adjectives

[ninafe]

Dear Teachers and friends,

Could you please provide me with some more adverbs (apart from very and extremely) which cannot be used as intensifiers with non-gradable adjectives.

Thanks a lot!

[danmahaffey]

Non-gradable adjectives are adjective that do not accept adverbs of degree that intensify or reduce them.

Here are some non-gradable adjectives: male, female, married, single, any color, true, false, pregnant, sterile, unique, dead, alive, wooden, and any absolute, such as possible, impossible, and excellent. There are many others. Note that they are often found in pairs of antonyms.

When an adverb like very is used to modify a non-gradable adjective, it is not to grade it as some like to suggest. Rather it is to give it emphasis, to highlight it. This is how: He was very dead. I am very married.

The "unlawful" modifiers of non-gradable adjectives are the same set as the acceptable adverbs of degree for gradable adjectives: very, extremely, too, quite, almost, slightly, barely, somewhat, considerably, hardly, and really. There are many more, but this is a good start.