INTENSIFIERS
What are intensifiers?
• Intensifiers are another special category of modifiers.
• an adverb that emphasizes an adjective or another
adverb. (very important, quite easily)
• They have the opposite effect of qualifiers, and
strengthen (rather than weaken) the meaning of the
words and phrases that they modify. They are either
positive (like very) or negative (like definitely not).
Some examples of these two categorie of intensifiers are presented below:
Very Extremely Absolutely Completely Greatly Quite
Too So Totally Utterly Highly Awfully (be careful: awful
means very bad, but
awfully usually describes
some great, like The cake
was awfully delicious!)
Rather Really Exceptionally Particularly Seriously
Examples:
• The boss was very adamant that the software
be changed this way, so we had better listen to
his demands.
• I completely agree with Visie, even though we
never agree on anything.
• Rose really wanted to kiss Matthew that night.
Intensifying adverbs are used to mean 'extremely or 'completely'
in the sentences below. The expressions marked with * are very
informal.
• Jane really enjoys doing housework.
• You should see her flat-it 's always spotlessly clean.
• It was downright rude of Antonio to tell Paula that she
looked older than her own mother.
• I hope he feels thoroughly ashamed.
• It's blatantly obvious that Olga is only interested in
Richard because he is stinking rich.*
• I wonder what she'll do when she finds out he's wildly
exaggerated how rich he really is!
• I don't know what I was worrying about! The exam
turned out to be dead easy! *
• This celebrity website is good fun but most of the
information is wildly inaccurate.
It should be observed that many of these intensifiers have the
ending -ly. This is a word ending that means “like." It can turn an
adjective into an [Link] are words that modify verbs,
but they also modify other adjectives. For example:
Ø That pizza is incredible.
(incredible is an adjective that modifies the noun pizza)
Ø That pizza is incredibly delicious!
(incredibly is called an adverb, because it modifies the adjective delicious,
which tells us what kind of pizza it was.)
Many times, we can choose an intensifier that we like to use, and it will work in
many different sentences. Let us use a sentence from the list and change the
intensifier.
That glue is ______ strong.
That glue is remarkably strong.
That glue is incredibly strong.
That glue is amazingly strong.
That glue is unusually strong.
That glue is extremely strong.
That glue is very strong.
That glue is so strong.
That glue is really strong.
All these sentences tell the same thing - that is, the glue is stronger than any
other glue we have tried. The words might have somewhat different meanings,
but as intensifiers, they all mean basically the same thing.
Some intensifiers, however, do have different meanings. Some
work best in positive sentences, and some work best in negative
sentences such in the following sentences:
That sunset is amazingly beautiful.
That sunset isn't beautiful at all.
References:
• (Glencoe Writer's Choice) McGraw-Hill Glencoe - Glencoe Writer's Choice_ Grammar and Composition, Grade 12-The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc. (2009) (1)
• - Writer's choice _ grammar and composition-Glencoe_McGraw-Hill (2001)
• English Language Proficiency(Authors:PaulineBatang, ElizabethBautista,MarieClaudetteCalanoga, MaritesCatabay,
MaridenCauilan,AllanDelaCruz,ShellaDelaCruz,LauranaLingan,MaribelMalana,JomelManuel,RiaTamayo,ConchitaTemporal)
