Half of editing is deleting superfluous words. But also, sometimes adding a few "dead weight" phrases can make text feel easier to comprehend.
Replace the “very” in your sentence
171–180 of 295 posts
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#172You can also just drop the “very”. There’s no need for a fancy word to replace the thing you’re very very about. For example, if you’re writing “very tall”, change it into “tall” and re-read the sentence. It’ll be better. I learned this by reading Scott Adams’ excellent 3-minute essay on writing: https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the...
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Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#173‘Very’ comes from the Latin for true and could be replaced with ‘truly’. In that sense, it’s like ‘literally’ and other attempts to emphasise.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#174If 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…
"A very tall female model" vs. "a colossal female model". I agree, those paint outrageous ("very different") images in my mind.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 acron…
I tried googling all three + "abbreviation" so for example "SRE abbreviation" and the first result for all three was the actual term for the abbreviation.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#176s/very/awesomely/g
done.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#177You think Stevie Wonder is playing your games?
“Exceptionally superstitious
Writing on the wall”
Very awful!
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#178[deleted]
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#179Earlier 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.
I thought so (as an english-as-first-language), but I've met a bunch of people around the world who didn't know what ESL meant. I get the feeling the phrase is most known in American.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#180 very + good = sterling