【英国问答】horrible, horrific和terrible(1/2)
A question from Dung Hoang Kim:
Horrible/Horrific and Terrible/Terrific
Hints:
none
英式拼法，全部不加双引号
http://t1.g.hjfile.cn/listen/201304/201304140259503327702.mp3Okay, so you're right. This is a particularly tricky question, and I can understand the reasons why you ask it. The words you spoke about are all adjectives, these four words horrible, horrific, terrible, terrific. They're all adjectives, and as you know, often, English adjectives go in pairs or groups, and we can find patterns in their meanings.
So, for example, we have bored and boring, interested and interesting.
The words you asked about, they look like they followed some kind of pattern like this, but in fact, I'm afraid they don't.
Horrible and horrific, they both related to the noun horror.
Horror means strong fear, or shock, or repulsion. So, if we say that something is horrific, that means it makes us feel horror. We might talk about a horrific war for example, or a horrific illness.
Horrible can mean the same as horrific in fact, or it has a different meaning also. It can also mean unpleasant or disgusting, and so we could talk about a horrible traffic accident, or you could say something like, this coffee is horrible.
And to answer your question about which word is stronger, horrific is stronger generally, if we talk about a horrific war, that's stronger than a horrible war.
On the other hand, it's also important to remember, horrible is more often used in normal everyday spoken English. Horrific is a slightly more formal word. You can expect to read it in newspapers or in books, but it's less commonly used in conversation.
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