What are Adverbs of Degree?

Adverbs of Degree

Before defining “Adverbs of Degree”, the meaning of the word “degree” should be made known first.

Degree, according to The Oxford Dictionary, refers to the amount, level, or extent to which something happens or is present.

Highlighting the word “level”:

In school, there are different grade levels-- 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.

There are also degrees by Celsius, Fahrenheit, Joules, etc.

In English grammar, there are these “Adverbs of Degree”.

Adverbs of Degree are used to indicate the intensity, degree, or extent of the verb, adjective, or adverb they are modifying. They always appear before the adjective, verb, or another adverb they describe.

Some adverbs of degree include:

really, quite, absolutely, utterly, fully, a bit, unusually, slightly, fairly, etc.

When these adverbs are used to modify or describe adjectives, they are put before the adjectives.

examples:

       "This box is absolutely tiny."

The word “tiny” here is an adjective, and it is used to describe the "box".

Before the word “tiny”, there is the word “absolutely”, an adverb telling "how tiny" the box is. In this sentence, while the adjective is used to describe the noun, the adverb is used to tell the degree of the adjective. How tiny is the box? Absolutely. Which could also mean, extremely tiny.

        "The exam was extremely difficult."

The word “difficult” here is an adjective that is used to describe the "exam".

And before the word “difficult”, there is the word “extremely”, an adverb describing "how difficult" the exam was.