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Non Gradable Adjectives

Gradable adjectives like "cold" and "frightened" can have different degrees and are modified by words like "very" or "quite". Non-gradable adjectives like "married" or "wooden" do not have degrees and cannot be modified in the same way. Some adjectives like "terrifying" and "freezing" are also non-gradable as they already imply veryness in their meaning.

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255 views12 pages

Non Gradable Adjectives

Gradable adjectives like "cold" and "frightened" can have different degrees and are modified by words like "very" or "quite". Non-gradable adjectives like "married" or "wooden" do not have degrees and cannot be modified in the same way. Some adjectives like "terrifying" and "freezing" are also non-gradable as they already imply veryness in their meaning.

Uploaded by

Daniel Boscaneanu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Non-gradable adjectives

11th form
Gradable adjectives are adjectives like
„cold‟ „hot‟ and „frightened‟. You can
be very cold or a bit cold. Gradable
adjectives show that something can have
different degrees.
Non-gradable adjectives are adjectives like
„married‟ or „wooden‟. You can‟t be very
married or a bit married. Non-gradable adjectives
do not have different degrees.

Adjectives like „terrifying‟, „freezing‟ „amazing‟


are also non-gradable adjectives. They already
contain the idea of „very‟ in their definitions –
„freezing‟ means „very cold‟ etc.
Gradable adjectives
Most adjectives are gradable. This means we can have
different levels of that quality. For example, you can be a bit
cold, very cold or extremely cold. 
We can make them weaker or stronger with modifiers:

She was quite angry when she found out.


The film we saw last night was really funny!
It can be extremely cold in Russia in the winter.
Some adjectives describe qualities that are
completely present or completely absent. They do
not occur in comparative and superlative forms,
and cannot be used with adverbs such as very or
extremely, because we don’t usually imagine
degrees of more or less of the quality being
described.
Here is a list of some common gradable adjectives
and some modifiers that we can use with them:

Modifiers a little/a bit → pretty/quite → really/very → extremely

angry, big, boring, cheap, cold, expensive, frightening,
Adjectives
funny, hot, interesting, old, pretty, small, tasty, tired, etc.
Non-gradable: absolute adjectives
Some adjectives are non-gradable. For example, something can't be a
bit finished or very finished. You can't be a bit dead or very dead. These
adjectives describe absolute qualities. To make them stronger we have
to use modifiers like absolutely, totally or completely:

Thank you, I love it! It's absolutely perfect!


Their farm was totally destroyed by a tornado.
My work is completely finished. Now I can relax.
Here is a list of some common absolute adjectives
and some modifiers that we can use with them.

Modifiers absolutely/totally/completely

acceptable, dead, destroyed, finished, free, impossible, nec
Adjectives
essary, perfect, ruined, unacceptable, etc.
Non-gradable: extreme adjectives
Adjectives like amazing, awful and boiling are also non-gradable. They
already contain the idea of 'very' in their definitions. If we want to
make extreme adjectives stronger, we have to use absolutely or really:

Did you see the final match? It was absolutely amazing!


After 32 hours of travelling, they were absolutely exhausted.
My trip home was really awful. First, traffic was really bad, then the car
broke down and we had to walk home in the rain.
Here is a list of some common extreme adjectives
and some modifiers that we can use with them.

Modifiers absolutely/really

amazing, ancient, awful, boiling, delicious, enormous,
Adjectives excellent, exhausted, fascinating, freezing, gorgeous, 
terrible, terrifying, tiny, etc.
Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense.
It's possible for the same adjective to be gradable with one
sense and non-gradable with another sense. For example:

example sentence adjective sense


He's got a very old car. gradable not young
I saw my old boyfriend yesterday. non-gradable former, ex-
He has some dreadfully gradable vulgar
common habits.
"The" is a very common word in gradable prevalent
English.
The two countries' common border non-gradable shared
poses problems.

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