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Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

writerswrite.co.za

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Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#41

Post by nmc »

jeremysmyth wrote: post #2

But what if I want to say "very terrified"? As a side note, I was always amused by the number of generic superlatives available in many languages. In English, we've already got "very", and "damn" as the site mentions, along with "really", "extremely", "amazingly" and so on. In British English, you can say "bloody" or "damnedly" or "shockingly" or "terribly" or any of a vast number of other superlatives, not to ignore…

Keep in mind that, however "vachement" may sound, it is (very) familiar — almost slang.

It comes from "vache", which is the French noun for "cow", but can also be used familiarly as an adjective that roughly translates to "nasty".

If you enjoyed "vachement", you will be happy to know that the French noun "bœuf" (the second letter is made of an O and an E), which became "beef" in English, can also be used familiarly as an adjective meaning something along "intense".

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#42

Post by sabbatic13 »

sker wrote: post #37

I was always bothered by the overuse of the word "pretty" on the Internet in place of "very." As a non-native English speaker, I grew up thinking of pretty as synonym of beautiful. Now that I see everyone using it as they would use very , I find it hard to parse.

How do you handle "fairly"? It is similarly polyvalent.

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#43

Post by DanBC »

sker wrote: post #37

I was always bothered by the overuse of the word "pretty" on the Internet in place of "very." As a non-native English speaker, I grew up thinking of pretty as synonym of beautiful. Now that I see everyone using it as they would use very , I find it hard to parse.

Someone saying "it's pretty quiet here" is saying something like "it is quiet, but not silent, here".

"This curry is pretty hot" would mean it is hot, and hotter than normal, but not very hot in the context of curries.

So there's something in there about the context and that it is a modifier for "more" but not "much more".

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#44

Post by yoha »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #15
Maciek416 wrote: post #12

This reminds me of an English teacher I had in high school who disallowed us from using a list of banned words in a writing assignment. In previous assignments students had overused them to pad their word count and to inflate the apparent sophistication of their vocabulary. Among these words were "basically" and "essentially" which he told us were garbage words (as far as essay-writing as concerned). It stuck with me…

See also: "really" and "actually". An easy way to improve your writing is to do a quick edit and remove all instances of these no-op words then go back and adjust.

I'd go further: run a analysis of word frequencies and identify the meaningless ones amongst the most frequent.

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#45

Post by sabbatic13 »

Maciek416 wrote: post #12

This reminds me of an English teacher I had in high school who disallowed us from using a list of banned words in a writing assignment. In previous assignments students had overused them to pad their word count and to inflate the apparent sophistication of their vocabulary. Among these words were "basically" and "essentially" which he told us were garbage words (as far as essay-writing as concerned). It stuck with me…

Rules like these aren't really good guide to style though. They are the sort of guidelines suited to curing teenagers of bad habits. That's the problem I have with articles like these. They aren't adult discussions of language; they do not teach effective writing, and do not promote an understanding of language. One should ideally outgrow such pedagogy by one's second year of college.

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#47

Post by maw »

sker wrote: post #37

I was always bothered by the overuse of the word "pretty" on the Internet in place of "very." As a non-native English speaker, I grew up thinking of pretty as synonym of beautiful. Now that I see everyone using it as they would use very , I find it hard to parse.

Where I grew up we used "wicked" as an intensifier, as in "he is wicked nice." Sound any better?

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#48

Post by dllthomas »

Maciek416 wrote: post #12

This reminds me of an English teacher I had in high school who disallowed us from using a list of banned words in a writing assignment. In previous assignments students had overused them to pad their word count and to inflate the apparent sophistication of their vocabulary. Among these words were "basically" and "essentially" which he told us were garbage words (as far as essay-writing as concerned). It stuck with me…

Might be interesting to automatically keep a running count of words used in your writing (across formats), and make a habit of avoiding what you've been overusing.

Re: Ways to avoid using the word 'very'

#49

Post by cgriswald »

ozh wrote: post #6
jeremysmyth wrote: post #2

But what if I want to say "very terrified"? As a side note, I was always amused by the number of generic superlatives available in many languages. In English, we've already got "very", and "damn" as the site mentions, along with "really", "extremely", "amazingly" and so on. In British English, you can say "bloody" or "damnedly" or "shockingly" or "terribly" or any of a vast number of other superlatives, not to ignore…

such translation! cowly awesome!

Indeed. I enjoyed it ever so much.
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