Topic 1.7.4 Extreme Adjectives
EXTREME ADJECTIVES
Starting Up
Have you ever seen a movie that was so appalling that you couldn’t finish watching it?
What is the most awesome place you have ever visited?
Can you name a brilliant book that you would recommend to others?
The words in bold are called non-gradable or extreme adjectives.
Non-gradable/Extreme adjectives can be used to make our conversations more interesting, enthusiastic or precise.
Special Rules For Extreme (or Non-gradable) Adjectives
1.NO COMPARATIVES/SUPERLATIVES.
With regular adjectives, we can use comparatives and superlatives to compare two or more things:
- My house is big.
- My neighbour’s house is bigger than mine. (comparative)
- My parents’ house is the biggest house on the street. (superlative)
With extreme adjectives, we don’t normally use comparatives and superlatives, though you might hear it in speech:
- My parents’ house is enormous.
- My parents’ house is more enormous / the most enormous.
2) USE DIFFERENT ADVERBS WITH EXTREME ADJECTIVES.
With regular adjectives, we can use these adverbs:
a little, a bit, slightly, fairly, rather, very, extremely, immensely, intensely, hugely
- I’m rather hungry. / I’m very hungry.
- This room is a bit dirty. / This room is extremely dirty.
- We’re a little tired./ We’re immensely tired.
With extreme adjectives, we CANNOT use these adverbs:
I’m rather starving. / I’m extremely starving.
However, there are other adverbs we can use to give additional emphasis to the extreme adjective:
absolutely, completely, utterly
- I’m absolutely furious.
- We’re completely exhausted.
- The movie was utterly terrifying.
The words pretty and really can be used with both regular and extreme adjectives:
- This room is pretty dirty. (regular)
- This room is pretty filthy. (extreme)
- The party is really crowded. (regular)
- The party is really packed. (extreme)
Extremely good/bad
Put the following extreme adjectives into the correct categories.
If you want to make an extreme adjective sound more extreme, you can use the word absolutely, e.g. absolutely brilliant, absolutely dreadful. But you cannot use absolutely with ordinary adjectives.
Work in pairs. Take turns to describe something with an adjective above. Continue until all the adjectives have been used. E.g. Spain’s performance in the World Cup was absolutely terrific.
From ordinary to extreme
In pairs, take turns to describe a place you have visited using extreme adjectives.
Word Families
Look at the pictures below. Choose one and describe it to your partner: Try and use as many extreme words as possible.
Speaking
In pairs or small groups, discuss the questions using the cue cards below.
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