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closed.
" The heavy rain caused severe damage to crops and, later on, a severe
shortage of food.
" We are under severe pressure to reduce the wage bill and make 500 workers
redundant.
" The magistrate imposed severe penalties they were severely punished.
Conversely, we would talk about mild weather and mild winters, slight damage and
slight shortages, some pressure, lenient penalties or leniently punished.
hard
" It was a hard exam and the final question was really hard it was a hard
nut to crack!
" It s been a long hard day and I ve been working very hard.
" They had a hard life and worked through hard times. We had no hard
evidence that they had used hard drugs.
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Conversely, we might say an easy exam, easy questions, an easy day, an easy life,
easy times, soft drugs, circumstantial evidence and I haven t worked very hard. The
expression a hard nut to crack, which means that it was difficult to do this, has no
converse form.
Faroush from Iran asks:
What is the meaning of 'afraid' in different sentences and situations?
Rachel Wicaksono answers:
This is an interesting question, Farhoush and I'm afraid that there are at least
seven ways to use the adjective 'afraid'!
The most common meaning of 'afraid' is the one I have just used to introduce the
topic -when we want to politely tell someone something that may upset, disappoint,
annoy or even worry them.
In terms of the grammar, we can say either:
'I'm afraid that there are at least seven ways' OR...
'I'm afraid there are at least seven ways' - without using 'that'.
We usually hear this meaning of 'afraid' in spoken English.
The next most common meaning of 'afraid' is 'to be frightened'.
But remember that 'afraid' can't be used before a noun, so we can't talk about 'an
easily afraid person'. That's not right.
Instead, try these:
'He's an easily frightened person' or even simpler, 'He's easily frightened.'
'He's afraid of something' - for example, ?He's afraid of spiders?
'He's afraid to do something - for example, ?He's afraid to ask for help.?
'He's afraid of doing something - for example, ?He's afraid of flying.?
So lots of examples there!
Less common uses of the adjective 'afraid' are used as a way of saying either 'yes'
and 'no'.
'Afraid' + not... is used to mean 'no'
And 'Afraid' + so... is used to mean 'yes'.
Here's an example of how we can use 'afraid' to mean 'no':
A: Are you doing anything nice this weekend, Femi?
F: I'm afraid not, I have to work - I need the money!
Or when someone calls and the person they want to speak to isn't there:
A: Could I speak to Sun Chen please?
B: I'm afraid not, he's not available at the moment. Would you like to leave a
message?
Next, 'afraid' meaning 'yes':
A: Are you leaving now, Yvonne?
Y: I'm afraid so, I have to be home by 9 o'clock.
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So let's sum up...
We can use the word 'afraid' in the following ways:
First, to politely tell someone something that may disappoint them.
Second, to simply mean: 'frightened'.
And third, to mean 'yes' when we say 'I'm afraid so' -
and 'no' when we say 'I'm afraid not'.
So, to return to the most common meaning of 'afraid'; I'm afraid that there are
several uses of the word! And I hope this has helped.
A question from Mechekef in Algeria:
I would like to ask a question and I would be very thankful if you answered it.
Sometimes you write 'had' as 'hath', 'give' as 'giveth' and 'should' as 'shouldst'. I
cannot understand this method of writing. I'll give you an example to explain clearly
my question: 'Thou seest their eyes overflow with tears.'
Sian Harris answers:
Hi there, thanks for your question. This is a really interesting one.
In some very old forms of English you will see these type of words - 'thou', 'giveth'
'hast' etc - most notably in certain religious texts such as The Bible or possibly
English translations of The Qur'an. In other words, these forms are what we call
'archaic', meaning they're not in active use anymore, other than in either religious or
ancient texts, or as they appear in literature and other forms of writing from
previous centuries.
A specialist in the development and history of English would perhaps be able to tell
you more about the origins and the use of the specific words in your example, but
most of them would have been in use from around the 15th century onwards in a
form now known by academics as 'Early Modern English'.
Although this was by no means used consistently if one examines different texts
from the time, by about the 18th century these forms were not so widely used and I
can clarify that nowadays we would definitely not see or hear these in typical
situations, spoken or written. In today's English, 'thou' would always be replaced
with 'you', for example, 'seest' with 'see' and so on.
afraid / scared - frightening / terrifying
Hasan asks: when do you use afraid and when do you use scared?
Natali asks: Could you please explain to me the difference in meaning between
scary, frightening and terrifying?
afraid / scared / frightened
There are differences in use and I shall try to illustrate these. But all these adjectives
express roughly the same degree of worry or fear and can therefore be used
interchangeably to some extent. Frightened suggests more sudden fear:
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All small children are afraid of / scared of / frightened of school bullies.
Don t be scared / afraid / frightened. I m not going to hurt you.
All three can be followed by of + -ing clause. Frightened cannot always be followed
by of + pronoun or noun:
He s afraid of / scared of / frightened of flying in small planes.
He s a strict teacher. Everyone seems to be afraid of / scared of him.
All three can be followed by the to + infinitive pattern:
She seemed too scared to swim where there were such big waves.
After such an experience she s afraid to go anywhere near the sea.
I was too frightened to jump in at the deep end of the pool.
We can be scared by or frightened by something. We cannot use afraid in this
way:
She was scared by the hooting of the owl.
They were frightened / terrified by the gunfire and the breaking of glass.
Note that terrified expresses a stronger degree of fear.
She s terrified of / by large dogs and won t go near them.
afraid / scared / frightened - position in clause
Note that afraid is one of those adjectives that cannot normally be used before a
noun, but instead is used after a verb. Scared and frightened can be used in both
positions:
He seemed afraid. He appeared frightened.
He was, without doubt, a frightened man.
I m afraid I / we / he / etc
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