solntsecvet
New member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2023
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Russian
- Home Country
- Kazakhstan
- Current Location
- Kazakhstan
I was reading about strong intensifiers (absolutely, totally, utterly, etc) which should be used with strong (non-gradable) adjectives. I’ve discovered that there are some adjectives (like freezing) which can’t be used with an intensifier, and some adjectives require a definite intensifier, but I can’t find a specific grammar rule that dictates which adjectives can or cannot be intensified. There are certain adjectives that are already considered extreme or intense in their meaning and generally don't require intensifiers because it would be redundant. This is not clear at all. So, we can’t say “ablsolutely unique”, whereas the phrase “ablsolutely perfect” sounds good. Why is that? I consider these adjectives on the same level, speaking about their gradability, if I can say so. How can we define where to use an intensifier and which one?