“Her enthusiasm is contagious.”

You're going to introduce one of your favorite teachers for a speech she's giving. You're writing the introduction. You want to explain how this teacher makes you want to learn more because she's so excited about the subject she teaches. You write this.

Her enthusiasm is contagious.

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enthusiasm

"Enthusiasm" is the noun form of "enthusiastic". Enthusiasm is a quality that people have sometimes. It means being positive, active, and ready to try something. You say that a person is "enthusiastic about" something. For example, when you're talking about a new project you're working on at work that you really like, you can say:

I'm feeling pretty enthusiastic about this one. What about you?

"Enthusiasm" is a noun that's made out of an adjective. Some other examples of this include:

  • happy > happiness
  • relieved > relief
  • frustrated > frustration
  • irritated > irritation
  • certain > certainty

It's important to learn the noun forms of adjectives. Knowing them allows you to talk about different feelings and emotions that you or other people have.

enthusiasm is contagious

Something that is "contagious" spreads from one person to another. The main use of the word "contagious" is to talk about diseases:

There's absolutely no reason to worry about coming in contact with a person with ALS. It's not contagious.

A "contagious" disease spreads from one person to another. We also talk about some emotions as being "contagious". One of these emotions is enthusiasm, as you can see from the example at top. Some other emotions and actions that are said to be contagious are:

  • laughter
  • yawning
  • excitement