grammaticality - Can you say "absolutely good"?


You often hear people follow up the word "absolutely" with words such as "fantastic", "amazing", "brilliant", "knackered".


But to hear say someone say "That was absolutely good" or "I am absolutely tired" would sound ridiculous.


Is there actually anything grammatically wrong with these 2 statements, or are they just so unconventional that they sound wrong?



Answer



In informal speech the word absolutely is often used to add emphasis to a superlative. You could just as easily say, "It was fantastic," as, "It was absolutely fantastic," but both really mean the same thing.


Adding it to words like good doesn't have the same requirement for emphasis, as there is a superlative you could use instead, so you would rather write, "brilliant," than, "absolutely good."


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