Are you using "enough" correctly?

Do you say "smart enough" or "enough smart? "Time enough" or "enough time"? Learn how to use this common word correctly in an English sentence. In this short and easy lesson, I’ll teach you how to use the word "enough" correctly based on whether the word it is modifying is a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Once you understand this easy grammar rule, you’ll never make a mistake with "enough" again! Just to make sure, we’ll do some practice exercises together. Then you can test how well you understood the lesson with the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/are-you-using-enough-correctly/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I’m Rebecca from engVid. The word "enough" is a very commonly used word in English. Unfortunately, it’s also a very commonly misused word. That means that many students make mistakes while using this otherwise rather simple word. The reason for that is because the word "enough" can be used in two different ways, and in this lesson we’re going to learn exactly how to do that. Okay? Let’s get started.

So, first of all, what does the word "enough" mean? It means that you have as much or as many of something as you need. All right? For example, if you have just a few minutes, you have enough time to watch this lesson and to learn the lesson. Okay? Learn how to use the word "enough". All right.

So, what are these two ways in which we can use the word "enough"? You can either use it before a noun, or after an adjective or an adverb. Okay? Now, I know that’s a lot of grammar, so let’s look at some examples. So, when we use "enough" before a noun, we could say: "We have enough food for the party.", "We have enough space in this room for everyone.", "We have enough chairs for all the guests." Okay? So that’s an example of "enough" before a noun.

Now, as I said, you can also use it after an adjective. For example: "It’s warm enough in the room." Okay? Or: "Is your tea sweet enough?", or "The teacher explained the lesson clearly enough for everyone to understand." Okay? So the last one was an adverb, the other two were adjectives.

Now, let’s take one example and use the word "enough" in these two different ways to see exactly how it works. First: "He has enough money to buy the car." Right? So, here, before a noun. Right? "He has enough money". Second example: "He is rich enough to buy the car." Okay? So now we see that the "enough" comes after the adjective. "He has enough money", "He is rich enough". All right? So, that’s how it works and that’s all you really need to learn, but let’s do some practice just to make sure that you really got it.

So, the first word: "rice". So do we say that we have "enough rice" or "rice enough"? So, "rice" is a noun, so we need to say: "enough rice". Okay? I’m not going to write the word "enough", I’ll just put the "e" on this side or that side, according to whatever you tell me. All right. Next word: "carefully". Do we say: "enough carefully" or "carefully enough"? It should be "carefully enough". "He drove carefully enough to pass the driving exam." Okay? All right. Do we say: "enough experience" or "experience enough"? "He has enough experience." Very good. Okay.

Do we say: "enough tall" or "tall enough"? All right? It should be: "He was tall enough to reach the top shelf." Okay? Good, you’re doing really well. Let’s continue. Do we say: "The house was enough clean" or "clean enough"? Which one? I hope you said: "The house was clean enough." Very good. Do we say: "There were enough people" or "people enough"? What do you think? "There were enough people." Again, "people" is a noun so it’s going to come before. You’ll see wherever we have the e’s on this side, that means those words are nouns; wherever we have the e’s on that side it means those words are adjectives or adverbs. Right? This was an example of an adverb.

Let’s continue. "The candidate had enough votes" or "The candidate had votes enough", what do you think? It should be: "enough votes to win the election". Okay, good. "You speak enough well to give a presentation" or should we say: "You speak well enough to give a presentation"? What do you think? It should be "well enough". All right, very good. "We have enough rooms for everyone" or "we have rooms enough"? I’m saying "rooms", okay? So: "We have enough rooms for everyone." Good. And: "The house is enough quiet for the baby to sleep" or "The house is quiet enough for the baby to sleep"? What do you think? Ready? Right: "The house is quiet enough." Okay?

So, as you can see, it does take a little bit of practice. Okay? But I know you can get it. I hope you got these right, but if you’d like to do some more practice, please go to our website: www.engvid.com. There, you can do a quiz on this and you can also watch lots of other really interesting English videos. And if you like this lesson, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks for watching. Bye for now.