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Replace the “very” in your sentence

losethevery.com

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Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#151

Post by n4r9 »

OJFord wrote: post #135

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. An…

You're right; more specific can be less accurate, depending on the context.

Perhaps better if the website proposed a list of options, with a comment on how they differ?

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#152

Post by foobarbecue »

qwery wrote: post #143

When you write something, what it is that you are doing, to put it very (clearly excessively) plainly, is selecting words that convey some meaning in some way that pleases you, the writer. Choose your words. You can try to choose words to please others if you like, but there's not much reason to expect success from such a strategy. Choose your words. Find your audience. This might be a useful way to discover words fo…

Nice to see "meme" used in the original sense.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#153

Post by marginalia_nu »

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

A lot of basic first-250-words-of-latin vocabulary has become pretentious English words for some reason.

Pulchritudinous [ pulchre = beautiful ]

Virile [vir = man]

Tacit [tacite = quietly]

Ossify [os = bone]

Stultify [stultus = dumb]

Puerile [puer = boy]

Amicable [amice = friendly]

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#155

Post by OscarDC »

OJFord wrote: post #145
tchalla wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're an ESL speaker or something thinking this will be useful, I'd suggest caution (heh, changed that from 'very wary'). I will suggest one more thing. Define an acronym, abbreviation once before usage.

I think it's widely known by English as a Second Language speakers, and it was only an example anyway, but sure, fair enough, thanks.

Just to give my experience, I actually didn't know what that acronym meant. I tried googling it but "ESL speaker" only gave results about loudspeakers and just "ESL" was mostly about some German Company.

I even thought it had to do with sign language at first but didn't get the meaning of the sentence in that case!

---

A little off-topic but that makes me think of another HN thread some months ago talking about acronyms like "SRE" or "SWE" (and some others I since forgot), that many HNers assumed to be understood by everyone. Many non-american/english developers actually never encountered those (including I, I've been software engineer since at least 8 years and never saw those terms beside HN, like I would think most in my country) and it led to the same kind of incomprehension.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#156

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

makeitdouble wrote: post #142
sudobash1 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is actually the motivation to avoid very. It's completely true, and important to note that "very clean" =/= "sparkling". "Very" simply intensifies the word "clean". "Sparkling" doesn't simply mean intensely clean. Instead it means (in context) that it is so clean that light reflects off the surface. It has a richer meaning. On the other hand the way the tool presents is not the most helpful. A list would…

An issue I have with this approach is the lack of gradation. A very clean carpet might still not be spotless nor immaculate. You'd have to adjust and go for "almost spotless", but then is it still better than using "very" ? Forcing people to think long and hard about the exact word they want to use is beneficial, but I'd expect we'd still fall back to modulators like "very" in most cases (the same way I'm cushioning…

> Forcing people to think long and hard about the exact word they want to use is beneficial

...except in the cases where it's not. If you want to communicate efficiently, you need to speak plainly: you will be understood and the whole process will go smoothly as you won't need to lose time to replace each 'very' in your sentence with something that might or might not fit.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#157

Post by NeoTar »

protomyth wrote: post #16

very + unique = incomparable Nice, although a rather large group of TV viewers of The West Wing know that "unique means one of a kind, something can't be very unique"[0]. It still amazes me how some of the quotes from that show stick with me all these years later. 0) https://youtu.be/Fvb1e4-YgRE?t=162 or the whole scene https://youtu.be/Fvb1e4-YgRE

How about something which is being assessed on multiple dimensions?

A tee-shirt which is a distinct colour is unique. A tee-shirt which is a distinct colour, distinct fit, distinct size and has a distinct motif could perhaps be described as being 'very unique'.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#158

Post by shafyy »

OJFord wrote: post #145
tchalla wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're an ESL speaker or something thinking this will be useful, I'd suggest caution (heh, changed that from 'very wary'). I will suggest one more thing. Define an acronym, abbreviation once before usage.

I think it's widely known by English as a Second Language speakers, and it was only an example anyway, but sure, fair enough, thanks.

For me, ESL is the Electronic Sports League :-) Good old times!

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#160

Post by mellavora »

OJFord wrote: post #137
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?

it is an Orwell reference. "double-plus good" was part of the Newspeak in his novel 1984

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/double-plus-good

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