mitigators
Mitigators 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 |
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| quite |
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When we use quite with a strong adjective it means the same as absolutely: The food was quite awful. = The food was absolutely awful. |
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:
absolute
total - complete
utter - 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.
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Comments
Hello,
I have a question related to the noun modifiers (the noun modifier grammar page do not allows to put comments).
Sometimes I see noun modifiers connected with a dash, to make a compound "adjective" I suppose. I also notice (but I am not sure) that noun modifiers are always singular. For example, I have seen something like: "8-bit width" instead of "it contains 8 bits".
I would be grateful if you could extend the page "noun modifier" considering these aspects.
Thank you for your attention.
Regards.
Daniele Giacomini
It is very interestinq and very funny.
Hi everyone!
Could you help me with this, please?
Which one is correct "it was much really too bad." or "it was really much too bad." ? Greetings from Peru.
Hi guys, can we say decreased slightly or it is more correct to say slightly decreased?
Like for ex. "The number of patients decreased slightly last month, before going up again this month"...
team
Hello Alex!
Slightly is an adverb of manner, which describes how something happens. Adverbs of manner usually go after the verb, unless you want to make the adverbial more important. That's when you put it before the verb. In short, decreased slightly is more usual, but they are both correct. Our adverb order page has more details.
Hope that helps!
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you Jeremy
Hi!
i cant view the exercises, it says something about the java script being turned off. i don't know much about computers, please help
team
Hi Adoh,
Welcome to LearnEnglish! From your description of your problem, I think it's probably something with your computer. Maybe try using a different web browser (for example, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome) or find someone who knows a little about computers to help you.
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
hi Adam,I asked a question a few days ago about using of "and"or ","between adjectives in sentences ,but I did not get any answers .It s really confusing for me .please help me to understand it .
thanking you in advance for your help.
the best wishes.
hello haleh . I am fresh .I want to you meet