Gradable Adjectives

These adjectives describe qualities that exist on a scale or spectrum. You can have more or less of that quality.

• Behavior:
  • They accept intensifiers that show degree: very, quite, rather, extremely, slightly, moderately, pretty, a bit, incredibly.
  • They have comparative and superlative forms: tall, taller, tallest; beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.
• Examples:
  • tall, short, old, young, happy, sad, warm, cold, big, small, expensive, cheap, difficult, easy, clean, dirty, interesting, boring.
• Illustration:
  • You can be slightly cold, quite cold, very cold, or extremely cold.
  • A house can be bigger than another, and one can be the biggest.

Non-Gradable Adjectives

These adjectives describe qualities that are absolute or fixed. They generally don’t exist on a scale; something either has the quality or it doesn’t.

• Behavior:
  • They do not typically accept standard intensifiers like very or quite.
  • They do not have comparative or superlative forms (e.g., you can’t be “more dead”).
  • They can sometimes be used with adverbs that mean “almost” or “completely” (e.g., almost dead, completely unique), but these adverbs modify the completeness of the state, not the intensity of the adjective itself.
• Examples:
  • dead, alive, unique, perfect, complete, empty, full, pregnant, true, false, impossible, essential, freezing, boiling, finished, married, single.
• Illustration:
  • Something is either dead or not. It cannot be “very dead” or “slightly dead.”
  • A glass is either full or empty (in an absolute sense), not “very full” or “more full.” (Though colloquially, we might say “quite full” meaning nearly full).

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Subtypes of Non-Gradable Adjectives

While gradable adjectives are fairly uniform in their behavior, non-gradable adjectives can be categorized into a few distinct types based on what they describe:

1. Absolute/Extreme Adjectives:
   • These describe the end points or absolute states of a scale. They often imply “100%” of a quality.
   • Examples: dead, perfect, unique, complete, empty, full, freezing, boiling, starving, exhausted, pregnant, furious, terrified, delighted, delighted, correct, wrong.
   • Note: While you can be “furious” (an extreme adjective), you wouldn’t say “very furious” in formal grammar; you’d say “absolutely furious” or use a gradable synonym like “very angry.”
2. Classifying Adjectives:
   • These adjectives categorize nouns into a specific group or type. They don’t describe a degree of quality but rather what kind of thing something is.
   • Examples: main, principal, medical, chemical, scientific, digital, urban, rural, daily, annual, electric, liquid, solid.
   • Illustration: A computer is digital. It can’t be “very digital” or “more digital” than another computer in the sense of intensity. It either is or isn’t a digital device.
3. Adjectives of Material, Origin, or Purpose:
   • These describe what something is made of, where it comes from, or its specific function.
   • Examples: wooden, plastic, metal, silk, cotton, French, American, Asian, atomic, domestic, military, surgical.
   • Illustration: A table is wooden. It cannot be “very wooden” or “more wooden.” It is made of wood. A person is French or not.

Understanding these distinctions helps you use adjectives more precisely and correctly with adverbs of degree.

When they matter

This distinction in adjectives appears in the usage of “quite”:

• quite with gradable adjectives: “less then very, but to a large degree”
  • The soup was quite tasty.
• quite with non-gradable adjectives: “completely”, “absolutely”
  • I’m quite sure that this is the right road.