Gradable and ungradable adjectives

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Please only write C or I (C= correct, I = incorrect): (ex: 1. C, 2.C)

  1. The great financial political conditions.
  2. The great financial, political conditions.
  3. The great, financial and political conditions.
  4. The great, financial, political conditions.
  5. The boring depressing English novel.
  6. The boring, depressing, English novel.
  7. The boring, depressing and English novel.
  8. The boring depressing and English novel.
    9.The boring and depressing and English novel.
    10.The boring and depressing English novel.

Thanks
Q

2

.
Which do you think are correct, Q?

What do you see as the connection between the use of commas between adjectives and whether the adjectives are gradable or not?

Y

3

Hi Quoc

Why aren’t other moderators permitted to answer your questions? :frowning:

Tom

4

.
Why don’t you give it a try yourself, Tom? :wink:

5

Hi Tom,

Personally I prefer to answer questions from contributors who are seeking help about/explanations of particular language points that interest or worry them rather than be, as it were, summoned to answer a scatter gun array of points.

Alan

6

[b]

[/b]

OK, Amy, I will have a bash at it. :shock:

First of all, for reason unknown, I am not comfortable with the word “great” in the first series of sentences. I think it could simply read as:

1- The financial and political situation /conditions of the country at that time…

Maybe:

2- The country was facing great political and financial problems at that point of time.

In the second series, I think, number 10 is correct.

1- I can’t read that boring and depressing English novel.

Maybe:

1- I can’t read that boring, depressing English novel.
Tom

PS Do we agree, Amy?

7

Thank you, Tom. You’ve done quite admirably. :smiley:

The word ‘great’ could be used to mean ‘wonderful’.

With this structure, you are referring to both the financial situation/conditions and the political situation/conditions equally.

Here the word ‘great’ means ‘large’ and refers to both the political problems as well as the financial problems.

OK

OK

Well done.

8

Wow! Tom, BRAVO!

9

Thanks for your answers, Yankee.

Here are my opinions. Please correct them.

  1. The great financial political conditions. C
  2. The great financial, political conditions. C
  3. The great, financial and political conditions. I
  4. The great, financial, political conditions. I
  5. The boring depressing English novel. C
  6. The boring, depressing, English novel. C
  7. The boring, depressing and English novel. C
  8. The boring depressing and English novel. I
    9.The boring and depressing and English novel.I
    10.The boring and depressing English novel. C

Thanks
Q

PS: I only know:

1/Gradable adjectives can be used with adberbs such as really, extremely…to say that a thing or person has more or less of a particular quality.
Ungraduable adjectives themselves imply “to a large degree” and are seldom used with these adverbs.

2/ When 2 gradable adjectives come before the noun, we can put either a comma or and btw them.
Ex: An attractive big garden
= An attractive and big garden.
2 ungradable adjectives have and btw them if they are from the same class.
Ex: financial and political conditions.

So, what happen with more than 2 gradable adj and more than 2 ungradable adj, I don’t know.
My purpose is not only to find the most correct sentences but to find all correct sentences. So, please share with me all your opinions.

Yankee, as from tomorrow (24-10), what I’ll post here, I won’t post them in any forums.Do you like that? :smiley:
Anyway,sorry and thanks very much for your answers.

10
11

Hi Tom,

You wrote:

Why aren’t other moderators permitted to answer your questions? :frowning:

No, that isn’t what I mean. I always looking for all replies from everybody.

Alan wrote:

Personally I prefer to answer questions from contributors who are seeking help about/explanations of particular language points that interest or worry them rather than be, as it were, summoned to answer a scatter gun array of points.

Hi teacher,

[color=blue]I’ll try to give my opinions before asking. As of now, everyday, I read newpapers in Vietnamese and I choose any paragraph I like to translate them into English. I will choose economic topic. Sometimes, one vietnamese word can have many words in English. That is difficult to me to choose. So, it is normally that I have questions such as “what is the difference in menaing btw…”…Sometimes, I really don’t know the answers.Have a nice day, teacher. (1)

Hi all,

Could you correct (1) for me? :stuck_out_tongue:

Quoc