Understanding ‘Expensive’: A Key Word for IELTS
Learn about the adjective ‘expensive’, its meaning, usage, and importance for the IELTS test. Discover synonyms, antonyms, and common mistakes to avoid when describing high-priced items or situations.
Have you ever looked at a price tag and felt your heart sink? Today, we’re going to learn about a word that might cause that feeling: expensive.
Word type: Expensive is an adjective. We use it to describe things that cost a lot of money.
Meaning: When something is expensive, it means it has a high price or costs more than usual.
It’s the opposite of cheap or affordable.
Word history: The word expensive comes from Latin. It’s related to the word expend, which means to use up or spend.
Antonyms: Some words that mean the opposite of expensive are cheap, inexpensive, and affordable.
Synonyms:
Words that mean almost the same as expensive include costly, pricey, and high-priced.
Examples use in sentences:
Let’s look at how we can use expensive in sentences. The new smartphone is very expensive, so I’ll have to save up to buy it.
Dining out at fancy restaurants can be quite expensive. Living in big cities is often more expensive than living in small towns.
Common errors in use: People sometimes make mistakes when using the word expensive. Remember, we don’t say something is more expensive than something else.
Instead, we say it is more expensive than something else. For example, we say Diamonds are more expensive than silver, not Diamonds are expensiver than silver.
Also, expensive is already an extreme word, so we don’t usually say very expensive unless we want to emphasize how extremely high the price is.
To wrap up, expensive is an important word to know for the IELTS test. It helps you talk about prices and costs.
Remember, it’s an adjective that describes things that cost a lot of money. Practice using it in your own sentences to become more comfortable with this useful word.
