Page 67 - English Vocabulary in Use (Pre & Intermediate)

30 Adjectives

‘Scale’ and ‘limit’ adjectives

(absolutely) terrible (very) bad OK (very) good (absolutely) marvellous
awful wonderful
dreadful great
terrific

We can use very before ‘scale’ adjectives e.g. very good, very bad; we can use absolutely
before ‘limit’ adjectives e.g. absolutely awful, absolutely great. (You cannot say ‘very
wonderful’; you cannot say ‘absolutely good’.) Here are some more examples.
Scale Limit Scale Limit
big huge/enormous hot boiling
small tiny cold freezing
tired exhausted crowded (= full of people) — packed
interesting fascinating frightened (= afraid of sth.) _ terrified
surprised astonished hungry starving (infml)

Adjectives ending -ing and -ed
There is a large group of adjectives which can have an -ing or -ed ending. The -ing ending is
used on adjectives which describe a person or thing or situation; the -ed ending is on
adjectives which describe the effect this person, thing or situation has on us.
It was such a boring party; I was bored, and so was everyone else.
I didn’t think the film was very frightening, but my younger brother was frightened by it.
I think the students are depressed largely because the weather is so depressing.
Other examples of common adjectives ending -ing and -ed include:
surprising/surprised exciting/excited
exhausting/exhausted terrifying/terrified
confusing/confused tiring/tired
frightening/frightened fascinating/fascinated
astonishing/astonished embarrassing/embarrassed
interesting/interested disappointing/disappointed
Look at these examples to help you with the meaning of some of these words.
John wasn’t very good at maths, so I was very surprised when he passed the exam. And |
was astonished when I discovered that he’d got 98%.
In London there are lots of streets with the same name and it’s very confusing if you are a
tourist. Another problem is that it’s a huge place. We walked everywhere on our last trip
and we were exhausted at the end of each day. But it’s an exciting city, with so much to
do.
It’s been a terrible week for Greg. He was very disappointed last Saturday because he played
badly in an important match. Then on Monday, his girlfriend left him for someone else,
so he’s very depressed at the moment.
One of our teachers can never remember our names. It seemed funny at first, but now it’s
getting a bit embarrassing.

64 English Vocabulary in Use (pre-intermediate & intermediate)