mitigators adjectivesMitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. When we want to make an adjective less strong we use these words: fairly - rather - quite By the end of the day we were rather tired. The film wasn’t great but it was quite exciting. and in informal English: pretty We had a pretty good time at the party. We call these words mitigators. Warning quite When we use quite with a strong adjective it means the same as absolutely: The food was quite awful. = The food was absolutely awful.As a child he was quite brilliant. = As a child he was absolutely brilliant. Mitigators with comparatives: We use these words and phrases as mitigators: a bit - just a bit - a little - a little bit - just a little bit - rather - slightly She’s a bit younger than I am.It takes two hours on the train but it is a little bit longer by road This one is rather bigger. We use slightly and rather as mitigators with comparative adjectives in front of a noun: This is a slightly more expensive model than that.This is rather bigger one than that. Adjectives as intensifiers: We use some adjectives as intensifiers: absolutetotal - completeutter - perfect real We say: He’s a complete idiot.They were talking utter nonsense. … but we do not say: The idiot was complete.The nonsense they were talking was utter.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 01:52:56 +0000
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