Hello. And today I'm going to talk to you about extreme adjectives. And also about the adverbs that qualify them or that go with them. Right? So what do I mean by extreme adjectives? Well, we could divide the adjectives into two groups. Those adjectives which are gradable, we say, by gradable, we mean that those adjectives can be less or more.
So for example, hot, well, I can be a little hot, or I could be quite hot, or I could be extremely hot. Angry, well, I could be fairly angry, or pretty angry, or extremely angry, depending on the situation. So words like hot, cold, tired, hungry, angry, interesting, dirty, bad, good, can all be used with adverbs of this type.
So the adverbs are - and I mentioned this in another podcast on adverbs: a little... so I'm starting at the minimum now... a little or a bit. And then after that, we get fairly or quite or rather, and then going up the scale, we get pretty. And then more than that is very, and then at the end, we get extremely. So all of those I can use with my gradable adjectives.
I was extremely angry with Carmen. She took my car without asking. And you know what she did? She went and pranged it! Do you know what prang is? When you prang a car? It means you have a little accident. And so you make a dent in the side, or you scrape the paintwork. She pranged the car. I'm extremely angry with her.
Oh, I'm feeling, oh, a little hungry. You know, I haven't eaten much this afternoon. I would like a sandwich and a glass of milk. I'm feeling a little hungry.
So how was your day at work? Oh, well, I'm feeling pretty tired. Really. A lot of meetings, you know? Talking about this, that and the other. Feeling pretty tired.
So these adjectives then can use these adverbs. And oh, yes. There is one more as well actually. Really. Really is a common one, isn't it? It's very much like very, very much like very. So we can say, oh, that's really interesting.
Oh, dear. Look at those plates. They're really dirty.
Really is an interesting one. Because it can be used in another situation as well [later I'll talk about it].
So let's look at those extreme adjectives. What are extreme adjectives? Well, if I am hot, right. Okay, it's something which I can be more or less of. But if I'm boiling well, that means well, it's an extreme. You can't be more boiling than boiling. And we talk about the weather can be boiling.
Oh, summer in Seville in the south of Spain is boiling. I can't take it. I can't take the heat.
Now we can't do anything to that adjective because it's an extreme adjective. We can't be more boiling or the day in Seville, however hot can't be more boiling than boiling. So we can't say a little boiling or very boiling or extremely boiling.
So, most gradable adjectives have an equivalent, which is extreme. So hot is boiling, cold is freezing, hungry is starving, and tired = exhausted, angry is furious. And dirty is filthy. And interesting is fascinating. And good is wonderful and bad is terrible.
Now, with these extreme adjectives, we can't grade them. As I said, we can't use those adverbs, but we can use other ones. We can, well, not qualify them. But we can add an adverb just to put more emphasis to show that we're really feeling quite strongly about this.
The adverbs that we use are absolutely, totally, completely. And our friend, really, we can use that one with extreme adjectives too and another one as well, which is quite, and I'll explain that in a moment.
So we can say that I was absolutely furious with Carmen for taking my car. Absolutely furious, is not grading the adjective, it's just putting more emphasis on it. The film was absolutely fascinating. I loved it, every minute of it, I was routed to my chair. I was just, I felt it was just a lovely film. I was absolutely fascinated by it.
Now, this word really then, yes, I can say I'm really exhausted, really will go with extreme adjectives too then.
I was absolutely exhausted when I came home from work. After all those meetings, one after the other. What a day, I was really exhausted. I was really exhausted.
Now just to finish, then, that little word quite. Now quite, like really can be used with extreme adjectives or gradable adjectives. And I've said before how quite with gradable adjectives (depending on how you say it) could be less or more. So you could say,
Well, yes, Peter, he's quite tall. Yes, he's quite tall. Yes, but not very tall.
Or you could say,
Peter, oh, he's quite tall. He is really quite tall. Meaning he's very tall, really, or considerably tall.
So it's interesting, how quiet can change in meaning depending on the intonation that we give the word.
But what's interesting too, is that quite with extreme adjectives has a different meaning.
This kitchen is quite filthy, really, look at that mess everywhere. There's grease and dirt on the floor on the draining board it's really quite filthy. Let's get it cleaned up straightaway. It's quite filthy.
The film was quite fascinating. Now, it's not saying it's just, well, you know, a little bit fascinating or fairly fascinating or the kitchen is fairly filthy [which we cannot say]. What it means is that is absolutely or very much so it's a word which is giving emphasis to those extreme adjectives.
I was quite exhausted when I got home really. I felt absolutely exhausted, quite exhausted, absolutely exhausted. They're very similar in me. All right. That's all I have to say about extreme adjectives. I hope you enjoyed it. Bye for now.
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