of “goodness” one wishes to express. Almost any virtue might be replaced with good. A good baseball player, for example, might be swift, adroit, powerful, keen-eyed, intelligent, fearless, and fierce. And by good, one might mean any of those qualities or all of them."

That’s what makes good both a convenient word--in its broadness and flexibility--and a weak word--in its utmost lack of accuracy, not to mention it's hackneyed. So, I've compiled other elaborate words for you to use instead of saying good all the time! All the words below seek to communicate a more particular kind of goodness than good generally denotes.

The list is broken down into three general types of good. Of course there are more than three categories of good but the categories I used here are all highly subjective, for the sake of organization and usefulness. Furthermore, good here is strictly referred to as an adjective only.

Be careful to know the word well, including its connotations, before using it in writing or formal speech. Not all words work equally well in any situation.

Good as in "kind"

Good as in "quality of someone or something"

Good as in "virtuous"

I hope you think what's done here is good, and I do hope that it has benefitted you both in your speaking and writing!

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25 Tricky Grammar Rules Quiz (How Many Can You Correctly Identify?)

Math phobia has a cousin, it’s grammar anxiety. But if you want to know which grammar point you're weak at so you can improve it, then take this test by communications expert and grammarian, Ann Batko. The following sentences cover some of the most common errors in English. Try to answer them as best as you can! Answers and their corresponding grammar points are found here.

Choose the correct choice in the parentheses.

1. Doris foolishly spent four hours (laying, lying) by the pool and now looks like a radish.

2. Each of those revolting insects (belong, belongs) to an endangered species.

3. The insects are no longer (lying, laying) on the table because every one of them (have fallen, has fallen) onto the carpet.

4. Pauline and a man with a large sheepdog (live, lives) in the apartment above mine.

5. My wife and (I, me, myself) have tickets to the submarine races tonight.

6. Harry was begging for disaster when he (set, sat) his new TV on a rickety table, (lay, laid) a glass of milk on the TV, and left the cat alone in the room.

7. I wish I (was, were) skydiving in the Andes alone with you.

8. It’s (he, him) who left the laundry out in the rain.

9. We surprised Rudolph and (she, her) with a gala anniversary bash.

10. My grandfather left most of his money to a home for wayward dentists; the rest went directly to my daughter and (I, me, myself).

11. I gave your car keys to the woman (who, whom) you recently sued.

12. I’ll give your car keys to (whoever, whomever) asks for them.

13. The machete, (that, which) he’d almost left back at camp, turned out to be critical when Jim was faced with jungle growth (which, that) was too dense to get through on his own.

14. Only Rhonda and the man in the black hat (is, are) doing the tango.

15. Either Phyllis or Leticia (is, are) staying up all night to finish the project.

16. Either Phyllis or the guys in the billing department (is, are) going on an emergency coffee run.

17. I want that pastry so (bad, badly) that I can almost taste it.

18. She spent the next six months looking for someone as (different than, different from) Reginald as possible.

19. Wanda correctly (inferred, implied) from Steve’s frantic signals that he meant to (imply, infer) that she should get off the train tracks.

20. The motion of the ship had little (affect, effect) on her, but the sudden appearance of her ex-husband on deck (affected, effected) her dramatically.

21. Her story (composes, comprises) many bizarre episodes, each (composed of, comprised of) moments more sordid than the last.

22. To win my love you must meet one simple (criteria, criterion): absolute perfection.

23. We stared (incredibly, incredulously) at the (incredible, incredulous) spectacle of Lulu dancing on the table.

24. I’m going to sell the house and become a cowpoke (irregardless, regardless) of what you say.

25. Angela kept a (respectful, respective) distance from the bears and the wolves, (that, which) eventually retreated to their (respectful, respective) dens.

If you got:

21-25, you're a grammar wizard! Be sure to keep reviewing your grammar lessons so you won't forget them!

15-20, you're upper-intermediate going advanced! You have to study more advanced rules more diligently.

