student asking question

British people seem to use "lovely" a lot, is it okay to put "lovely" to other words?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

The phrase "lovely" is very commonly used among British people and has a lot of meanings depending on the context of the sentence. "Lovely" can be used pretty much interchangeably with "great", but emphasizes a positive feeling of emotion. "Lovely" can be use ironically or sarcastically, which is how it is being used in this clip. Ex: Oh lovely, it smells like garbage in here. It is also used to describe people. In this case "lovely" has a similar meaning to "fine", "nice", "pretty", "kind", etc. Lovely can also be used to describe kindness and friendliness. You can, without worry, describe your grandmother, your boss, or your neighbour's kittens as "lovely". You can also put "lovely" with other words to describe the word it comes before Ex: Look at this lovely shirt. Ex: He is a lovely man. Very nice to everyone. Ex: Oh, what a lovely day.

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