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GRAMMAR: Common and extreme adjectives

Adjectives can be either common or extreme depending on the degree of intensity they express.

Adjectives

 

Exercise 1

Match the common adjectives below with their extreme counterpart.

Common

happy - sad - funny - interesting - tired - angry - good - bad

Extreme

excellent - hilarious - exhausted - furious - awful - fascinating - miserable - thrilled

If you want to intensify extreme adjectives you cannot use very. You can use absolutely:

Example: Santiago is very wonderful* > Santiago is absolutely wonderful


REALLY can be used with both common and extreme adjectives:

Example: I’m really tired OR I’m really exhausted

Exercise 2

Complete the gaps with an appropriate adjective.

  • Mary’s been running for 2 hours and she is now absolutely
  • I’m very because I passed all the exams
  • The teacher said Congratulations because the exercise was
  • The book was really
  • It’s very today, below zero!
  • The joke was really and I couldn’t stop laughing

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Would you like to do more exercises about common and extreme adjectives? Go to Unit 5 section 5.2.