Extreme, Non-Gradable Adjectives

Students will practice using adjectives, words that describe the qualities of something. Some adjectives are gradable which means they can collocate with a variety of adverbs in order to signify their level: a bit, a little, fairly, quite, really, very, extremely. Extreme, non-gradable adjectives only collocate with adverbs which have a complete meaning as the adjective is at the ‘maximum’ level. Modifying non-gradable adjectives can difficult to understand, but show an advanced level of language once mastered. Encourage your students to incorporate them into their speaking and written discourse. Extreme, non-gradable adjectives introduced in this Handout filthy, starving, packed, awful, hideous, exhausted, enormous, tiny, glamorous, grotesque, spotless, deafening, thundering, colossal, terrified, ancient, freezing, boiling.