- •Foreword
- •Contents
- •Morphology the noun
- •The Category of Number
- •Invariable Nouns
- •The Genitive Case
- •Types of the Genitive Case
- •The article
- •Functions of the Article
- •The Use of Articles with Abstract Nouns
- •The Use of Articles with Material Nouns
- •The Use of Articles with Predicative Nouns and Nouns in Apposition
- •The Use of Articles in Some Set Expressions Nouns in set expressions used with the indefinite article
- •Nouns in set expressions used with the definite article
- •Nouns in set expressions used without an article
- •The Use of Articles with Some Semantic Groups of Nouns Articles with Names of Seasons and Parts of the Day
- •Articles with Names of Meals
- •Articles with the Nouns school, college, prison, jail, church, hospital
- •Articles with Names of Parts of the Body
- •Articles with Names of Specific Periods
- •The Use of Articles with Proper Names
- •Names of Persons
- •Geographical Names
- •Calendar Items
- •Miscellaneous Proper Names
- •The adjective
- •Morphological Composition
- •Semantic Characteristics
- •Descriptive adjective Limiting adjective
- •The Position of Adjectives
- •Degrees of Comparison
- •Patterns of Comparison
- •Intensifiers of Adjectives
- •Substantivized Adjectives
- •Adjectives and Adverbs
- •Oblique moods
- •Temporal Relations within the Oblique Moods
- •Subjunctive II
- •A. Simple Sentence
- •B. Complex Sentence
- •The Conditional Mood
- •The Suppositional Mood and Subjunctive I
- •Syntax the sentence
- •Sentence
- •The Simple Sentence. Structural Types
- •Communicative Types of Sentences
- •Interrogative sentences
- •Imperative sentences
- •The subject
- •Ways of expressing the Subject
- •Structural Types of the Subject
- •“It” and “there” as Subjects notional “it”
- •Formal subjects ‘’it” and “there”
- •The predicate
- •Agreement of the predicate with the subject Grammatical Agreement
- •Pronouns as Subjects
- •Agreement with Homogeneous Subjects
- •Notional Agreement
- •The object
- •Types of Objects
- •Structure and Ways of Expressing
- •Predicative Constructions that Function as Objects
- •The attribute
- •The apposition
- •The adverbial modifier
- •Structural Types of the Adverbial Modifier
- •Semantic Characteristics of the Adverbial Modifier
- •Absolute nominative constructions
- •Non-prepositional Absolute Constructions
- •The composite sentence
- •The Compound Sentence
- •The Complex Sentence
- •Nominal Clauses
- •Attributive Clauses
- •Adverbial Clauses
- •2. Adverbial clauses of place
- •Glossary of Linguistic Terms
- •List of Books
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 5th 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.