 Extreme adjectives in English from EspressoEnglish.net Adjectives are words that describe the qualities of something. Some adjectives in English are gradeable. 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 plus the 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. Here are some examples of regular adjective and their extreme forms. Angry and furious Bad and awful, terrible, or horrible Clean and spotless Crowded and packed Dirty and filthy Good and wonderful, fantastic, or excellent Hot and boiling Hungry and starving Interesting and fascinating Old and ancient Pretty and gorgeous Scary and terrifying Small and tiny Surprising and astounding Tired and exhausted Ugly and hideous We have some special grammar rules for extreme adjectives. With extreme adjectives, we don't use comparatives or superlatives. With regular adjectives, we can use comparatives and superlatives to compare two or more things. For example, my house is big. My neighbor's house is bigger than mine. My parent's house is the biggest house on the street. But with extreme adjectives, we can't do that. We can say, my parent's house is enormous. But we can't say more enormous or the most enormous. It's not possible to use comparatives or superlatives with extreme adjectives. We also 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, and hugely. For example, 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. But with extreme adjectives, we cannot use these same adverbs. We can't say, I'm rather starving or I'm extremely starving. It's not possible. However, there are other adverbs we can use to give additional emphasis to the extreme adjective, such as absolutely, completely, and utterly. For example, 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. For example, this room is pretty dirty. This room is pretty filthy. The party is really crowded. The party is really packed. 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. Here are some absolute adjectives and their opposites. Complete and incomplete. Equal and unequal. Essential and nonessential or extraneous. Fatal and not fatal. First and last or final. Full and empty. Ideal and not ideal. Impossible and possible. Infinite and finite. Married and single, divorced, separated, or widowed. You could also say unmarried. Perfect and imperfect. Pregnant and not pregnant. Unique and not unique. Universal and not universal. Unknown and known. True and false. Note that in casual spoken English, you still might hear phrases like, That's very true. It's the very first time. And this shirt is more unique than that one. Even though these adverbs are not technically supposed to be used with absolute adjectives. It's just an example of how spoken English doesn't always follow the rules. If you want to learn more vocabulary, check out my Vocabulary Builder course, where you can learn more than 500 useful and interesting words in each level. Click on the link in the video or in the video description for more information.