Adjectives
You can use pairs of opposite adjectives to talk about dimensions. So, the street you live in may be wide or narrow; a river could be deep or shallow; and a slice of bread might be thick or thin, with a thick or thin layer of butter on it.
The adjective broad means the same as “wide”, but we usually use it in particular phrases: someone could have broad shoulders or a broad back; you can give someonea broad grin; it’s better to be broad-minded than narrow-minded; and you can get on the internet faster if you have a broadband connection.
You can also use thick and thin to say how close together things are, or to talk about liquids:
- The hills were covered in thick forest.
- His hair is getting quite thin.
- Melt the butter, then add milk and flour to make a thick sauce.
You can use deep and shallow to say how far down something goes, but “deep” can also have other meanings:
- She crashed her father’s car, so now she’s in deep (= serious) trouble.
- He had a deep (= low) voice even when he was a teenager.
- I took a deep breath and jumped into the sea.
Precise dimensions
To indicate precise dimensions, you can give a measurement + adjective:
- The hole needs to be at least two metres deep.
- The shelf is only 12 centimetres wide.
You can also use the nouns width, depth and thickness:
- What’s the width of your car?
- We dug to a depth of three metres.