Page 191 - English Vocabulary in Use (Pre & Intermediate)

92 Distance, size and dimension

Distance

The most common way of asking about distance is probably: How far is it? Here are two
more common questions, and some expressions often used in the reply.
Is it a long way? | No, just round the corner. / a couple of minutes’ walk (= very near).
Is it very far? No, not far. / No, about five or ten minutes’ walk (= quite near).
Is it a long way? | Yeah quite a long way. / Yeah, over a mile.
Is it very far? Yes it’s a long way. / Yes it’s miles. / Yes it’s too far to walk.
Note: We can use far in a question or negative but not in a positive statement on its own,

e.g. we don’t say ‘it’s far’, we say ‘it’s a long way’. But we can say ‘it’s too far to walk’.

Size and dimension width

We can describe size using the nouns above or the adjectives formed from them, like this:
What’s the length/width/height/depth/size of ...2, or How long/wide/high/tall/deep/big is ...?
Note:
e We generally use tall to describe people, trees and buildings; and high to describe
mountains. We also say high-rise buildings.
¢ Notice also that in the answer to these questions, an adjective follows the measurement:
The garden is about ten metres wide. (= The width is about ten metres.)

Size in people and things
We use different words to describe the size of people and things:
a tall girl (# a short girl)
a fat person (# a thin person) See Unit 43 for more details.
a long book (= many pages) (# a short book)
a deep lake (= many metres) (¥ a shallow lake)

a thick book (# a thin book) a wide road (# a narrow road)
Note: We can use big or large to describe size in English, but not great. For English
speaking people, great (infml) = fantastic. But we can use great before big to say that
something is very big, e.g. I saw a great big dog in the park.
If you want to ask about size in clothes, you say: What size are you? or What size (shoes)
do you take? If you don’t know, then you need someone to measure you.

188 English Vocabulary in Use (pre-intermediate & intermediate)