Line 4: very minute => very small / tiny Line 6: abselutely hungry => absolutely famished / starving Lines 7/8: fairly furious => fairly annoyed/angry Line 9: absolutely pleased => absol[r]
Trang 1GRAMMAR FOR ADVADVANCED LEARNERS GRADABLE AND UNGRADABLE ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are 'describing' words Most adjectives have a meaning which can be made
stronger or weaker; these are called 'gradable adjectives' Other adjectives have a
meaning which is extreme or absolute and cannot easily be made stronger or
weaker These are called 'ungradable adjectives' The differences in the way we use
these two kinds of adjectives can cause problems even for advanced students Let us
look at these different types of adjective and the ways in which we can modify their
meaning
MODIFYING GRADABLE ADJECTIVES
A Gradable and Ungradable Adjectives Gradable adjectives represent a point on a
scale For example , cheap and expensive are adjectives on the scale of 'how much
something costs' Ungradable adjectives represent the limits of a scale (see B below).
Gradable adjectives
(limit of the scale)
Ungradable adjectives
Gradable adjectives
(limit of the scale)
free (very cheap) cheap (not very cheap) (a bit expensive expensive very expensive
freezing cold hot boiling
vast / enormous large small minute / tiny
We can make comparative and superlative forms from all gradable adjectives:
B Strengthening the adjective We can make gradable adjectives stronger with very,
but not with the adverb absolutely:
- That new jacket looks absolutely expensive =>That new jacket looks verg expensive.
- Yes It's much cheaper Let's buy some tickets.
There are several other modifiers which we use to strengthen the meaning of these
adjectives: so, rather, really, extremely, terribly, most (formal), pretty (informal):
- Last night's match was terribly exciting.
- I felt pretty upset after the accident (informal)
- The chapter on the early sonnets was most instructive (formal)
We often use less common adverbs to modify certain gradable adjectives Although
very is commonly used to strengthen any adjective, your English will sound more fluent
and natural if you learn to use other combinations of adverb and adjective:
- I was bitterly disappointed at my exam results.
- Mg brother is painfully shy.
- The students in this school are highly intelligent.
Note that we can often only use certain adverbs with certain adjectives (for commonly used combinations)
C Weakening the adjective Gradable adjectives can usually be made weaker by the
words fairly, slightly, (little) bit, (informal) and somewhat (formal):
- I've been feeling slightly dizzy all morning.
- Mg friend was a bit drunk (informal)
- The police reported that the man was somewhat inebriated (formal)
In conversation, a bit is a useful way to make a critical remark more polite:
- You're a bit overdressed, aren't you?
We can use not very and not at all to weaken gradable adjectives after the verb be:
- The end of term test wasn't very long and it wasn't at all difficult.
D Quite With gradable adjectives quife usually means 'fairly' but can have other meanings The different meanings are only apparent in spoken English as they are dependent on stress and intonation:
- The lecture was quite interesting (unmarked = fairly interesting)
quite interesting (stress on adjective = more interesting than the speaker expected)
quite interesting (stress on adverb = less interesting than the speaker expected)
MODIFYING UNCRADABLE ADJECTIVES
A Ungradable adjectives Ungradable adjectives (e.g enormous, vast, tiny, priceless,
free) have a meaning which represents the limit of a scale For example the limits of the
scale of 'how much something costs' are free (= it costs nothing) and priceless (= its cost
is too great to be counted) Ungradable adjectives are not usually used in comparatives
and superlatives, and we do not use very to make them stronger:
- The Ming vases are more priceless than the Egyptian mummies
=> The Ming vases are more valuable than the Egyptian mummies.
- Entrance to the museum is very free
=> Entrance to the museum is absolutely free.
B Intensifying the adjective A common way to intensify the meaning of ungradable
adjectives is with the adverb absolutety
We use this device to add emphasis in spoken and informal English; it is not common
in writing:
- I couldn't swim in the sea; the water was absolutely freezing.
- The show was absolutely fabulous.
When we use quite with ungradable adjectives, it has a similar meaning to 'completely',
emphasising the strength of the adjective:
- The tenor's performance was quite amazing.
- You're quite correct.
