Describing Places

1Keza on the phone

Keza is talking to her cousin in Kigali. He has never seen her village in Rulindo. He asks, What is it like there?

Keza says, It is nice. Then she stops. Her cousin still sees nothing.

Today you will collect the words Keza needed. By the end of this lesson you will be able to hand someone a place, with nothing but your voice.

2Start with a plain sentence, then feed it

Look at this sentence:

We walked on a road to a market.

It is true, but it is empty. Now watch it grow:

We walked on a narrow, dusty road to a noisy, crowded market.

Nothing was removed. Four words were added, and suddenly your reader can see the place, feel the dust and hear the shouting.

Those four words are adjectives. An adjective is a word that tells you more about a noun.

3Where an adjective sits

An adjective can stand in two places:

• Before the noun: a steep hill, the green valley, a friendly shopkeeper.
• After the word is/are: The hill is steep. The valleys are green.

Both are correct. Good writers use both, so their sentences do not all sound the same.

4A word bank for places

When you describe a place, ask your five senses what they notice.

Two adjectives together are usually enough. Put a comma between them: a cold, misty morning. Five adjectives in one sentence make a reader tired.

5Use the present tense for a place

A place does not happen once. It is there today, and it will be there tomorrow. So when we describe a place we use the simple present tense.

Here is a worked example. Read it slowly and watch the letter s.

Kigali sits on many hills. The roads climb up and down all day. Motos carry people to work. In the evening the city shines with small lights.

Why does sits have an s but climb does not? Because of one rule:

• One thing (he, she, it, Kigali, the lake, the market) → add -s to the verb: the lake shines, the market opens, the road ends.
• Many things (they, the roads, the hills, motos) → no -s: the hills rise, the roads climb, the children play.

This one letter catches many writers. The market open at six is wrong. The market opens at six is right.

6There is and there are

To say what a place contains, use there is for one thing and there are for many.

• There is a tall church near the bus park.
• There are three shops on our street.

7Comparing two places

Uwase knows two markets. She wants to say which one has more people. Watch her build the sentence.

1. Choose the adjective: busy.
2. Change it to the comparing form: busier.
3. Join the two places with the little word than.

Kimironko Market is busier than our village market.

That form — busier — is called the comparative. We build it in one of two ways, and the length of the adjective decides which.

8Short adjectives: add -er

Two small spelling traps:

• If the short word ends in e, just add -r: wide → wider, large → larger, safe → safer.
• If it ends in one vowel + one consonant, double that consonant: big → bigger, hot → hotter, thin → thinner, wet → wetter.

9Adjectives ending in -y: change y to i, then add -er

• busy → busier — The bus park is busier on Friday.
• noisy → noisier — Our classroom is noisier than the library.
• dry → drier — The eastern plains are drier than Nyungwe.

10Long adjectives: put more in front

When an adjective is long (three syllables or more), we do not add -er. We put more in front of it.

• beautiful → more beautiful — The lake at sunset is more beautiful than the lake at noon.
• crowded → more crowded — The bus is more crowded in the morning than at midday.
• peaceful → more peaceful — The forest path is more peaceful than the main road.

11Four odd ones you simply learn

We never say gooder or more good. Only better.

12The mistake to avoid

You choose one way, never both. These are wrong:

• more bigger, more busier, more taller — the word already has -er, so more is not needed.
• more big, more busy — these words are short, so they take -er instead.

Try it yourself

Write yours first, then tap Show answer to check.