Adverbs of degree are words that modify adjectives or adverbs to show how much, how little or to what extent something is true. For example, very, really, so, quite are adverbs of degree.
Gradable adjectives are adjectives that can have different degrees or levels of intensity. For example, hot, cold, happy, sad are gradable adjectives.
Adverbs of degree can be used with gradable adjectives to make them stronger or weaker. For example, “It’s very hot today” means it’s hotter than usual. “It’s quite cold today” means it’s colder than usual, but not too cold.
Some common gradable adjectives are: big, small, easy, difficult, fast, slow, good, bad, etc.
The adverb “quite” is listed in the English Vocabulary Profile at A2 with the meaning = to a large degree
PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE:
I was so hungry, so I ate two sandwiches.
Korean male level 2 writing class.
An iWeb search for:
really|so|quite _JJ
1 REALLY GOOD 291861
2 SO GOOD 182087
3 SO EASY 127227
4 SO IMPORTANT 102790
5 SO HAPPY 101473
6 SO GLAD 98638
listen to the pronunciation of this example
The word “so” is used as an adverb to emphasize the speaker’s feeling of gladness. It intensifies the adjective “glad,” indicating a high degree of happiness or relief that the person has returned. The use of “so” in this context expresses a strong emotional response.
7 SO EXCITED 96866
8 REALLY NICE 95737
9 SO BAD 93486
10 REALLY GREAT 82529
11 SO GREAT 79932
12 REALLY HARD 73535
13 SO HARD 72465
14 REALLY IMPORTANT 71172
15 REALLY BAD 65481
16 REALLY COOL 64612
I get to listen to music all day, talk about music all day.
It‘s really cool.
17 SO CALLED 52981
so-called ADJECTIVE [always before noun] = KNOWN AS = B2 used to show that this is an informal, little known, or new name that something or someone is know as
18 REALLY EASY 52827
19 QUITE DIFFERENT 49446
20 SO LONG 48738
21 REALLY INTERESTING 45246
22 SO SIMPLE 43912
23 SO POPULAR 41561
24 SO SORRY 40235
25 REALLY HAPPY 37077
26 SO NICE 36987
27 REALLY FUN 36899
28 QUITE SURE 36290 this phrase contains advanced modality
I‘m quite sure, thank you.
Good night.
29 REALLY BIG 36181
30 SO PROUD 36024
31 REALLY ONLY 35540
32 SO HIGH 34897
33 QUITE GOOD 34517
34 SO DIFFERENT 33781
35 SO SMALL 33770
36 SO BEAUTIFUL 31955
37 SO SURE 30027
38 SO CUTE 29898
39 SO CLOSE 28755
40 QUITE EASY 28306
41 SO STRONG 27759
42 REALLY HELPFUL 27608
43 SO SPECIAL 27589
44 SO GRATEFUL 27570
45 SO BIG 27421
46 QUITE SIMPLE 26098
47 SO LOW 25025
48 REALLY EXCITED 24648
49 SO FUN 24525
50 SO COOL 24378
51 REALLY SURE 24261
52 SO SAD 24014
53 SO DIFFICULT 23662
54 REALLY USEFUL 22384
55 REALLY INTERESTED 22093
56 SO LUCKY 21384
57 REALLY SIMPLE 21317
58 SO POWERFUL 20517
59 SO LARGE 20461
60 SO HELPFUL 20244
61 SO PLEASED 20147
62 SO ONLY 19784
63 QUITE COMMON 19616
64 SO SUCCESSFUL 19332
65 SO TRUE 19122
66 REALLY DIFFICULT 18703
67 SO BUSY 18352
68 SO PRETTY 18173
69 REALLY STRONG 18162
70 QUITE DIFFICULT 17737
71 SO HOT 17473
72 REALLY LONG 17266
73 SO SWEET 17216
74 SO THANKFUL 17089
75 REALLY HIGH 17017
76 SO FULL 16746
77 QUITE HAPPY 16545
78 REALLY EXCITING 16449
79 SO AMAZING 16383
80 SO FUNNY 16294
81 QUITE POSSIBLE 16276
82 QUITE SIMILAR 16268
83 REALLY TOUGH 16178
84 QUITE CLEAR 16084
85 SO COMFORTABLE 15355
86 QUITE LARGE 15312
87 SO AWESOME 15026
88 SO DELICIOUS 14907
89 SO COMMON 14842
90 SO TIRED 14695
91 SO YOUNG 14413
92 REALLY PLEASED 14374
93 QUITE HIGH 14346
This is quite high for most of the athletes.
“quite” is used to emphasize that the height is significantly higher than what is typical for most athletes.
94 SO QUICK 14047
95 REALLY SPECIAL 14014
96 QUITE EXPENSIVE 13857
97 SO EXPENSIVE 13780
98 SO OBVIOUS 13633
99 QUITE SMALL 13564
100 SO INTERESTING 13517
A2:
amazing, awesome, busy, called, clear, comfortable, cool, full, glad, high, interested, large, low, lucky, pleased, popular, pretty, quite, simple, so, special, strong, sure, true, useful