Trang 2Although we use absolutely with many ungradable adjectives, there are some
adjectives which are never intensified with absolutely and some where we prefer to use
other intensifying adverbs such as completely, totally and utterly There are no grammar
rules which explain these combinations so it is best to learn them as vocabulary items
- I'm afraid your answer is completely wrong.
- Since the accident Henry has been totally deaf in one ear.
- Susan was utterly appalled by her husband's dishonesty.
We can also use a most before ungradable adjectives used before a noun:
- Hilary has a most amazing hairstyle.
C ALMOST, NEARLY, etc We do not usually make ungradable adjectives weaker by
using the modifiers fairly, slightly, (little) bit, somewhat or not very:
- Their favourite possession is a slightly priceless Satsuma vase,
- I wouldn’t recommend the show; it’s not very fabulous.
But we do use almost, nearly, proctically or virtually to indicate a point close to the
absolute meaning of ungradable adjectives:
- He never turns the heating on - it's practically freezing in there.
- The battery in my calculator is almost dead.
- After six months with the disease he was nearly deaf and virtually blind.
D Comparatives and superlatives Because ungradable adjectives represent the limit
of a scale, they are not usually used in comparatives and superlatives However, in
spoken English many 'ungradable' adjectives can be used gradably when we are
comparing similar things at one end of a scale and can then be used in comparisons:
- I've never been more exhausted than I was after the New York marathon.
- That was the most delicious meal you've ever cooked!
With comparatives of this type we often use still more or even more:
- Their house is even more enormous than Richard's!
MODTFYING ADJECTTVES IN INFORMAL ENGLISH
A REALLY, REAL…
There are several modifiers which we use with both gradable and ungradable adjectives
to make their meaning stronger The most common in informal English is really:
- That film was reallg exciting It's reallg freezing in here!
In informal US English real can be used instead of really:
- That watch looks real expensive.
Expressions such as nice and and good and can be used to intensify many adjectives:
- The hotel was nice and clean I'll come when I'm good and ready.
In very informal English, dead and a number of slang words (e.g bleeding) can be used
as intensifiers:
- The rollercoaster ride was dead scary.
We usually do not use these colloquial modifiers in formal English:
[- Her Majesty was dead interested in the traditional Maori dancing.]
[- The bank is really sorry about having to refuse your application for a loan.]
D Gradable and ungradable Some adjectives can have both gradable and ungradable
meanings, depending on whether the speaker feels the adjective describes an absolute quality or one which is relative to something else:
- I'm afraid there are no rooms - the hotel is full (ungradable = completely full)
- The hotel's very full but I think I can get you a single room for tonight (gradable =
has many guests but there is still some space) Other adjectives like this are: empty, beautiful, black, delicious, new, possible
COMMON ADVERB + ADJECTIVE COLLOCATIONS
These collocations are taken from the British National Corpus (Below, 'sb' =
somebody and 'sth' = something.)
adverb + adjective
bitterly cold, disappointed, divided, hostile, humiliated, hurt, opposed, resented, resentful, upset
completely acclimatised, alone, different, drained, empty / full, extinguished, immune (from / to sth), incapable (of sth), incomprehensible, lost, negative, new, open (with sb (= honestly, overloohed, revised, right / wrong, untenable
deeply ashamed, attached (to sb / sth) (=strong feeling for), conscious, conservative, depressed, disappointed, disturbed, divided, embedded, embittered, hurt, indebted (to sb), ingrained, in love with, involved, involved (in sth), lamented, meaningful, moving, religious, rutted
entirely absent, beneficiat, clear, different, false, fitting, free, global, impersonal, legal, new, obvious, serious, unconvincing, unexpected
heavily armed, booked, built, censored, criticised, embroiled (with sb / sth), flavoured, guarded, involved (in sth), muscled, polluted, populated, protected, publicised, regulated, represented, scented, soiled, taxed
hideously bad, burnt, deformed, disfigured, disfiguring, effective, embarrassing, expensive, injured, lurid, mangled, scarred, swollen, ugly, unhygienic
highly commended, contagious, controversial, critical, dependent, developed, educated, enjoyable, flexible, intelligent, mobile, paid, personal, polished, political, popular, publicised, quotified, recommended, regarded, relevant, resistant, respected, significant, shilled specialised, technical, toxic, trained, unlikely, valued, volatile
