Mark Twain supposedly said:
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'. Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Replace the “very” in your sentence
51–60 of 295 posts
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#52Outside of writing an English essay, I don't see why the use of very is looked down upon. "Very good" or "very smart" is fine and is common in everyday speech.
Very works but it's missing out on an opportunity to give more detail.
Most of the adjectives in this app have multiple alternatives, one of which is likely closer to what you're trying to represent.
Or to put it another way: concepts like "smartness" are complicated and multidimensional. Someone who is "very smart" could be: good at their job, naturally intelligent, built up knowledge though experience and hard work, street-smart, smarter than average, smartest person in the world ever etc.
I wouldn't say there's always a better single word alternative to "very adjective" but it's worth thinking about when writing (and probably not worth thinking about in everyday speech!).
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#53This is missing an important factor for writing: context. There are many places where it's fine to wax lyrical and reach for the thesaurus. But if you're trying to write clearly and concisely then there is something to be said for simplicity.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#54When emphasising language becomes habitual, it's intended impact may actually be lessened, by way of the "boy crying wolf" effect. That is, if everything is described as "very" and "really" and "actually", then those emphasisers no longer stand out. We start to ignore them, and the collective energy spent writing them is somewhat wasted.
So I say: let a standalone word suffice, whenever possible. Save emphasis for appropriate moments.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#55> very + difficult = strenuous
It also offered up “laborious” and “challenging”. None convey the actual intended meaning
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#56There's a good reason not to do this: your new fancy word is less likely to be understood by those with lower English literacy.
Very anti-intellectual.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#57Q: How many Northern Californians does it take to change a lightbulb? A: Hella!!! Q: How many Southern Californians does it take to change a lightbulb? A: Totally!!! There's a perceptual dialectological difference between "hella pregnant" (Northern California) and "totally pregnant" (Southern California). Hella Nor Cal or Totally So Cal? The Perceptual Dialectology of California http://eng.sagepub.com/content/35/4/32…
I hear people use totally much more often than hella in the Bay Area.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#58Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#59discovery - very = disco
bravery - very = bra
delivery - very = deli
slavery - very = sla
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#60I've seen such advice in many writing forums (other examples include don't use adverbs, don't use passive voice, etc.), and while it certainly pays to heed your choice of vocabulary, I'm not convinced that simply avoiding a fixed set of words or forms is good advice. Let alone replacing them with a fixed set of substitutes.
Open a few good books and essays, and see if there are adverbs, "very", passive voices, or other bad forms. These are reputable works written by careful and capable writers, and enjoyed by many readers. If they are all deemed wrong in the eyes of such advice, it's the advice that's wrong.
The valuable lesson is to actively think about the words you use, whether the text accurately convey what you mean, in the tone you desire, and is readable by your intended audience.
I'd say a good pair of thesaurus and dictionary is much better than this website. At least you got multiple candidates, an explanation of each, and get to choose the most appropriate one.