English Grammar with Kudjo. Part 4. Понятная и забавная грамматика для детей и взрослых. Larisa Lubimova
/ unknown place
5 an essential / important part
6 an ideal / useful plan
Which one is the classifying adjective?
7 a pine tree / a tall tree
8 a dangerous animal / a carnivorous animal
9 a big cat / a predatory cat
DIFFERENCES IN USING GRADABLE
AND NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES
1 No comparatives / superlatives with non-gradable adjectives
With regular adjectives, we can use comparatives and superlatives: Cuba is big. Luna is bigger. The lynx is the biggest animal of them all.
With non-gradable (extreme, absolute and classifying) adjectives, we usually don’t use comparatives and superlatives. It’s impossible for one dead person to be deader than another, or for one wooden stick to be the most wooden.
2 Use different adverbs with non-gradable adjectives.
With gradable adjectives, we can use adverbs of degree like these:
Small degree: a little, a bit, slightly
Middle degree: fairly, rather, somewhat
Large degree: very, extremely, immensely, intensely, hugely, quite
With non-gradable adjectives, we CANNOT use these adverbs. However, we can use the adverbs absolutely, completely, and utterly to give additional emphasis to extreme adjectives:
The lynx was absolutely furious.The dogs were completely exhausted.
The words pretty and really can be used with gradable adjectives and with extreme adjectives, but not the absolute or classifying ones:
This cave was pretty dirty. (gradable)
This cave was pretty filthy. (extreme)
Other words that can be used with some non-gradable (absolute and extreme) adjectives include totally, nearly/almost, virtually, and quite: He was nearly dead.
With classifying adjectives, we can sometimes use the words entirely, completely, fully, largely, and mainly to say that all or most of the things fall into that category:
The lynx’s food is mainly organic.
EXERCISE 6
Complete 4 of the sentences with the word very, and the other 5 with one of the following words: entirely / almost / absolutely / practically / completely. Sometimes more than one answer is possible.
1 The lynx’s explanation was ***** clear and the dogs understood everything perfectly.
2 Chilly was ***** thrilled when the lynx kissed him and called him «my hero’.
3 However, Cuba responded to the situation in a ***** immature way
4 The whole experience seemed ***** humiliating to her.
5 The roast meat had some ***** strong side effects – everybody fell fast asleep.
6 They were ***** convinced that in the cave they were ***** safe.
7 Everybody was so exhausted that it was ***** impossible to move anywhere.
8 The lynx’s suggestion of spending the night in the cave sounded ***** clever.
9 Only Luna was ***** certain that something was wrong.
REGULAR COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS
Adjectives of one syllable add – (e) r/– (e) st to form their comparative and superlative forms: fast-faster-the fastest
Adjectives of two syllables ending in -Iy, -y, -w also add -er/-est: rainy-rainier-the rainiest
Adjectives of two or more syllables take more/most: dangerous-more dangerous – the most dangerous
There are a few exceptions to these rules:
often – more/most often
fun – more/most fun
real – more/most real
bored – more/most bored
pleased – more/most pleased
worn- more/most worn
Certain adjectives form their comparative and superlative in both ways, either by adding -er/-est to the positive form or with more/most: clever, common, cruel, friendly, gentle, narrow, pleasant, polite, shallow, simple, stupid, quiet.
For example, simple – simpler – simplest or simple – more simple – the most simple
A few common adjectives have irregular forms:
good – better – best
bad – worse – worst
far – further – furthest
When we compare two things in a sentence, we use the word than: The lynx is stronger than Luna.
Before comparatives, we can use these words to express the degree of difference:
small difference — a bit / a little / slightly
great difference — a lot / much / far
The lynx is far bigger than Kit.
We can use the structure The (comparative), the (comparative) when one quality depends on another: The more the dogs talked to the lynx, the friendlier they became.
We use superlatives when comparing three or more things, or when comparing one thing to all other things.
Remember that you must always use the with superlatives: The lynx is the biggest animal they have ever communicated with.
Before superlatives, we can use these words to express the degree of difference: easily, by far, altogether, simply, by a long way:
The dogs ate what was altogether the yummiest supper they had ever had.
If two things are equal, then we use as… as or just as… as with a positive form of the adjective:
The lynx is just as friendly as a home cat.
And for multiples of a quantity,