painfully acute, qware, evocqtive, teqrned, loud, obvious, self-conscious, sensitive, shy, slow, small, sparse, thin
perfectly arranged, balanced, capable, fitting (= appropriate), formed, genuine, good, healthy, normal, ptaced, proper, rational, reasonable, (all) right, safe, still, straightforward, understandable, valid
seriously damaged, exposed, hit (= damaged), ill, impaired, rich, threatened, undermined, wealthy
totally abandoned, abused, alien, anaemic, decent, destroyed, different, embarrassed, harmless, homogeneous, honest, impervious (to sth), inadequate,incompetent, integrated, irresistible, logical, new, normal, overpowering, stiff, surprising, unacceptable, unbelievable,
Trang 3undefined, unjustified, wasted
utterly abandoned, alone, appallled, careless, dejected, destroged, devoted (to
sb), different, disastrous, fearless, futile, impossible, irresistible,
lacking, ruthless, tragic, unacceptable, unattainable, unquestioning,
useless, wrecked PRACTICE I Put each adjective into the correct box below Each box will contain ten adjectives. amaztng attractive cold correct dead enormous exciting expensive extinct fascinating freezing good interesting huge large minute paralysed shy sick ugly GRADABLE ADJECTIVES UNGRADABLE ADJECTIVES II Use the words in the box below to rewrite each sentence, making it either stronger or weaker according to the instructions Use each word once only The exercise begins with an example (0). virtually very somewhat a bit highly absolutely slightly fabulously fairly A Make these sentences weaker: 0 The dress I bought yesterday is damaged => The dress I bought yesterday is slightly damaged 1.These days mobile phones are inexpensive
2 Be careful changing gear; the gearstick's stiff
3 The inscription on the tomb was indecipherable
4 Many of the lnca religious ceremonies were bloodthirsty
B Make these sentences stronger: 5 Jane's flat was freezing last night
6 This new computer game sounds interesting
7 Hilary's new boyfriend is rich
8 Victory in our next game seems unlikely
III Match the labels (A-D) with the sentences (1-6) Some labels may be used more than once A US English B formal C informal 1 We were wearing the same outfitl lt was dead embarrassing
2 The cave paintings were real impressive
3 I thought Dave's behaviour was a bit bizarre last night
4 The professor's lecture was most illuminating
5 Francis Bacon's later works were somewhat disturbing
6 These new engines are pretty reliable
IV Read the article below and decide which word (A-C) bestfits each space (l-10) The exercise begins with an example (0).
Fakes found in major museums
Oscar White Muscarella, a (0) respected archeologist at New York's Metropolitan
Museum, claims that more than 1,250 forgeries are on display in the world's leading museums and art galleries In his latest book Muscarella specifically names 37 forgeries
in the Louvre, 16 in the British Museum and 45 in his own museum in New York Muscarella's earlier claims have been heavily (1) by some museum officials who are (2) opposed to his arguments But Muscarella has (3) good scientific evidence for his claims, showing that over 40 per cent of the objects examined by the Oxford Thermoluminescence laboratory are fakes The reason for the quantity of forgeries is (4) simple Because many of the objects in our museums were found by amateurs and illegally exported from their countries of origin they have no official provenance or documented history Museums are painfully (5) of this embarrassing problem and as a result they have been known to overlook the lack of written records before accepting or buying antiquities This makes it (5) impossible to detect forgeries, especially if they are accurate copies But in fact many forgeries are (7) obvious as they are often copied from a photograph which only shows the front
of an object When examining the back of the forgery they can look (8) different from the original But museum officials tend to be (9) conservative and hate to question objects which have been sitting in their collections for many years
Muscarella specialises in the ancient Middle East, and this is the area of archaeology
in which he has found so many forgeries But his research has had the effect of undermining the reputation of some of our most (10) regarded institutions, and this should be of concern to anyone who values our cultural heritage
Trang 45 A conscious B understanding C aware
V Six of these sentences contain mistakes Tick () the correct sentences, then find
the mistakes and correct them.
1 .We thought the state rooms in the White House were real impressive!
