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Replace the “very” in your sentence

losethevery.com

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Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#131

Post by dmitriid »

fzil wrote: post #116
jagged-chisel wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s fine to write like this to the local English-speaking team. But the international team can’t parse through the pulchritudinous prose. “Very sad” it is, then, on the technical Slack.

> pulchritudinous wow, that's some word of the year type shit. it means "beautiful" for those who were about to look it up.

To my non-native ear it sounds/looks like a word that means anything but beautiful.

Basically, what does horgous look like https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cogs.12791

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#132

Post by [deleted] »

function_seven wrote: post #68
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #47

I ran a few words through and I am not willing to buy into the elimination of very. As noted (very or not) unique and incomparable are not the same. These words have nuanced differences. Every word I checked failed to provide the a proper equivalent. Context matters. very hard is not always demanding very clean =/= sparkling very old =/= ancient very dark =/= bleak

I wish this site would just list all the matches. If you keep clicking the button, it'll cycle (randomly!) through other substitutions. Sparkling was also immaculate . "Demanding" was also arduous , grueling , backbreaking , and formidable . Surely one of those would work for replacing "very hard" in a sentence? If not, then use your own imagination. "Complicated", "tedious", "rock hard", etc. Sometimes you have no c…

[deleted]

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#134

Post by iLoveOncall »

djur wrote: post #84
iLoveOncall wrote: post #50

"very rude" is turned into "ill-mannered". I would say the second one is softer (very soft actually) than "rude". For many of them, looking into multiple dictionaries it appears that they are synonymous of the word, rather than a stronger meaning.

The underlying writing issue here is that people will use "very" because the sentence feels too bare and simple without it, so they add "very" (or "really", "extremely", "truly", etc.) as a way to add interest and emphasis. A good example of this is that they have "incomparable" for "very unique". "Unique" and "incomparable" are synonymous, and "very" isn't necessary here at all, but the latter word may have more pun…

You may be right, but even as a non-native speaker I know to use very for emphasis only.

The problem here is, as you can see from the fact that 100% of this thread is pointing out how badly that website works, it completely misses the mark on what it promises to do.

If I wanted synonyms I would search for synonyms, if I wanted to emphasize something then I may want to use this website. Except it's just another synonyms website.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#135

Post by OJFord »

If you're an ESL speaker or something thinking this will be useful, I'd suggest caution (heh, changed that from 'very wary').

Many of the proposed alternatives I saw clicking through 'random' have a subtlety or specificity that the original 'very adj' doesn't - so it sounds like you mean something you might not (probably don't) if you say 'colossal' instead of 'tall' or 'emaciated' instead of 'skinny' for example.

And 'pungent' instead of 'tasty' is just plain wrong.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#136

Post by bfung »

Very nice. Erm… charming?

My critical sidebar: a thesaurus-like app featured on product hunt? How about featuring a full thesaurus? The UI is nice~

For other grammar and alternative nits, I recommend https://hemingwayapp.com/ . Ex: helps remove words like “just” and suggests better active tone English writing.

I’d say combining the two apps would yield a really strong writing assistant.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#137

Post by OJFord »

nicbou wrote: post #117

This is good advice with one exception: if you write plain English for non-native speakers. I use "very" a lot, because it's a well-understood modifier. "very bad" is cleared than "appalling". It will be understood by all without needing a large vocabulary. An alternative is to use the "plus-" and "doubleplus-" prefixes.

> An alternative is to use the "plus-" and "doubleplus-" prefixes.

I've never come across that, that sounds plus-awkward to me, but is it some sort of pan-language standard? And did I do it correctly?

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#138

Post by chrismorgan »

nitnelave wrote: post #130
jagged-chisel wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s fine to write like this to the local English-speaking team. But the international team can’t parse through the pulchritudinous prose. “Very sad” it is, then, on the technical Slack.

Since we're being pedantic, I'd point out that pulchritudinous is only used for people of great physical beauty, it's not a generic replacement for beautiful.

A better term might be “purple prose” (which certainly means something quite different, but probably more accurately derides the style).

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#140

Post by [deleted] »

dmitriid wrote: post #131
fzil wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pulchritudinous wow, that's some word of the year type shit. it means "beautiful" for those who were about to look it up.

To my non-native ear it sounds/looks like a word that means anything but beautiful. Basically, what does horgous look like https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cogs.12791

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