INGLÉS NIVEL 5

Tema. No. 1 Art Everywhere

Vocabulary: Works of Art
Gradable and Absolute Adjectives

Objetivo: Reconocer y diferenciar Gradable Adjectives y

Absolute Adjectives, con el fin de describir objetos, personas y
situaciones de forma más detallada, empleando Modifiers.

1. Introducción:

Estimados estudiantes, esta guía está orientada al conocimiento y manejo de los adjetivos
conocidos como Gradable Adjectives y Absolute Adjectives, los cuales nos permiten
expresar nuestras ideas y opiniones de forma más detallada y precisas al momento de
describir los sustantivos, gracias a los Modifiers que podemos emplear con cada uno de
ellos.

De esa manera, es importante reconocer cómo se clasifican los adjetivos para así
emplear los Modifiers correctos al momento de expresar nuestras ideas.

2. Aspectos teóricos:

Vocabulary Works of Art.

Please analyze the vocabulary on page 25 in your student book, related to works of art.

-ed and -ing adjectives.

There are many adjectives that we have in English that end in -ED or -ING.
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Yes, that's correct, they are not only endings that we use for verbs!

An adjective that ends in -ING is used to describe: the characteristic of a person, a thing or a

situation.

An adjective that ends in -ED is used to describe: a feeling (or how a person feels) or
an emotion. It is used to describe a temporary thing. Since only people (and some animals)
have feelings, -ed adjectives cannot be used to describe an object or situation.

Gradable adjectives

Most adjectives are gradable. This means we can have different levels of that quality. For
example, you can be a bit cold, very cold or extremely cold. We can make them weaker or
stronger with modifiers:

She was quite angry when she found out.

The film we saw last night was really funny!
It can be extremely cold in Russia in the winter.

Here is a list of some common gradable adjectives and some modifiers that we can use with
them.
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Non-gradable: absolute adjectives

Some adjectives are non-gradable. For example, something can't be a bit finished or very
finished. You can't be a bit dead or very dead. These adjectives describe absolute qualities.
To make them stronger we have to use modifiers like absolutely, totally or completely:

Thank you, I love it! It's absolutely perfect!

Their farm was totally destroyed by a tornado.
My work is completely finished. Now I can relax.

Here is a list of some common absolute adjectives and some modifiers that we can use with
them.

Modifiers absolutely/totally/completely

acceptable, dead, destroyed, finished, free, impossible, necessary, perfect, 
Adjectives
ruined, unacceptable, etc.

Non-gradable: extreme adjectives

Adjectives like amazing, awful and boiling are also non-gradable. They already contain the

idea of 'very' in their definitions. If we want to make extreme adjectives stronger, we have to
use absolutely or really:

Did you see the final match? It was absolutely amazing!

After 32 hours of travelling, they were absolutely exhausted.
My trip home was really awful. First, traffic was really bad, then the car broke down and we
had to walk home in the rain.

Here is a list of some common extreme adjectives and some modifiers that we can use with
them.

Modifiers absolutely/really

amazing, ancient, awful, boiling, delicious, enormous,
Adjectives excellent, exhausted, fascinating, freezing, gorgeous, terrible, terrifying, 
tiny, etc.

 
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See page 142 on your books for grammar reference and more practice.

3. Actividades

Please do the exercises on this web page:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/intermediate-to-upper-
intermediate/adjectives-gradable-and-non-gradable

4. Actividades evaluativas

 Write a text (50 words), in which you need to use at least 5 gradable and 5
absolute adjectives. Deadline: March 29th 2020

 Finish the activities in your workbook for unit 3. Deadline: April 12 th 2020.