9-14, you're intermediate. Review your fundamentals!

1-9, you still got ways to go, so better schedule your grammar study everyday! 

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Making Tea The British Way (Kate Arnell Reveals How to Make the Perfect Cuppa)

Nobody does teatime quite like British people do. I mean, they made it an official time of the day, and they celebrate the National Tea Day every 21st of April. Kate Arnell of BBC UK, revealed how to make the perfect cuppa. Yes, exactly the way British people make their tea. Most of us have been cutting corners when it comes to drinking tea, and we might have been unable to enjoy tea the way British people do because of that! 

Although Arnell does mention a few different types of tea, the instruction she provided is most suitable for making black tea blend like the English Breakfast Tea, which is an all time favourite of the Brits. Here's how it's done:

1. Boil your water.

Boiling your water in a kettle on a stove top or electric kettle is an important step. Water boiled between 190 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit is said to be the best temperature to bring out the best out of the tea you're making. In easier term, the water should reach its boiling point, or nearly its boiling point.

2. Steep your tea.

Put your tea bag, or loose leaf tea into your favourite cup and pour freshly boiled water into it. Always steep your tea! Generally, 2 to 5 minutes of steeping time is a good window to aim for, depending on the type of tea and how strong you like it to taste. Be careful because tea tends to go bitter when you steep it for longer time. 

3. Add your milk.

Not all Brits drink tea, but a whopping 86% of them do. And 98% of these tea drinkers put milk in their tea. In Britain, there was a conundrum whether to put milk first then the tea, or tea first and then the milk. According to Arnell, studies have shown that both ways are correct, depending on how you make the tea. If you brewed your tea in the cup itself, add the milk after it's done steeping. But if you brewed your tea in a pot, pour the milk into your cup first, then add the already brewed tea.

It is important to note that not all kinds of tea go with milk, but black tea goes well with it.

4. Extras!

Arnell said that although tea bags are the most popular, loose-leaf teas can still be found in many restaurants and hotels. Wherever you go, she pointed out that you must familiarize yourself with some questions:

a. "Would you like a builder's brew?"--This means an extra strong tea with milk and sugar.

b. Do you want your tea "white without"?--White without means a cup of tea with milk but no sugar.

c. "Do you prefer your tea loose-leaf, or in a tea bag?"--This means whether you prefer the tea leaves packed in small bags, or just the rolled, dried tea leaves.

5. Dunking.

Dunking, according to Arnell, is the art of dipping a biscuit which British people call less sweet cookie into your tea. According to research, the best dunking biscuits are the rich tea biscuits and the chocolate flavoured digestive biscuits. It sure is a big and serious business in the UK.

Now that you know how British people make their tea, might as well try it at home and see for yourself!

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IELTS Writing: A Word List Of The Most Commonly Used Uncountable Nouns

Recently, a previous student of mine who's gonna take the IELTS test a month from now asked for help regarding uncountable nouns. He found out that it affects his subject-verb agreement, and because of that, he usually gets a lower mark in his Grammatical Range and Accuracy in addition to his inability to finish the task, which affects his marks in Task Achievement. Uncountable nouns in English is just too many and if you look them up one by one, it's  going to be very overwhelming. You can't exactly learn all of it, and that's why I'm going to share to you a list of the most commonly used uncountable nouns in IELTS writing along with the most fundamental rules related to it.

What is an uncountable noun?

As its name suggests, uncountable nouns are nouns which can't be counted. This also means that they are considered singular in form and takes a plural form of verb. For example, the word water. The word water is uncountable, it can never have a plural 's', and we can never say one water, and two waters. It can never be quantified by any number. However, if you refer to an uncountable noun, say for example water, as specific, then you can use the articles 'the', 'a', and 'an' in front of it.

Water is considered the universal solvent by many scientists. (water expressed generally)

The water back in the hotel tastes unclean. (water expressed specifically)

(note: There's an exception to this rule of course, as when you refer to a large body of water, especially an ocean that is near or belongs to a particular country, or place. For example, it's correct to say, "The ship drifted into Turkish territorial waters".)

