Polarity Locks
Three intensifiers as shaped sockets. What goes in, and what will not, whatever you do to it.
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Not a question of how hard you push. The shapes are different.
Words like very and utterly only fit certain adjectives. Learn the pairings that sound natural, and the mismatches that don't.
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Two phrases, one of which no native speaker would produce. Work out which before you sort.
utterly delighted
utterly adequate
The first is completely ordinary. The second is not English, and you would notice it immediately in someone else's writing.
Now the trap. The obvious explanation is that utterly takes negative adjectives — but delighted is positive, and utterly delighted is fine. So that explanation is wrong, or at least incomplete.
What is actually different between delighted and adequate?
Twenty-four phrases. Twelve a native speaker says, twelve a native speaker does not. Sort before you read on.
Sort each item into the correct category
The gradability rule that decides most of these, the polarity lean that decides the rest, and the two that go either way.
English adjectives come in two kinds, and most learners have never been told.
| Gradable — you can have more or less of it | useful, important, expensive, difficult, common, adequate, effective |
| Absolute — it is already at the end of its scale | ridiculous, useless, exhausted, delighted, devastated, impossible, unacceptable, perfect |
And the intensifiers split the same way:
| Scaling — takes gradable adjectives | very, quite, fairly, extremely |
| Completing — takes absolute adjectives | utterly, completely, absolutely, totally |
Match the kinds. Very useful and utterly ridiculous are both fine. Very ridiculous and utterly useful are not.
That single rule explains ten of the twelve phrases in your second box. It is also the answer to the question at the top of this sprint: delighted is absolute, adequate is gradable. Nothing to do with polarity.
Three intensifiers as shaped sockets. What goes in, and what will not, whatever you do to it.
Not a question of how hard you push. The shapes are different.
Eight pairings. Four are wrong, and they are wrong in three different ways.
Four of these eight would be refused by a native reader. Before you answer each one, run the two checks in order:
Most failures are caught by the first check.
"The evidence presented in support of the proposal was utterly inadequate."
Three chains. Check the adjective's kind before you choose the intensifier — and once, find that none of them fits.
Chain 1
The sentence to complete: The committee's decision to proceed without the safety report was ______ indefensible.
Candidates: utterly / very
Step 1 — Is indefensible gradable or absolute, and what does that rule out?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The decision was indefensible.
Chain 2
The sentence to complete: The guidance issued to schools was ______ helpful, and most heads said so.
Candidates: downright / extremely
Step 1 — Gradability passes for both. What decides it?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The guidance was helpful.
Chain 3
The sentence to complete: The scheme was ______ effective in the first two years and less so afterwards.
Candidates: utterly / very
Step 1 — Effective is gradable, and the sentence itself says the effect varied. What follows?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The scheme was effective in the first two years.