English Grammar with Kudjo. Part 4. Понятная и забавная грамматика для детей и взрослых

8 a kitten with yellow eyes —

9 roast meat that makes your mouth water —

GRADABLE AND NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

Some adjectives in English are gradable, which means you can have different degrees of that quality. For example, Chilly can be: a little angry / rather angry / very angry / extremely angry

Other adjectives are non-gradable, meaning we can’t have different degrees of that quality. There are three types of non-gradable adjectives: extreme adjectives, absolute adjectives and classifying adjectives.

Extreme adjectives are words that mean extremely + adjective – for example, furious means extremely angry. Chilly can’t be a little bit furious or very furious – because the word furious itself automatically means extremely angry.

Another type of non-gradable adjective is called an absolute adjective. These are words that are either «yes or no.» For example, the word dead – you can’t be a little bit dead or very dead – either YES, you are dead, or NO, you’re not dead.

A third type of non-gradable adjective is a classifying adjective, which describes what type or category something is: for example, a leather collar – we can’t have a slightly leather collar or a very leather collar.

EXERCISE 5

Which one is the extreme adjective?

1 a bad / terrible day

2 the hungry / starving dogs

3 the exhausted / tired kitten

Which one is the absolute adjective?

4 a mysterious / unknown place

5 an essential / important part

6 an ideal / useful plan

Which one is the classifying adjective?

7 a pine tree / a tall tree

8 a dangerous animal / a carnivorous animal

9 a big cat / a predatory cat

DIFFERENCES IN USING GRADABLE

AND NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

1 No comparatives / superlatives with non-gradable adjectives

With regular adjectives, we can use comparatives and superlatives: Cuba is big. Luna is bigger. The lynx is the biggest animal of them all.

With non-gradable (extreme, absolute and classifying) adjectives, we usually don’t use comparatives and superlatives. It’s impossible for one dead person to be deader than another, or for one wooden stick to be the most wooden.

2 Use different adverbs with non-gradable adjectives.

With gradable adjectives, we can use adverbs of degree like these:

Small degree: a little, a bit, slightly

Middle degree: fairly, rather, somewhat

Large degree: very, extremely, immensely, intensely, hugely, quite

With non-gradable adjectives, we CANNOT use these adverbs. However, we can use the adverbs absolutely, completely, and utterly to give additional emphasis to extreme adjectives:

The lynx was absolutely furious.The dogs were completely exhausted.

The words pretty and really can be used with gradable adjectives and with extreme adjectives, but not the absolute or classifying ones:

This cave was pretty dirty. (gradable)

This cave was pretty filthy. (extreme)

Other words that can be used with some non-gradable (absolute and extreme) adjectives include totally, nearly/almost, virtually, and quite: He was nearly dead.

With classifying adjectives, we can sometimes use the words entirely, completely, fully, largely, and mainly to say that all or most of the things fall into that category:

The lynx’s food is mainly organic.

EXERCISE 6

Complete 4 of the sentences with the word very, and the other 5 with one of the following words: entirely / almost / absolutely / practically / completely. Sometimes more than one answer is possible.

1 The lynx’s explanation was *****clear and the dogs understood everything perfectly.

2 Chilly was***** thrilled when the lynx kissed him and called him «my hero’.

3 However, Cuba responded to the situation in a ***** immature way

4 The whole experience seemed ***** humiliating to her.

5 The roast meat had some ***** strong side effects – everybody fell fast asleep.

6 They were ***** convinced that in the cave they were ***** safe.

7 Everybody was so exhausted that it was ***** impossible to move anywhere.

8 The lynx’s suggestion of spending the night in the cave sounded ***** clever.

9 Only Luna was ***** certain that something was wrong.