“The extent of the damage is just... it's unprecedented.”

English Lesson: The extent of the damage is just... it's unprecedented.

There's been a major hurricane in your region. It was the worst storm that you've ever had there. A newscaster is talking about the storm and says this.

The extent of the damage is just... it's unprecedented.

Want Video and Sound? Follow us on YouTube

just (adjective)

When used in this way, "just" means "very" or "completely". It can be used with positive or negative adjectives:

They did just a phenomenal job on this event.

This was just a horrible, horrible idea!

the extent of the damage

The "extent" of something means how much, how far, how bad, etc.

English speakers often use this word in the phrase "the extent of the damage". After some kind of accident or disaster, you have to check the extent of the damage, which means how badly things are broken and messed up. For example, a car mechanic can check the extent of the damage to your vehicle after a car crash.

(something) is unprecedented

A "precedent" is an earlier example of something. Something that is "unprecedented" has never happened before. You can use this word to talk about things like:

  • a company creating a product that's more successful than any other product in history
  • an environmental disaster that's worst than any other disasters in the past

...and so on.

This is a very intelligent-sounding word.