2 .I'm afraid there's nothing to eat; the fridge is very empty
3 .The tour bus is completely full so I've only got six seats left to offer you
4 .I love these 'awayday' tickets; they're nice and cheap
5 .We chose the hotel because it was very recommended by our neighbours
6 .If you were really serious about your studies, you would have given up
that evening job
7 .Everyone in our class loves Jackie - she's dead friendly
8 .Jackwas a very built man with massive shoulders and a menacing stare
9 .I found the funeral ceremony absolutely moving
10 .The Ambassador would be really delighted to accept this honour on
behalf of the President
VI This box contains eight groups of gradable and ungradable adjectives with
similar meanings There are four adjectives to each group in the box below.
Complete the gaps in the table The example for nice is provided.
gradable adjectives ungradable adjectives
1 dull
2 small
3 amusing
4 rare
5 angry
VII The writer of this letter has made mistakes with some of the adjectives she has
used Find the mistakes and substitute suitable alternative adjectives from the
table in Exercise VI You can only change the adjectives, everything else must
remain the same There are 14 unsuitable adjectives in the letter, including the
example.
HOTEL PALMERA
BARCELONA
1 Dear Jusanna,
2 Having an absolutely nice here in Barcelona The weather has been
3 wonderfully hot and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky Our hotel is in the
4 Gothic quarter - it's very minute but quite comfortable The staff are all very
5 friendly and helpful - we got back from a club at 3 a.m a couple of days ago –
6 all of us were absolutely hungry of course - and the doorman kindly offered to
7 make us all sandwiches! Steve wasn't impressed (as usual!), he was actually fairly
8 furious because they didn't have granary bread!
9 We've seen most of rhe sights in the city Karen was abolutely pleased when
10 we went to the 'Sagrada Familia' - she loves Gaudi's work It's certainly a totally
11 rare building And Steve was very ecstatic about going to the Maritime Musem –
12 he seems to find anything to do with boats utterly interesting I can't
13 understand it myself I was absolutely annoyed when he suggested we stay there
14 over lunch time - especially as I was a bit famished at the time (not surprising
15 after two very tedious hours of looking at dusty old ships! It was even more
16 stultifying than that afternoon we spent with the VAT inspectors - if you can
17 imagine such a thing!)
18 The sfreet life here is very fascinating We've spent a lot of time wandering
19 around and staring at the street performers Luckily there are lots of pavement
20 cafés and it's very fabulous to simply while away the time watching the world go
21 by.
22 Anyway, I hope things are going well at the office, although I can't say I'm very
23 exhilarated at the thought of getting back there next week!
24 Lots of love,
Jackie
Line 2 nice => fabulous
ANSWER KEY
I Ungradable: amazing correct dead enormous extinct fascinating freezing huge minute
paralysed Gradable: attractive cold exciting expensive good interesting large shy sick ugly
II
1 fairly inexpensive 2 a bit stiff 3 virtually indecipherable
4 somewhat bloodthirsty 5 absolutely freezing
Trang 56 very interesting 7 fabulously rich 8 highly unlikely
III 1D 2A, C 3C 4B 5B 6C
IV 1C 2A 3A 4B 5C 6B 7B 8A 9C 10B
V
1 2 very empty => completely empty 3 completely full => very full
4 5 very recommended => highly recommended 6
7 8 very built => heavily built 9 absolutely moving => deeply moving
10 really delighted => highly delighted
VI
1 gradable: boring, tedious, uninteresting
ungradable: stultifying
2 gradable: diminutive, little, tiny
ungradable: minute
3 gradable: diverting, engaging, interesting
ungradable: fascinating
4 gradable: scarce, uncommon, unusual
ungradable: unique
5 gradable: annoyed, irate, irritated ungradable: furious
7 gradable: happy
ungradable : delighted, ecstatic, exhilarated
8 gradable: hungry
ungradable: famished, ravenous, starving
VII
Line 4: very minute => very small / tiny
Line 6: abselutely hungry => absolutely famished / starving
Lines 7/8: fairly furious => fairly annoyed/angry
Line 9: absolutely pleased => absolutely delighted
Lines 10/11: totally rare => totally unique
Line 11: very estastic => very pleased/happy
Line 12: utterly interesting => utterly fascinating
Line 13: absolutely annoyed => absolutely furious
Line 14: a bit famished => a bit hungry
Line 16: stultifying => boring/uninteresting/tedious
Line 18: very fascinating => very amusing/diverting
Line 20: very fabulous => very nice / lovely
Lines 22/23: very exhilarated => very happy/pleased