EXTREME ADJECTIVES

GRADABLE & NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

Extreme Adjectives in English

What are Extreme Adjectives (non-gradable adjectives)?

Use "terrifying" instead of "very frightening", "deafening" instead of "very noisy", "soaked" instead of "very wet", "gorgeous" instead of "very beautiful", "exhaused" instead of "very tired" and "hilarious" instead of "very funny"

 

Oversuing the word 'very' when talking can be boring for the person listening. Instead of using 'very' too much we can use 'extreme adjectives'.

 

These adjectives mean very + adjective.  As extreme adjectives have a strong enough meaning, you do not need to use 'very'. If you want to make them stronger, you can use 'absolutely' before the extreme adjective.

 

Extreme adjectives are different from normal adjectives in that they do not take the intensifier very: e.g. very good, very brilliant

 

Extreme adjectives use other intensifiers such as absolutely, completely, totally, utterly. These intensifiers cannot be used with normal adjectives: e.g. absolutely brilliant, absolutely good

 

With most other adjectives (e.g., shallow, large, big, small, little) specified amounts are not used.So, very, rather, pretty, quite – emphasize the adjective;
fairly, moderately, somewhat – de-emphasize (lessen) the adjective. See Adverbs of degree.

 

 

“Cold” is a regular adjective, and “freezing” is an extreme adjective.

Adjectives are words that describe the qualities of something. Some adjectives in English are gradable – that means you can have different degrees or levels of that quality. For example, the weather can be a little cold, rather cold, very cold, or extremely cold.

Extreme adjectives or non-gradable adjectives are words that mean “extremely + adjective” – for example, “freezing” means “extremely cold.” The weather can’t be “a little bit freezing” or “very freezing” – because the word “freezing” itself automatically means “extremely cold.”

Regular & Extreme Adjectives List

Regular Adjective	Extreme Adjective
angry	furious
bad	awful, terrible, horrible, dreadful.
big	huge, gigantic, giant, enormous
clean	spotless
cold	freezing
crowded	packed
dirty	filthy
funny	hilarious
good	wonderful, fantastic, excellent
hot	boiling, scorching, roasting
hungry	starving
interesting	fascinating
old	ancient
pretty	gorgeous, stunning
scary	terrifying, frightening, intimidating.
small	tiny, minuscule
surprising	astounding
tired	exhausted
ugly	hideous

Beautiful (pretty) - gorgeous

Awful - dreadful, unpleasant, disagreeable.

Bad - tragic, revolting, pathetic, outrageous. deplorable, dreadful.

Good - sense: excellent: awesome, great, outstanding, impressive, striking, remarkable, hot, bad, exceptional, top, praiseworthy, extraordinary, superb, superfine, super, sublime, august, first-class/rate, high, invaluable, skillful, sensational, terrific, marvelous, cool, sharp, all right, paramount, smashing, finest,  grade/quality, world-class, magnificent, matchless, superlative, capital, unique, majestic ...

 

* an august performance

Surprising  - amazing - astonishing - awe-inspiring - extraordinary - incredible - miraculous - remarkable - shocking - spectacular - startling - stunning - stupendous - unusual - wondrous (intensifier,/ˈwʌndrəs/): It is wondrous cold.

Ugly - awful (very unpleasant), shocking, appalling 

The news of the politician's affair caused a dreadful scandal.

MORE REGULAR & EXTREME ADJECTIVES

Attractive - arresting (strikingly notable), stunning, staggering, unusual, remarkable, noteworthy, memorable * Awful - Dreadful * Boring - Mind-numbing * Fat - obese * Happy-thrilled * Noisy / loud - deafening * Scared-terrified/frightened/spooked/petrified * Tasty - Delicious

* When Kate woke up, her arm was completely numb because she had slept on it wrong. (adormecido, insensible

* City people often become numb to the suffering of the homeless. (insensitive, indifferent, apathetic, 2. deaden, lessen)

* adj. a loud party (noisy); too brightly colored; ostentatious: loud colors; a loud tie.  2. adv: in a loud manner: loudly: Don't talk so loud. 3. Idiom: out loud, aloud; so as to be heard: He spoke out loud.

* A stunning redhead (of striking beauty, very attractive). Syn:  1 . stupefying, numbing, dumbfounding, astounding. 2. to astonish; astound; amaze: We were completely stunned by her hostile reaction. 3. to shock; overwhelm:We were stunned to hear of his sudden death

 

Special Rules for Extreme Adjectives

1) No comparatives/superlatives.

2) Use different adverbs with extreme adjectives.

With regular adjectives, we can use these adverbs:

• a little (bit), a bit, pretty, slightly, fairly, somewhat, rather, quite
• so, really, very, extremely, immensely, intensely, hugely

Examples:

• I’m rather hungry. / I’m very hungry.
• This room is a bit dirty. / This room is extremely dirty.
• We’re a little tired. / We’re immensely tired.

