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Replace the “very” in your sentence

losethevery.com

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Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#231

Post by loughnane »

As others have pointed out the fancier word is not always a drop in for the “very x”.

But that isn’t how to use these tools. These tools are great for _reminding you that these other words exist._ I bet most of our writing is riddled with lazy idioms because we’re doing the hard work of turning thoughts into words. That’s hard enough without raising the bar even higher.

Once the first pass is written down however it’s valuable to do a quick skim to see “is there anything I can do to make this more readable? To make it so that my idea gets implanted in the readers brain?”

If you write a paragraph and say very three—or even two— times, a tool that can quickly give you alternatives will make your writing more readable.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#232

Post by Eupraxias »

KaiserPro wrote: post #187

As a native speaker, my reply is: no[1] Firstly this appears to be a way to boast about the size of your vocabulary. That's great, but, frankly you are walking into a bigarsed zone of unintended connotations. Its more than likely to do the exact opposite. Second, half of the suggestions are wrong. for example "very ashamed" is not the same as repentant. shame and regret are two similar things, but not the same. same…

The point is that when you use "very", you reveal that you have not attained that level of intellect which realizes that "very" is extraneous almost every time. This insight usually comes with a large amount of time invested in reading challenging books. It has little to do with expansive vocabulary, and more to do with understanding word choice and avoiding pretension.

We pick "very" when we have not trained ourselves to be conscious of word choice. When we become conscious of it, we stop saying "very" quite naturally.

And we start using annoying words like "quite".

For anyone trying to sound like they have a better grasp of English, definitely lose the "very".

Here's an example: which is better? "gregarious" or "very outgoing"?

(It's a trick question - they're both bad... the correct answer is "outgoing")

If you want to sound actually smart, remove words like "very", and don't change "outgoing" to "gregarious". The only people who use "gregarious" in a normal conversation are people who are trying to sound smart. A smart person is conscious of how to avoid using pretentious words in normal conversation. Smart people usually don't _need_ to demonstrate that they are smart.

To sound intelligent, simply use the tone of your voice to indicate that you could say "very", but instead you just say "outgoing" - perhaps with some inflection or cadence variation. Smart people notice when someone omits words like "very", because they have been faced with the same issue.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#233

Post by denton-scratch »

koolba wrote: post #205
KaiserPro wrote: post #187

As a native speaker, my reply is: no[1] Firstly this appears to be a way to boast about the size of your vocabulary. That's great, but, frankly you are walking into a bigarsed zone of unintended connotations. Its more than likely to do the exact opposite. Second, half of the suggestions are wrong. for example "very ashamed" is not the same as repentant. shame and regret are two similar things, but not the same. same…

> using 'very' is perfectly fine, just try to limit it's use to once a sentence at the very minimum(no you can't swap very minimum for "the least" maybe "at the very least"). s/min/max/g I like to imagine it always being written in italics. If you don’t want it standing out and being very noticeable, then don’t use it at all.

You can swap "very minimum" for "minimum". The "very minimum" means "the extreme minimum" or the "true minimum". Well, a minimum is already an extreme; and absent reasons for believing otherwise, it's reasonable to assume that a speaker wants you to believe she is truthful.

You can use "very" simply for emphasis, rather like "literally" is often used; "I did my very best". If it's really being used just for emphasis, then you can delete the word "very", and simply set the following word in bold or somethiing.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#234

Post by ekidd »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #207

First example: Very dangerous => Treacherous Definition of treacherous: guilty of or involving betrayal or deception. Of course things can be dangerous and even very dangerous without betrayal or deception. Climbing Mount Everest is very dangerous. But is it treacherous?

You could certainly say "The path along the ridge was treacherous." But this suggests that any footstep might betray you.

But there are many other words that could replace "very dangerous" in certain contexts: perilous, deadly, precarious, etc. Each has specific connotations, or only makes sense in specific contexts.

Can it be worth replacing "very X" with a more specific word? Perhaps. Mere mechanical search and replace won't work. As Mark Twain wrote:

> The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. 'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

"Very" is a safe choice, and perfectly fine in many sorts of quick, casual writing. Trying to find the perfect word can occasionally be treacherous[1] for non-native speakers. They might choose a word with a unexpected meaning.

[1] OK, I did that deliberately. I'm very sorry, but not actually repentant.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#235

Post by denton-scratch »

johnpublic wrote: post #211
zeroxp wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say very different, you could have just said skittish. "It's skittish from what you intended". Isn't that much better?

actually, the website says "very different = distinct". So "it's distinct from what you intended." Which I actually prefer.

Not the same. "Distinct from X" means that it can be distinguished from X; "very different from X" means that it's hard to mistake it for X.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#236

Post by denton-scratch »

madeofpalk wrote: post #179
OJFord wrote: post #145

Earlier 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.

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.

ESL is standard in English english too.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#238

Post by kylebyproxy »

denton-scratch wrote: post #229

It's just wrong. "Very" + "outstanding" is not the same as "distinguished". "Very" + "entertaining" is not the same as "absorbing". I've only tried it a few times, but not once has it come up with a proposal that is correct.

The very notion of intentionally handicapping one's own vocabulary is just plain bizarre

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#239

Post by jonnycomputer »

skrebbel wrote: post #199
qwery wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very tall people are taller than tall people. (Of course) you can (always) (just) remove words from a sentence. The (very) idea that doing so will (always) result in a "better" sentence is nonsensical. The Empire State Building is a very tall building, but it is not the tallest. King Kong is a tall gorilla, and he is the tallest. Many examples are contrived. This example is contrived. I'm sorry, but I'm not very sorr…

Sure, I should've written "It'll often be better".

Not "It'll very often be better"

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#240

Post by jonnycomputer »

throwaway74829 wrote: post #109
alibrarydweller wrote: post #14

"So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays." -- The Dead Poets Society

I think it was Mencken that most popularly called this sort of thing sophomoric, and chastised "schoolma'ams" trying to impart conscious thought and logic into the unthinking that don't much care for what it is they're doing (e.g. writing, composing music, etc.). I think using "very lazy" is quite fine. If you're not just simply lazy, but much more so -- yet fall short of *exceptionally* lazy: you are very lazy. The…

Are you suggesting that "very" is actually a half-step between the next word?

Happy. Very Happy. Ecstatic.

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