No, I'd rather spend my time doing something useful than looking for replacements for words.
Replace the “very” in your sentence
261–270 of 295 posts
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#262You 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?
Actually keeping it simple makes you seem smarter https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-04065-001
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#263It's a funny joke and gets your mind going, but in the field, "very" doesn't get used that much to warrant wholesale replacing. It's not very prevalent, actually
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#264As 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 ourselv…
Are you following your own advice? You don't sound smart, you sound smug
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#265As 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…
Words get more precise as they get more exotic, and that is not always what you want. I saw it too much in college--students whipping a thesaurus to make their papers seem 'smarter' but in reality making them incoherent.
I agree, "very" is ok, but it is a crutch. In many of these cases, just dropping the 'very' would be better than picking a new word.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#266This web site is strange. English is notable for having a ton of verbs. If you listen to a native speaker with a rich vocabulary, you will not hear a lot of rare adjectives, you will hear stronger verbs.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quotes don't need the potential author cited. Your advice works whoever told it, especially if you actually stand behind it and we'll take it as your word then.
You don't think its relevant that advice about writing (purportedly) comes from an established writer? Not to mention that giving people credit is always laudable and should be done much more, not less.
Famous people say a lot of things and any random advice coming from an authoritative figure is not guaranted to be insightful. On top of that quotes are massively taken out of context and misattributed (this one probably is)
That to me makes the whole quoting one liners format useless if the quote doesn't stand on its own(except when it's used ironically?)
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#268No post body was provided.
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#269Earlier 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.
what ever
Re: Replace the “very” in your sentence
#270Always great to see how useless the internet can be when we try really hard.
While it’s fine that the annoying student who always corrected your grammar in school has enough extra cash to host this site, it’s a shame they still haven’t applied themselves to anything useful or interesting.
Something that HAS been very helpful to me (very surprisingly to me, who was very skeptical)… outlook’s “make it more concise” hints. Makes my emails waaay more concise and direct… I hate coming across as cocky or confident but they hit the nail on the head for me. Very helpful.