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Replace the “very” in your sentence

losethevery.com

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Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#251

Post by Daub »

throwamon wrote: post #245
Daub wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray. I wholeheartedly agree that excessive and unnecessary verbiage can be a tiresome impediment to the clear transmission of ideas. That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say. A wide vocabulary is particularly useful when addressing complex subjects.

I know this dude who can say anything you can think of using only two words.

No shit?

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#253

Post by motive »

I agree with a lot of the other comments regarding the accuracy of the substitutions suggested here. Having said that, I do think 'very' is overused in daily conversational English. I've found myself replacing it with 'quite' more often now, just for personal taste.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#254

Post by BeFlatXIII »

throwamon wrote: post #245
Daub wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray. I wholeheartedly agree that excessive and unnecessary verbiage can be a tiresome impediment to the clear transmission of ideas. That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say. A wide vocabulary is particularly useful when addressing complex subjects.

I know this dude who can say anything you can think of using only two words.

Is he German?

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#256

Post by monkey_monkey »

greenthrow wrote: post #241
Eupraxias wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ourselv…

This is very bad advice.

It's very very bad advice.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#257

Post by KaiserPro »

Eupraxias wrote: post #250
greenthrow wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very bad advice.

See, it sounds much more conclusive to say... This is bad advice. Adding "very" is subjective. Omitting makes it sound like fact. All of this push-back is... cute.

its still bad advice, babes.

adding very doesn't make it subjective. the whole sentence is subjective. the very is a modifier that indicates the person saying thinks its really quite bad. Don't hate on adverbs.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#258

Post by the_only_law »

KaiserPro wrote: post #223
Daub wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray. I wholeheartedly agree that excessive and unnecessary verbiage can be a tiresome impediment to the clear transmission of ideas. That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say. A wide vocabulary is particularly useful when addressing complex subjects.

you're right of course. I should have been more clear. building vocab is _awesome_ everyone who can, should do it. but learning when to use those fancy new words is _more_ important. Getting good source material is key to that.

See: this thread even.

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#259

Post by the_only_law »

skrebbel wrote: post #161

You 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...

Yeah but how will you know how oh so smart I am then?

Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence

#260

Post by another-dave »

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 very right (Or "You're perfect", as this is suggesting!)

I clicked through a few random ones. For "very ill" it gave "lifeless" and for "very frustrated" it gave "infuriating", both of which probably aren't what you mean!

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