Adjectives are words that describe the qualities of something. Some adjectives in English are gradable - that means you can have different degrees or levels of that quality. For example, the weather can be a little cold, rather cold, very cold, or extremely cold.
Extreme adjectives or non-gradable adjectives are words that mean “extremely + adjective” – for example, “freezing” means “extremely cold.” The weather can’t be “a little bit freezing” or “very freezing” – because the word “freezing” itself automatically means “extremely cold.”
Regular & Extreme Adjectives List
1.) Regular Adjective Extreme Adjective
2.) angry furious
3.) bad awful, terrible, horrible
4.) big huge, gigantic, giant
5.) clean spotless
6.) cold freezing
7.) crowded packed
8.) dirty filthy
9.) funny hilarious
10.) good wonderful, fantastic, excellent
11.) hot boiling
12.) hungry starving
13.) interesting fascinating
14.) old ancient
15.) pretty gorgeous
16.) scary terrifying
17.) small tiny
18.) surprising astounding
19.) tired exhausted
20.) ugly hideous
Special Rules for Extreme Adjectives
1) No comparatives/superlatives.
With regular adjectives, we can use comparatives and superlatives to compare two or more things:
My house is big.
My neighbor’s house is bigger than mine.
(comparative)
My parents’ house is the biggest house on the street.
(superlative)
With extreme adjectives, we don’t use comparatives and superlatives:
My parents’ house is enormous.
My parents’ house is more enormous / the most enormous.
2) Use different adverbs with extreme adjectives.
With regular adjectives, we can use these adverbs:
a little, a bit, slightly, fairly, rather
very, extremely, immensely, intensely, hugely
Examples:
I’m rather hungry. / I’m very hungry.
This room is a bit dirty. / This room is extremely dirty.
We’re a little tired. / We’re immensely tired.
With extreme adjectives, we CANNOT use these adverbs:
I’m rather starving. / I’m extremely starving.
However, there are other adverbs we can use to give additional emphasis to the extreme adjective:
absolutely
completely
utterly
Examples:
I’m absolutely furious.
We’re completely exhausted.
The movie was utterly terrifying.
The words pretty and really can be used with both regular and extreme adjectives:
This room is pretty dirty. (regular)
This room is pretty filthy. (extreme)
The party is really crowded. (regular)
The party is really packed. (extreme)
Absolute Adjectives
Another type of extreme adjective is called an “absolute” adjective.
These are words that are either “yes or no.” For example, dead – you can’t be “a little bit dead” or “very dead” – either YES, you are dead, or NO, you’re not dead.
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