Adjective Gradability or Base and Extreme Adjectives
Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns. Some qualities can vary in intensity or "grade"
also called base and extreme adjectives, for example:
rather hot, hot, very hot; hot, hotter, the hottest
The adjective hot is gradable (base).
Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are:
extremes (forexample: freezing)
absolutes (forexample: dead)
classifying (forexample: nuclear)
The adjectives freezing, dead and nuclear are non-gradable (extreme).
Gradable Adjectives
A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or intensity.
Look at these examples:
grading adverbs + gradable adjectives
a little, dreadfully, extremely, fairly, hugely, angry, big, busy, clever, cold, deep, fast, friendly,
immensely, intensely, rather, reasonably, good, happy, high, hot, important, long, popular,
slightly, unusually, very rich, strong, tall, warm, weak, young
A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:
big, bigger, thebiggest
hot, hotter, thehottest
important, more important, the most important
Look at these example sentences:
My teacher was very happy with my homework.
That website is reasonably popular, but this one is more popular.
He said that France was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold, but Sweden was the
coldest.
Non-gradable Adjectives
A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:
It was rather freezing outside.
The dog was very dead.
He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.
Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:
freezing, more freezing, the most freezing
dead, deader, thedeadest
nuclear, more nuclear, the most nuclear
Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:
Itwas freezing outside.
Thedogwas dead.
He is investing in nuclear energy.
However, a non-gradable adjective can be used with "non-grading adverbs" (which usually just give
the adjective extra impact), for example:
non-gradingadverbs non-gradableadjectives
absolutely awful extreme
utterly excellent
completely terrified
totally dead absolute
nearly impossible
virtually unique
essentially chemical classifying
mainly digital
almost domestic
Here are some example sentences containing non-grading adverbs with non-gradable adjectives:
Her exam results were absolutely awful. She will have to take the exam again.
Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtually unique.
It starts an essentially chemical reaction.
Gradable / Non-gradable Adjectives
Some adjectives are gradable; this is a quality which exists to a greater or lesser degree. Some
adjectives can be base and some are extreme adjectives. These can be modified by adverbs
that can change the degree of an adjective, but they don’t occur with the same adverbs.
Base adjectives like: wet, hungry, funny, big, hot, cold, expensive, bad, ugly, tired, dirty,
frightened collocate with very, rather, exceedingly, extremely, terribly, really.
Extreme adjectives like:soaking, famished, starving, hilarious, enormous, huge, boiling, freezing,
priceless, awful, disgusting hideous, horrible, exhausted, filthy terrified collocate with absolutely,
completely, utterly, totally, really.
The only adverb that can be used with either base or extreme adjectives is really.
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. Forexample:
examplesentence adjective sense
He's got a very old car. gradable notyoung
I saw my old boyfriend yesterday. non-gradable former, ex-
He has some dreadfully common habits. gradable vulgar
"The" is a very common word in English. gradable prevalent
The two countries' common border poses problems. non-gradable shared
Adverbs used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives
The adverbs really (very much) and fairly and pretty (both meaning "to a significant degree, but less
than very") can often be used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives:
gradable non-gradable
Please don't forget! It's really He was reallyterrified.
important.
He's a fairly rich man. It's a fairly impossible job.
gradable non-gradable
He's prettytall. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it.
"Quite" with gradable and non-gradable adjectives
The sense of the adverb "quite" changes according to the gradability of the adjective that we use it
with:
adjective sense
It's quite warm today. gradable fairly, rather
Are you quite certain? non-gradable completely, absolutely
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