Intensifying Adjectives

When describing physical objects you can use a wide variety of adjectives such as: large, big, tiny, minuscule, small, etc. However, when describing nouns that are not physical (e.g. joy, anger, wealth) you need to pay careful attention to the choice of intensifying adjectives. This feature provides a guide to the use of the most common intensifying adjectives for non-physical nouns.

Once you have studied these expressions, try the intensifying adjectives quiz to test your knowledge.

Absolute, complete, total and utter are used to express strong feelings, extreme situations, and other events - especially negative experiences.

Big

Big tends to describe a happening or a type of person. It is not usually used with uncountable nouns.

a big decision
a big disappointment
a big improvement
a big mistake
a big surprise

a big eater
a big dreamer
a big drinker
a big spender
a big talker

Great

Great usually describes nouns which express feelings or qualities.

Large

Large is often used with nouns concerning numbers and measurements. It is not usually used with uncountable nouns.

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