Look at these examples to see how gradable and non-gradable adjectives are used.
It's really cold.
It's absolutely freezing.
This exercise is really difficult.
This exercise is completely impossible.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Grammar explanation
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.
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 |
| Adjectives | angry, big, boring, cheap, cold, expensive, frightening, 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 |
| Adjectives | acceptable, dead, destroyed, finished, free, impossible, necessary, 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 |
| Adjectives | amazing, ancient, awful, boiling, delicious, enormous, excellent, exhausted, fascinating, freezing, gorgeous, terrible, terrifying, tiny, etc. |
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello César Árraga,
Frightened and satisfied are gradeable adjectives. Thrilled is a limit adjective.
In modern English, fairly and rather are used with gradeable adjectives. They weaken the meaning of the adjective and have a similar meaning to quite.
These adverbs could also be used as modifiers for limit adjectives, adding emphasis, but this is extremely rare in modern English:
I was quite delighted. [completely delighted]
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello César Árraga,
The adverbs conpletely and totally are sometimes used with gradeable adjectives. Thus, it's not uncommon to say you are completely happy with something or totally satisfied.
The adverbs utterly and absolutely are less commonly used in this way, and tend to be reserved for limit adjectives.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Umoh Margaret,
All of those words make adjectives stronger, so they are intensifiers.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team