What types of uncountable nouns are there?

Most uncountable nouns relate to:

• liquids (water, milk)
• abstract ideas (love, advice, hate)
• powder and grain (sand, rice)
• mass nouns (hair, furniture)
• natural phenomena (sunshine, rain)
• states of being (sleep, stress)
• feelings/emotions (anger, happiness)
• gas (oxygen, smoke)
  

What are the basic grammar rules applicable to uncountable nouns?

• Use "how much" for uncountable nouns, and use "how many" for countable nouns.

Example: a. There's so much hate on the internet.     b.How much sugar do you want me to put in your tea?

• Use "this" for uncountable nouns, and use "these" for countable nouns.

Example: This rice really smells good.

• Use the quantifiers a little, a little bit of, a great deal of, and a large amount of ONLY with uncountable nouns.

Example: I always put a little salt in my soup.

• Use the quantifiers a few, a number of, several, a great number of and a large number of ONLY with countable nouns.

Example: He's been keeping several apples in the fridge ever since.

• Use the quantifiers no, none, not any, some, any, a lot of, lots of and plenty of with ALL types of nouns. 
• Use other words when expressing an amount of an uncountable noun.

Examples: 

some information---a piece of information

some clothing---one item of clothing/two items of clothing
some equipment---a piece of equipment/two pieces of equipment
some water---a cup of water/two glasses of water.

Uncountable Noun List

Below are the most commonly used uncountable nouns in IELTS writing. Words in bold are both regarded as countable and uncountable nouns.

Irregular Uncountable Nouns

Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, and these are called irregular uncountable nouns.

Examples:

Hair can be countable and uncountable depending on how you use it.

• There is a hair in my soup. (Countable.This refers to only one strand of hair and is countable)
• He has a  lot of hair. (Uncountable. This refers to the mass of hair and is considered uncountable)

Business can be countable and countable depending on how you use it.

• He studies business at school. (Uncountable. This refers to a university major)
• My family owns several businesses in the US and Japan. (Countable. This refers to many kinds of business (source of income) someone owns) 

Irregular uncountable nouns cannot be learned in just one sitting. It involves a whole lot of dedication and continuous learning. I just have given you a starting point on how you're going to study it, and if you want more details about irregular uncountable nouns, just follow the link.

That's basically it! We have covered the fundamental rules regarding uncountable nouns. There are exceptions, and more advanced rules, but learning the basics pretty much makes up 70% of what you need to be able to write essays without spending too much time checking your subject-verb agreement when using uncountable nouns.

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The Real Reason Why British and Americans Spell Words Differently

It's no secret that American and the British spell many words differently organize is organise, theater is theatre, and color is colour. These are simple compared to how they treat words with similar meanings, as they use different terms. For instance, Americans would say "elevators," while the British would say "lifts." "Fries" for my American friends would be called "chips" by my British friends. Moreover, my American friends refer to the first floor of a building as "ground floor," but my British friends would call it "lobby." For nonnative speakers like us, English is English. How did their spellings become so varied? As it turns out, there's one person to blame: Noah Webster. Yes, he is the guy behind the famed Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

According to BBC America's "Anglophenia," people were more accepting of spelling variations up until 18th century. Even prolific writer Jane Austen had vicious spellings of the same words that would be considered misspellings today. Proper names were also spelled the way they sounded and had different variations. Moreover, texts from William Shakespeare's time spelled his name in 80 different ways, which range from Shappere to Shaxberd. More interestingly, Shakespeare also didn't spell his name correctly in his surviving signatures: Willm Shaksp, Willm Shakspere, and William Shakspeare.

 It's very important to note though, that prior to and around 18th century, education is mostly for the privileged and wealthy only. This means that spoken language were deemed more important than written language by the majority of the population. That's until British lexicographer Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. It took some decades for the Brits to catch on, but they too, made serious headway towards standardized spelling.

