Gradable and non- gradable adjectives and adverbsMatch the gradable adjectives in the first column to the correct non- gradable adjective in the second column.

gradable adjectives non gradable adjectivestired great, wonderful, fantastic, superbfrightened exhaustedgood delicioustasty filthybad terrifiedpretty, attractive starvinghungry horrible, awful, terrible, disgustingangry thrilled, delighteddirty astonished, amazedsurprised hilarioushappy beautiful, gorgeousfunny furious

We can make adjectives stronger with adverbs such as very and absolutely.

e.g. Their house is very big.

Their garden is absolutely enormous.

We can only use “very” with gradable adjectives.

e.g. very tired NOT very exhausted

We can only use “absolutely” with non-gradable adjectives.

e.g. absolutely wonderful NOT absolutely good

We can use “really” with both types of adjectives.

e.g. really tired really exhausted

A list of gradable and non-gradable adverbs.

gradable adverbs non gradable adverbsvery absolutelyextremely reallyreally* utterlyterribly (emphatic) just (in every way possible)pretty completelyfairly (weaker than very) totallyrather (weaker than very)a bit

quite + grad. (good but not very) e.g. The DVD was quite good but I'm glad I didn't pay to see it at the cinema.

quite + non grad.= very very good e.g. Her cooking was quite wonderful, I'd love to go again.