Intensifiers of Adjectives

EMPHASIZERS with	EXAMPLE
POSITIVE DEGREE
very	It’s very awkward.
ever so	The book is ever so interesting.
too	Everybody would be only too glad to see you.
far too	It’s far too expensive.
most	“Yes”, she thought, “everybody’s been most kind.”
a most	The 5^th Symphony by Tchaikovsky is a most beautiful piece of music.
that	Are things that bad with you?
repetition of the intensifier or the Adj	I agree with every word you’ve said ― every single word. You bad, bad boy. It’s very, very bad.
COMPARATIVE DEGREE
much, a lot, lots	My brother is much younger [ than myself] He thought how much more advanced the young were.
a great / good deal, a good bit	The performance proved to be a great deal better than I could ever expect.
still	The first edition is good, the new one is still better.
ever	Environmental issues acquire an ever greater scope.
far	I’ve been with good people, far better than you.
Adj + by far	He is funnier by far.
no	This method is no better than the one we’ve been using.
none the + Adj	He was none the wiser for that answer, but he didn’t try to analyse it.
all the + Adj	His remorse was all the more painful because of the irony of his mistake.
Adj + and + Adj	The sound grew fainter and fainter.
SUPERLATIVE DEGREE
by far	“The Swan Lake” is by far the best ballet we have.
Adj + possible	It’s difficult to go about in the wrongest way possible.
the very	She put on her very best dress.

Idiomatic intensifiers. All the grammar rules are lavishly supplied with explanations and examples.

You can find all the linguistic terms and their Russian equivalents on page common collocations.

The cake is rock hard!

He is bone idle and won’t do a stroke of work.

Ssh. The baby’s fast asleep at last!

She is fully conversant with the problems.

The boss has got a brand new car.

I slept like a log and now I’m wide awake.

Substantivized Adjectives

When adjectives function as nouns denoting groups of people or things they are called substantivized adjectives. They can be partially substantivized (i.e. acquiring only some of the morphological characteristics of nouns) or fully substantivized (i.e. can be used with all articles).

MEANING	FORM	ARTICLE	VERB	EXAMPLE
PARTIALLY
- abstract notions - groups of persons	Sing.	the	sing.	the beautiful, the unknown.
			pl.	the rich, the blind, the old
WHOLLY
- languages (treated as abstract uncounts)	Sing.	zero the, a	sing.	Russian; the English we use; His was a nervous, graphic English
- persons (social, political, national, etc. characteristics) treated as counts	Sing. & pl.	a the zero	sing. & pl.	an ordinary ― ordinaries a liberal ― liberals an Indian ― Indians a private ― privates
- colours (uncounts, shades – counts)	Sing. & pl.	zero the, a	sing. & pl.	grey; the grey of the earth; The trees were turning yellows and reds.
- studies and examinations	Pl.	zero the	sing. & pl.	finals, practicals; politics, phonetics, mathematics
- substances, collections of things	Pl.	zero the	pl. (& sing.)	movables, valuables, greens, chemical(s)

Note 1: When a substantivized adjective denotes a group of people (e.g. the rich, the wise, etc.), it is always in the plural. If we want to indicate a single person or a number of persons, we must add a noun.

The old man receives a pension.

The young man is fishing.

Note 2: Some adjectives denoting nationalities and ending in – (i)sh: British, English, Irish, Welsh; in –ch: Dutch, French and in –ese: Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and the adjective Swiss are used with the definite article to form a substantivized adjective in the plural: the English, the Japanese. In other cases we should use the + the plural form: the Canadians, the Russians, the Americans.