COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES
GRADABLE AND NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES
Adjective Gradability
Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns. Some qualities can vary in intensity or "grade", for example:
- rather hot, hot, very hot; hot, hotter, the hottest
The adjective hot is gradable.
Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are:
- extremes (for example: freezing)
- absolutes (for example: dead)
- classifying (for example: nuclear)
The adjectives freezing, dead and nuclear are non-gradable.
Gradable Adjectives
A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or intensity.
A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:
- big, bigger, the biggest
- hot, hotter, the hottest
- important, more important, the most important
Look at these example sentences:
- My teacher was very happy with my homework.
- That website is reasonably popular. But this one is more popular.
- He said that France was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold. But Sweden was the coldest.
Non-gradable Adjectives
A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:
It was rather freezing outside.The dog was very dead.He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.
Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:
- freezing,
more freezing, the most freezing - dead,
deader, the deadest - nuclear,
more nuclear, the most nuclear
Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:
- It was freezing outside.
- The dog was dead.
- He is investing in nuclear energy.
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