Gradable and non- gradable Adjectives

 SESSION 8 IN INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Instructional design:

The students could identify and classify the adjective which are gradable and non-gradable. Then, they could use the adjective in any English skill based on the context. 

Method:

The teacher gives some tasks as their practices applying this topic. Therefore, the teacher adopts task-based approach and communication approach through this blog. The students could interact with the teacher in written communication in the comment column.

Description: 

The topic introduces the adjectives that could be gradable or not gradable. Learn the explanation below to know the ideas of gradable and non-gradable adjectives. You could see the examples, then practise yourself to apply these following adjectives in your own sentences or in a paragraph. 

1. Gradable Adjectives

    Gradable means that adjectives have different levels of their quality. It means that the adjectives could be weaker or stronger with modifiers. The modifiers could be a litte/ a bit, pretty/ quite, really/very/ and extremely. Most adjectives are gradable. These are the example of gradable  adjectives: angry, big, boring, cheap, cold, expensive, frightening, funny, hot, interesting, old, pretty, small, tasty, tired, etc. 

 She was quite angry when she found out.

 The film we saw last night was really funny!

2. Non-gradable Adjectives: absolute or extreme adjectives

    These adjectives refer to the adjective words that have their own meaning of 'very' in their definition. They show absolute qualities. If you want to create these adjectives stronger, you have to use absolutely, totally, or completely. These are the examples of non-gradable adjectives: amazing, ancient, awful, boiling, delicious, enormous, excellent, exhausted, fascinating, freezing, gorgeous, terrible, terrifying, tiny, etc.

Did you see the final match? It was absolutely amazing! 

    So, How to differentiate them?. To answer the question, you could identify the classification of adjectives either they are gradable or non-gradable. After that, you see what their meanings/ definition are. If they are gradable adjective, you could use adverb or modifier before the words. But, if they are non-gradable, you possibly could not put the adverb or modifier except you want to make it extreme.  The ideas are adopted from https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org and https://www.lexico.com/grammar by Oxford.