Gradable and Non-Gradable Adjectives: Rules, Adverbs and Examples

A gradable adjective describes a quality that can exist in different amounts. Something can be a little cold, quite cold, very cold or extremely cold. Most everyday adjectives are gradable: big, small, hot, cold, happy, tired, expensive, interesting, difficult, young, old.

The easy test is to ask: can it be more or less? If yes, the adjective is gradable. Gradable adjectives also have comparative and superlative forms (colder, the coldest, more expensive, the most expensive). See comparatives and superlatives for those forms.

Gradable adjectives go with grading adverbs: very, extremely, incredibly, really, so, too, a bit, a little, slightly, fairly, rather and pretty. These adverbs make the quality stronger or weaker.

An extreme adjective is a strong word that already means very + a gradable adjective. Starving means very hungry. Enormous means very big. Furious means very angry. Because the idea of very is built in, we do not normally put very, extremely or a bit in front of them.

Instead, extreme adjectives go with absolutely, completely, totally or utterly. Absolutely is the most common and works with almost every extreme adjective. Completely and totally sound natural with words like exhausted and different. Utterly is formal and often negative: utterly ridiculous, utterly miserable.

Really is the safe choice: it works with both gradable and extreme adjectives. Really cold and really freezing are both fine.

Some non-gradable adjectives are not extreme. They describe a state that is either true or not true: dead, alive, empty, full, impossible, unique, perfect, married, finished, correct. A person cannot be a bit married, and a glass cannot be very empty.

These adjectives can still take adverbs that show how close we are to the limit: almost, nearly, completely, totally, absolutely. The bottle is almost empty. The room was completely full. It's absolutely impossible.

A third group, classifying adjectives, puts things into types: French, wooden, electric, annual, medical. These are not graded at all. You say a wooden table, not a very wooden table. In informal speech you may hear very French to mean typical of France, but this is a special, playful use.

Three adverbs cause most confusion.

Really works with both kinds: really tired, really exhausted. It is very common in speech and is never wrong with these adjectives.

Quite changes its meaning. With a gradable adjective it means fairly in British English: The film was quite good means it was OK, not great. In American English quite good usually means very good. With an extreme or absolute adjective, quite means completely in both varieties: You're quite right. It's quite impossible. In British speech, intonation matters too: a rising tone on quite sounds more positive than a falling one. Read more in British vs American English.

Pretty is informal and means fairly or quite. It goes with gradable adjectives (pretty good, pretty cold) and, in relaxed speech, with extreme ones too (pretty amazing). Avoid it in formal writing.

Some adverbs and adjectives appear together so often that they sound like fixed pairs. Using them makes your English sound natural and precise, which is useful in speaking exams and writing.

Common pairs include bitterly cold, highly unlikely, deeply disappointed, painfully slow, perfectly clear, fully aware, seriously ill, wildly popular and ridiculously expensive. Notice that they follow the same logic: highly and deeply go with gradable adjectives; fully and perfectly suggest a limit.

For more ways to make adjectives stronger, see so and such and too and enough. Many emotion adjectives also come in -ed and -ing forms, such as terrified and terrifying; see -ed and -ing adjectives.

Native speakers use extreme adjectives all the time in conversation to sound enthusiastic, surprised or annoyed. Answering with an extreme adjective is a natural way to agree strongly: Was it cold? Cold? It was freezing!

In speech, the adverb usually carries strong stress: it was ABsolutely delicious. In writing, especially formal or academic writing, use extreme adjectives less often. Words like enormous and fascinating are fine, but totally, awesome and pretty sound informal.

One small warning: very unique and very perfect are common in casual speech and advertising, but many teachers and editors consider them wrong. In exams, say unique or absolutely unique.