By the time Samuel Johnson's Dictionary gained fame and momentum, the Americans had started "stirring up trouble across the pond". After deciding that they want to be an independent country, it's just natural to have their own lexicon too, and it involved a great deal of spelling modifications. Enter Noah Webster: "As an independent people, our reputation abroad demands that, in all things, we should be federal; be national," he wrote in a 1789 essay, "for if we do not respect ourselves, we may be assured that other nations will not respect us."

In order to distinguish American English from British English, Webster believed that American spellings must be free of the British English's "clamor of pedantry" or it's excessive attention to the rules or paying too much attention to the minor points. That meant removing unnecessary letters in words such as "humour", "analogue," and "programme." These modifications were made official with Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. This is considered the very first American dictionary, published in 1806

For Webster, language must be used practically, which means it's more efficient if most vocabulary are spelled the way they're pronounced. And so, a new dictionary with truly nationalistic spellings came about and enabled American people to move forward as an independent country. As for which version is better, American or British, it's really up to a person's preference. Generally, I use both spelling versions but I make sure that I'm consistent which version I use in my writings. That means when I start writing in British spelling, I stick to it throughout my composition.

And that's the story behind the differences in spelling between British and American English.

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It's Hard To Say Goodbye (and It's Harder to Spell It Right)

A friend of mine asked, “Why do people use “goodbye,” “good-bye,” and “goodby?” Is there a difference among these?"

I thought it was easy to answer those questions, but it’s more complicated than it sounds. As far as differences are concerned, spelling can be pointed out as the only major distinction given its variations, such as goodbye, good-bye, goodby, or good-by. 

Besides spelling, they all mean the same thing. It’s the word people say before parting ways.

But, of course, that’s just me, as some dictionaries conflict when it comes to their spellings.

= Oxford English Dictionary (both American and British versions) prefers the unhyphenated goodbye and lists goodby and good-by as alternative spellings. It does not mention the hyphenated good-bye. (Check it here: https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/79929?redirectedFrom=good-bye& )

= Cambridge Dictionary affirms the unhyphenated goodbye and rejects all other spellings. (Check it here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english-japanese/goodbye)

= Merriam-Webster Dictionary insists on the unhyphenated goodbye, while good-bye is considered as another variant. It lists goodby and good-by as less common variations, which are acceptable nonetheless. (Check it here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goodbye)

You may ask: “Which one is right?”

There’s one answer from English educators Jacob Young and Brian Wasko that I agree with. There’s no right answer! English has no officially recognized authoritative body. We generally arrive at a consensus regarding these things, but it takes a while for everyone to settle on one spelling. Sometimes, we never do. “Gray” and “grey” are both fine, as are “theatre” and “theater,” “buses” and “busses,” “hiccup” and “hiccough,” and so on.

Then, which one is most widely used?

Luckily, there’s a tool called “Google Ngram Viewer” that shows a list of a word’s most popular spellings that are sourced from publications from the 1500s to 2000s (Can we just pause and appreciate how awesome this tool is?!) This tool does not only cater to English but multiple languages as well! Here’s the Google Ngram for goodbye:

According to the graph, goodbye appeared more frequently than good-bye around 1960. It can be also be observed that goodbye ranked 3rd behind good-bye and good-by in the early 1900s, while goodby was consistently the least preferred variation.

Although goodbye is the clear winner, it’s interesting to note that all four still appeared in our searches. The unhyphenated variation is now preferred, which is unsurprising because many hyphens have perished as the English language developed. Words such as “crybaby,” “bumblebee,” and “tomorrow” were once spelled “cry-baby,” “bumble-bee,” and “to-morrow.”

Finally, goodbye, including other spelling variations, originated from the phrase “God be with you,” or more precisely, “God be with ye.” My advice is to stick with the unhyphenated goodbye. The English language is ever-evolving, and it seems that goodbye is the variant that everybody has settled on now.

 

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