Cover of the textbook Outcomes Upper-Intermediate - Student's Book

The key answer of exercise 7

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 6 - Going places for the textbook Outcomes Upper-Intermediate - Student's Book with authors Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley from National Geographic Learning

Question

Read the Grammar box, then look at the corrections of common mistakes below. Work in pairs. Discuss why you think the original sentences were wrong.

Answer

  1. We don’t use very with extreme / ungradable adjectives like soaked, which already means ‘very, very wet’. Other adjectives that you can’t use very with include boiling, delicious, filthy, freezing, fantastic, terrible, etc.
  2. We don’t use absolutely with normal adjectives – only with extreme / ungradable adjectives like those mentioned above.
  3. We use too to show something is negative – it was too cold to sit outside; it’s too spicy for me, I can’t eat it, etc. To make extreme / ungradable adjectives like incredible stronger, use really or absolutely. 
  4. If you want to make a positive adjective negative, use the pattern a bit too ... for my liking, e.g. It’s a bit too spicy for my liking; I just find him a bit too nice for my liking. If you use quite, it means more than 'a bit', less than 'a lot', e.g. It’s quite hot today, isn’t it?
  5. We don’t use a bit with positive adjectives like nice. We only use it to soften negative adjectives.
  6. To modify nouns, use a complete (or a bit of / a total / a real, etc.). Completely is usually used with adjectives instead, e.g. It was completely different to what I expected. It’s completely wrong.)
  7. We use a bit before negative adjectives. To soften a negative noun, use a bit of ...
  8. We use hardly before verbs – I could hardly breathe; I can hardly talk. To express the idea of ‘almost none’, use hardly any before a noun. There were hardly any people there; I spent hardly any money, etc.
  9. We use almost with nothing, no, etc.

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