with modals of deduction
Time to Talk Navy A Units 18 and 19
Warmer – discuss and agree
Choose one of the categories below, ask “How… is…?” about one example of that thing (e.g. “How small is Tom Cruise?” for famous people), and see if you agree with your partner. You can use the suggested adjectives there or any other suitable adjectives.
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Useful words for ranking absolutely/ completely/ totally extremely/ incredibly very/ really fairly/ quite not very/ not so/ a little not at all
Useful phrases for agreeing and disagreeing/ ranking “That just what I would say.” “I would go even further and say that it is…” “I wouldn’t go so far. I’d say that…” |
Ask about any adjectives which you are not sure how to use.
Guessing game
Choose a category and an example and say the category but not the example, e.g. “job”, but not that you chose “dentist” to talk about. Give hints describing that job with adverb plus adjective like “It’s fairly unpleasant” until your partner guesses what you are talking about with “It must be…” (because there is only one possibility that matches everything that you have said). They can only guess once per hint, and they should increase their level of certainty as they get more hints.
| Useful phrases for guessing
“It can’t be…” “It may be…”/ “It might be…” “It may well be…”/ “It might well be…” “It’s probably…” “It’s almost certainly…” “It must be…” Useful responses to guesses “Yes, it could be that. Also,…”/ “Yes, it could be that, but…” “No, it can’t be that because…” “Yes, it must be that because… And it is that” |
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Suggested topics and gradable and extreme adjectives
Animal – cute/ adorable, ugly/ hideous, frightening/ terrifying, yucky/ revolting, small/ tiny, big/ enormous,
Artwork – expensive/ priceless, valuable/ priceless, big/ huge, small/ tiny, good/ fantastic, clever/ genius, different/ unique,
Famous person – handsome/ stunning, pretty/ gorgeous, small/ tiny, nasty/ horrible, admired/ idolised, interesting/ captivating, energetic/ hyper, funny/ hilarious, good at…/ excellent at…, nice/ lovely, rich/ filthy rich, special/ exceptional
Festival/ Celebration/ Ceremony – expensive/ exorbitant, old/ ancient, new/ brand new, long/ endless
Food and drink – unhealthy/ lethal, makes you full/ makes you stuffed, oily/ dripping in oil, sweet/ tooth rotting, easy to cook/ a cinch to cook, hard/ like a rock, difficult to cook/ impossible to cook, yucky/ revolting, tasty/ delicious
Hobby/ Free-time activity – interesting/ fascinating, exciting/ thrilling, pricey/ extortionate, cheap/ free,
Job – tiring/ exhausting, stressful/ panic-inducing, dirty/ filthy, unpleasant/ horrible, good/ wonderful, interesting/ fascinating, busy/ rushed off your feet, challenging/ impossible
Language – tricky to learn/ impossible to learn, important/ essential, beautiful/ gorgeous, ugly/ hideous
Movie – sad/ tragic, funny/ hilarious, exciting/ gripping, good/ wonderful, bad/ awful, confusing/ mind-boggling, scary/ terrifying, memorable/ unforgettable, long/ endless, moving/ heart-wrenching, silly/ idiotic, surprising/ astonishing
Music – sad/ heart-breaking, loud/ ear-splitting,
News story – important/ crucial, worrying/ panic-inducing, sad/ tragic,
Place – difficult to get to/ impossible to get to, beautiful/ stunning, crowded/ packed, dirty/ filthy, hot/ boiling, cold/ freezing, impressive/ awe inspiring, memorable/ unforgettable, noisy/ ear-splitting, old/ ancient, nice/ delightful, poor/ poverty-stricken
School subjects/ Exams – tough/ impossible, confusing/ mind-boggling, boring/ mind-numbing, interesting/ fascinating,
Sport/ Exercise – boring/ mind-numbing, hard/ impossible, useful/ vital, expensive/ exorbitant, painful/ excruciating
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Gradable and extreme adjectives presentation
Write pairs of gradable and extreme adjectives next to each other in the left and right bottom squares and write suitable adverbs to go with each kind of adjective in the boxes above them. One adverb can go in both columns. If adjectives or adverbs have the same meaning, put them next to each other in the same box.
| Gradable | Extreme |
| Adverbs with gradable adjectives
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Adverbs with extreme adjectives |
| Gradable adjectives
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Extreme adjectives (of each gradable adjective on the left)
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Use this mixed list to help add at least 10 more pairs to the task above.
a cinch admired adorable ancient
astonishing awe inspiring awful bad
beautiful big boiling boring
brand new busy captivating challenging
cheap clever cold confusing
crowded crucial cute delicious
delightful different difficult dirty
dripping in oil ear-splitting easy
endless energetic enormous essential
excellent exceptional exciting excruciating
exhausting exorbitant expensive extortionate
fantastic fascinating filthy filthy rich
free freezing frightening full
funny genius good gorgeous
gripping handsome hard heart-breaking
heart-wrenching hideous hilarious horrible
hot huge hyper idiotic
idolised important impossible impressive
interesting lethal like a rock long
loud lovely memorable mind-boggling
mind-numbing moving nasty new
nice noisy oily old
packed painful panic-inducing poor
poverty-stricken pretty priceless pricey
revolting rich rushed off your feet sad
scary silly small special
stressful stuffed stunning surprising
sweet tasty terrifying thrilling
tiny tiring tooth rotting tough
tragic tricky ugly unforgettable
unhealthy unique unpleasant useful
valuable vital wonderful worrying
yucky
Use the paired phrases below to help.
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Circle the extreme adjective(s) in each group below. There is at least one in each group. If you aren’t sure, think about which ones mean “very” + one of the other adjectives.
admired/ idolized adorable/ cute
ancient/ old astonishing/ surprising
awe inspiring/ impressive awful/ bad
beautiful/ gorgeous/ handsome/ pretty/ stunning
big/ enormous/ huge boiling/ hot
boring/ mind-numbing brand new/ new
busy/ rushed off your feet captivating/ fascinating/ interesting
challenging/ difficult/ hard/ impossible/ tough/ tricky
cheap/ free clever/ genius
cold/ freezing confusing/ mind-boggling
crowded/ packed crucial/ essential/ important
delicious/ tasty delightful/ lovely/ nice
different/ unique dirty/ filthy
ear-splitting/ loud/ noisy endless/ long
energetic/ hyper excellent/ fantastic/ good/ wonderful
exceptional/ special exciting/ gripping/ thrilling
excruciating/ painful exhausting/ tiring
exorbitant/ expensive/ extortionate/ pricey
filthy rich/ rich frightening/ scary/ terrifying
full/ stuffed funny/ hilarious
heart-breaking/ sad/ tragic heart-wrenching/ moving
hideous/ ugly horrible/ nasty/ unpleasant
idiotic/ silly lethal/ unhealthy
memorable/ unforgettable panic-inducing/ stressful/ worrying
poor/ poverty-stricken priceless/ valuable
revolting/ yucky small/ tiny
useful/ vital
Check above, then test each other:
- Read out one group for your partner to identify the extreme adjective from
- Read out a gradable adjective for your partner to say at least one extreme version of
- Read out an extreme adjective for your partner to say at least one gradable version of
Rank these expressions by certainty, with ones with the same certainty next to each other.
- “It can’t be…”
- “It could possibly be…”
- “It may be…”
- “It may well be…”
- “It might be…”
- “It might well be…”
- “It must be…”
- “It’s almost certainly…”
- “It’s probably not…”
- “It’s probably…”
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PDF for easy saving and printing: un-gradable-adjectives-guessing-game
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