Your Description Lessons

1
What Type of Product It Is

So, lets consider the product itself. What is it? It might seem
like a simple question but, can we expect our students to be able
to name all types of products. That is wheredescriptions come in
handy. First the basics,what type of product is it? This is where
some new vocabulary comes into play.
Activity 1: First show your students flashcards with images of the
following: home/ office device, tool, appliance, machine and
instrument. Ask a few questions about what they see in the
images. After that, give a card to each student and have them
take ask each other questions about products they would like to
buy. Encourage them to use the following phrases.
Im looking for ..
I need.
Id like to buy ..

2
What the Product Looks Like
Now that they know what it is, they need to know a little
about it. This is a basic description, so we need to cover colors,
sizes and shapes. The vocabulary regarding color, size
and shape you decide to teach, depends on their level and what
they already know.
Activity 2: For this activity you can use the same flashcards you
used before. Hand them out and have each student describe
what is on their flashcard. For this you can practice the following
expressions: I have an appliance; its white and this big (here they
can use their hands to indicate size)

3
What It Is Made Of
Here, you are going to focus on materials the products are
made of. Words like metal, plastic, wood, paper and glass should
be taught or reviewed. They can describe what some things in the
classroom are made of.
Activity 3: Students describe something in the classroom and the
other students have to guess what it is. They should provide
information like color, size, shape and what it is made of. If your
classroom doesnt have much in it, you can use the flash cards.

4
Product Features and Where They Are
In this part of the lesson, students become familiar with
features and where they are located on the product. The
features of a product are characteristics that a product has or
what it does. For example, some cell phones include features like,
camera, voice recognition, GPS, etc. For some products, it is also
important to know where these features are located in order to be
able to use it.
Activity 4: As a warm up before the activity, practice describing
products they are familiar with focusing on their features. After
that, show students some ads featuring different products. Give
them a minute to read the ad and then ask them to identify at
least two product features and if possible, where they are located
as well.

5
What the Product Does

Ok, so knowing how to describe product features is great,

but the reason we talk about features in the first place is to
understand what the product can do. As you can see, one
thing leads to another. At this point, students have all the
groundwork for product description. All they have to add now is
what the product does.
Activity 5: A great activity to do with them at this point is a role
play where one student is buying a product and the other is
selling it. You can use the same products you discussed in the
previous activities or choose a new one. If you decide to use a
different product, I recommend you go over the information with
them before the role play. You can use questions to prepare them.

An adjective is a word that describes, identifies, modifies, or

quantifies something (a noun or a pronoun). In the phrase, "the black cat"
the word black is an adjective because it describes the cat.
In English, an adjective usually comes before the noun it pertains to (for
example, a red apple or a cute cat.).
Adjectives can be classified into many categories. In English, adjectives are
generally used in the order: quantity-->opinion-->size-->age-->shape->color-->origin-->material-->purpose. Some of these categories are
(roughly in the order in which adjectives are used in English):

quantity - few, no, one, two, three, four, little, several, many, all,
some, every, each, ...

opinion - good, better, best, bad, worse, worst, wonderful, splendid,

mediocre, awful, fantastic, pretty, ugly, clean, dirty, wasteful, difficult,
comfortable, uncomfortable, valuable, worthy, worthless, useful,
useless, important, evil, angelic, rare, scarce, poor, rich, lovely,
disgusting, amazing, surprising, loathesome, unusual, usual,
pointless, pertinent, ...

personality/emotion - happy, sad, excited, scared, frightened,

outgoing, funny, sad, zany, grumpy, cheerful, jolly, carefree, quickwitted, blissful, lonely, elated, ...

sound - loud, soft, silent, vociferous, screaming, shouting,

thunderous, blaring, quiet, noisy, talkative, rowdy, deafening, faint,
muffled, mute, speechless, whispered, hushed, ...

taste - sweet, sour, acidic, bitter, salty, tasty, delicious, savory,

delectable, yummy, bland, tasteless, palatable, yummy, luscious,
appetizing, tasteless, spicy, watery, ...

touch - hard, soft, silky, velvety, bumpy, smooth, grainy, coarse,

pitted, irregular, scaly, polished, glossy, lumpy, wiry, scratchy, rough,
glassy, ...

size, weight - heavy, light, big, small, little, tiny, tall, short, fat, thin,
slender, willowy, lean, svelte, scrawny, skeletal, underweight, lanky,
wide, enormous, huge, vast, great, gigantic, monstrous, mountainous,
jumbo, wee, dense, weighty, slim, trim, hulking, hefty, giant, plump,
tubby, obese, portly, ...

smell - perfumed, acrid, putrid, burnt, smelly, reeking, noxious,

pungent, aromatic, fragrant, scented, musty, sweet-smelling,...

speed - quick, fast, slow, speeding, rushing, bustling, rapid, snappy,

whirlwind, swift, hasty, prompt, brief, ...

temperature - hot, cold, freezing, icy, frigid, sweltering, wintry,

frosty, frozen, nippy, chilly, sizzling, scalding, burning, feverish, fiery,
steaming, ...

age - young, old, baby, babyish, teenage, ancient, antique, oldfashioned, youthful, elderly, mature, adolescent, infantile, bygone,
recent, modern, ...

distance - short, long, far, distant, nearby, close, faraway, outlying,

remote, far-flung, neighboring, handy, ...

shape - round, circular, square, triangular, oval, sleek, blobby, flat,

rotund, globular, spherical, wavy, straight, cylindrical, oblong,
elliptical, zigzag, squiggly, crooked, winding, serpentine, warped,
distorted, ...

miscellaneous qualities- full, empty, wet, dry, open, closed ,

ornate, ...

brightness - light, dark, bright, shadowy, drab, radiant, shining, pale,

dull, glowing, shimmering, luminous, gleaming, ...

color - pink, red, orange, yellowish, dark-green, blue, purple, black,

white, gray, brown, tanned, pastel, metallic, silver, colorless,
transparent, translucent, ...

time - early, late, morning, night, evening, everlasting, initial, first,

last, overdue, belated, long-term, delayed, punctual, ...

origin/location - lunar, northern, oceanic, polar, equatorial, Floridian,

American, Spanish, Canadian, Mexican, French, Irish, English,
Australian, ...

material - glass, wooden, cloth, concrete, fabric, cotton, plastic,

leather, ceramic, china, metal, steel, silicon, ...

purpose - folding, swinging, work, racing, cooking, sleeping, dance,

rolling, walking, ...

Using Hyphens for Compound Adjectives

Some adjectives are used as a group to provide a description; if the group of
words form a single idea and are used before the noun, they should be
connected by hyphens to make their meaning clear. Common examples of
hyphenated adjectives include black-and-white, 6-foot-tall, 5-years-old,
problem-solving, mother-in-law and fight-or-flight. A wonderful example of
hyphenated adjectives is George Orwell's description of being from the
lower-upper-middle class.