Intensifiers

Intensifiers:

We use words like very, really and extremely to make adjectives stronger:

It’s a very interesting story
Everyone was very excited.
It’s a really interesting story.
Everyone was extremely excited

We call these words intensifiers. Other intensifiers are:

amazingly	exceptionally	incredibly
remarkably	particularly	unusually

We also use enough to say more about an adjective, but enough comes after its adjective:

If you are seventeen you are old enough to drive a car.
I can’t wear those shoes. They’re not big enough.

Intensifiers with strong adjectives:

Strong adjectives are words like:

enormous, huge = very big
tiny = very small
brilliant = very clever
awful; terrible; disgusting; dreadful = very bad
certain = very sure
excellent; perfect; ideal; wonderful; splendid = very good
delicious = very tasty

We do not normally use very with these adjectives. We do not say something is "very enormous" or someone is "very brilliant".

With strong adjectives, we normally use intensifiers like:

absolutely	completely	totally	utterly
really	exceptionally	particularly	quite

The film was absolutely awful.
He was an exceptionally brilliant child.
The food smelled really disgusting.

 

PRACTICE