With extreme adjectives, we CANNOT use these adverbs:

• I’m rather starving. / I’m extremely starving.

However, there are other adverbs we can use to give additional emphasis to the extreme adjective:

• absolutely
• completely
• totally
• utterly

Examples:

• I’m absolutely furious.
• We’re completely exhausted.
• The movie was utterly terrifying.

The words pretty and really can be used with both regular and extreme adjectives:

• This room is pretty dirty. (regular)
• This room is pretty filthy. (extreme)
• The party is really crowded. (regular)
• The party is really packed. (extreme)

MORE EXAMPLES

1. When was the last time you ate something absolutely delicious?
2. What subjects do you find fascinating?
3. Is your house filthy or spotless?
4. What films do you think are utterly hilarious?
5. This room is disgusting! It's absolutely filthy! I've never seen so much dirt.
6. This has been an utterly dreadful evening, I just want to go home.
7. The food was good but the portions were absolutely tiny.
8. The dessert looked totally hideous but luckily it was very tasty.

Absolute Adjectives

Another type of extreme adjective is called an “absolute” adjective. 
These are words that are either “yes or no.” For example, dead – you can’t be “a little bit dead” or “very dead” – either YES, you are dead, or NO, you’re not dead.
Here’s a list of absolute adjectives and their opposites (this list is not complete; it only shows some examples):

Absolute Adjective	Opposite
complete	incomplete
equal	unequal
essential	non-essential; extraneous
dead	alive
fatal	not fatal
first	last / final
full	empty
ideal	not ideal
impossible	possible
infinite	finite
married	single / divorced / separated / widowed
perfect	imperfect
pregnant	not pregnant
unique	not unique
universal	not universal
unknown	known
true	false

Note:

You might hear expressions like these in spoken English:

“That’s very true.”
“It’s the very first time…”
“This shirt is more unique than that one.”

           I do agree with you, though, that there is still a very, very great deal left to be done.
           They were expelled from their [...] home, and lost a very great deal.
           The fact that the system cannot talk to itself is also a very great weakness.
           Applying these measures poses a very great risk to the employment of women.
           This is an ever-changing situation and the inherent dangers are very great.

These sentences are not technically correct, because we shouldn’t use the words “very” or “more” with absolute adjectives – but native speakers don’t always follow the rules!

Modifiers to Adjectives (Adjective Phrases): Express how much or to what degree.

With most other adjectives (e.g., shallow, large, big, small, little) specified amounts are not used.So, very, rather, pretty, quite – emphasize the adjective;
fairly, moderately, somewhat – de-emphasize (lessen) the adjective. See Adverbs of degree.

An adverb can also modify the degree or extent of an adjective. The adverb tells us: How much?  To what degree?

The bridge towers are	very / rather/ pretty	tall.
The roadway is	so / moderately	high.
The bridge is	rather / quite	long.
The roadway is	fairly / adequately	wide.
The water below is	quite / extremely	deep.

EXTREME ADJECTIVES (MORE ABOUT IT)

AIM: To introduce the concept of extreme adjectives and practise using them.
INTRODUCTION: Many adjectives can be modified using other words to strengthen or weaken their meaning. These examples come from the back pain case. These are called base adjectives.

• It feels pretty bad all the time.
• It was a bit hard to get to a swimming pool.
• That’s a very good idea.

AWFUL

• awful adjective (BAD)

A2 extremely bad or unpleasant: He suffered awful injuries in the crash.We had awful weather.She has an awful boss.What an awful thing to say!Would life be so awful without a car?The food was awful.She'd been ill and she looked awful.

More examples

• If the party is awful, we can always leave .
• The hotel was awful! To begin with, our room was far too small.
• The awful spectre of civil war looms over the country.
• It's a good job they didn't go camping last weekend - the weather was awful.
• They live downwind of a pig-farm and sometimes the smell is awful.

Thesaurus: Not of good quality (third-class, downscale, poor, unattractive ...)        

synonyms and related words:         

• awful adjective (VERY GREAT)

B2 [before noun] very great: I don't know an awful lot (= very much) about art, but I'm learning.Fortunately it won't make an awful lot of difference if I don't pass the test.It was an awful risk to take.

More examples

• There's an awful lot of smut on television these days.
• There's an awful lot of work to be done.
• It's an awful bore cooking a meal every night.
• It takes an awful long time to travel across the city on public transport.
• I'm feeling an awful lot better, thanks.

awfulness

noun [U] uk   /ˈɔː.fəl.nəs/  us   /ˈɑː.fəl.nəs/

› You can't appreciate the true/sheer awfulness of war until you've actually experienced it.