Gradable and Non

Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives

Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns.

• Some qualities can vary in intensity or grade (for example: rather hot, hot, very hot; hot, hotter, the hottest).
  
  The adjective hot is gradable.
• Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are:
1. extremes (for example: freezing)
2. absolutes (for example: dead)
3. classifying (for example: nuclear)

The adjectives freezing, dead and nuclear arenon-gradable.

Gradable Adjectives

A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or intensity. Look at these examples:

"Gradable adjectives" are also called "qualitative adjectives". "Grading adverbs" are also called "submodifiers".

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:

• big, bigger, the biggest
• hot, hotter, the hottest
• important, more important, the most important

Look at these example sentences:

• My teacher was very happy with my homework.
• That website is reasonably popular. But this one is more popular.
• He said that France was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold. But Sweden was the coldest.

The adjective dead is non-gradable because it is an absolute. Dead is dead. We cannot be more or less dead. One person cannot be "deader" than another. Other absolutes include: correct, unique, perfect

Non-gradable Adjectives

A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:

• It was rather freezing outside.
• The dog was very dead.
• He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.

Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:

• freezing, more freezing, the most freezing
• dead, deader, the deadest
• nuclear, more nuclear, the most nuclear

Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:

• It was freezing outside.
• The dog was dead.
• He is investing in nuclear energy.

Don't try to learn lists of gradable and non-gradable adjectives! It's better to understand what makes an adjective gradable or non-gradable. This is a matter of logic and common sense. Most native-speakers have never heard of gradable and non-gradable adjectives. They just "feel" that it doesn't make sense to say "fairly excellent" or "very unique". You probably have the same idea in your language.

However, a non-gradable adjective can be used with "non-grading adverbs" (which usually just give the adjective extra impact), for example:

Here are some example sentences with non-gradable adjectives:

• Her exam results were absolutely awful. She will have to take the exam again.
• Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtually unique.
• It starts an essentially chemical reaction.

Adjectives that can be gradable and non-gradable

Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense. It's possible for the same adjective to be gradable with one sense and non-gradable with another sense. For example:

Adverbs used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The adverbs really (very much) and fairly and pretty (both meaning "to a significant degree, but less than very") can often be used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives:

"Quite" with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The meaning of the adverb "quite" changes according to the type of adjective we use it with:

Reference