DEGREES OF COMPARISON AND INTENSIFICATION
SUMMARY
1 Comparative and superlative forms in -er, -est and more, most, respectively. Irregular forms: better, best; worse, worst; farther/further, farthest/furthest. Comparative constructions with the + adjective. Structures of sufficiency (enough) and excess (too).
2 Intensification: high: very, most, extremely, extra, seriously (stupid); medium: quite, rather, pretty, fairly (cool).
3 Attenuation: slightly (better), a little (different), a bit (salty); not very (good), hardly (likely).
4 Quantification: exact: one-mile; a mile (long); 2-foot-thick; 2 feet thick; 3-year-old; 3 years old; non-exact: not that long; this big.
5 Description: by adjs: pale green, dark blue, deep red; by advs: strangely silent, cheerfully confident; by nouns: pitch black, paper-thin, world-wide.
6 Sub-modification: just as easy, really quite angry, far too expensive, quite old enough.
An important feature of central adjectives is that they are gradable, that is, the quality they express can be held in differing degrees. We can question and express the degree by a degree adverb How important is it? It is extremely important. Many descriptive adjectives are gradable, classifiers in general are not.
