Hi, in today’s lesson you will learn about intensifiers and downtoners or mitigators in English.
So, what are they? Well, an intensifier is an adverb that makes adjectives and other adverbs stronger.
So, let’s take an example.
You can say: We are hungry. But you want to make it stronger, emphasise how hungry you are.
So, you add an intensifier.
We are extremely hungry.
It makes the sentence more interesting, doesn’t it?
Or I am confused.
mm How confused are you? We don’t really know.
But if you say: I am totally confused. It adds more power to what you say, doesn’t it?
It means that you are really, really confused.
So, let’s look at an example of a downtowners.
That’s the opposite of an intensifier and it weakens the adjective.
So, if you say: We ran quickly. But you want to say that it wasn’t that quick,
you want to weaken it, you could say: We ran fairly quickly.
So why do you need to learn about this?
Well, it adds a level of sophistication to your English, it adds more emotion and power to what you say
and can impress in both speaking and writing.
It's going to be an exceptionally useful lesson, as you an extremely dedicated student.
and improving your English is totally achievable.
So, let’s look at in more detail at intensifiers
The ones we see all the time are: very, really and extremely
It's a very interesting story.
It's a really thoughtful present.
Everyone was extremely excited.
But they're pretty boring, aren’t they?
So let’s look at some more interesting ones.
Remember they add strength to your adjective
but depending on the adverb you choose you can add a lot of power, a moderate amount of power
or you can use a downtoners which weakens the meaning of the adjective.
So, let’s start with the high intensity ones such as:
absolutely,
amazingly,
completely,
entirely,
exceptionally,
highly,
incredibly,
insanely,
particularly,
remarkably,
so,
totally,
utterly,
and unusually.
For example:
You did amazingly well in the exam.
Or, she was so upset. I felt extremely sorry for her.
Or, it’s incredibly generous of you to pay for my holiday.
Or, it's particularly dangerous to swim in the lake during a storm.
So now let's look at some medium intensity ones:
such as really, very, quite, pretty, somewhat and mildly.
It was pretty relaxing to spend time by the lake. It was relaxing but only moderately so.
It was quite hot on Sunday. It was hot but moderately hot!
And if you want to use a downtoner, you could use at all, fairly, quite, and rather.
I’m afraid I’m not at all interested.
It’s rather cold today, isn’t it?
She was quite tired.
So let’s look at this sentence.
He has worked hard this week.
If you say, he has worked fairly hard this week, it's giving a weaker meaning to working hard.
You could say, he has worked pretty hard this week, which means it's moderately hard.
or he has worked incredibly hard this week.
So you can vary the power by using intensifiers.
So now let’s look at intensifiers with strong adjectives.
Strong adjectives are words like:
very big, which means enormous or huge,
very small which means tiny,
very clever which means brilliant,
very bad which is awful, terrible, disgusting, or dreadful,
very sure which is certain,
very good which is excellent, perfect, ideal, wonderful and splendid
and very tasty which is delicious.
We do not normally use very with these adjectives.
We do not say something is very enormous or someone is very brilliant.
Instead you could say, really enormous or incredibly brilliant.
With strong adjectives, we normally use intensifiers like:
absolutely, completely, exceptionally, particularly, really, quite, totally and utterly.
The play was absolutely awful.
He was an exceptionally brilliant musician.
The dog food smelled really disgusting.
We also use on earth and ever as intensifiers with wh-words.
What on earth is she doing? -
This would then suggest disapproval but adds strength to the simple phrase, "What is she doing?"
Why did I ever invite them to stay with us?
This suggests that there were problems and again adds strength to the sentence, "Why did I invite them to stay with us?"
Ok, so we now know about intensifiers and downtoners but there is a catch
and that is that some intensifiers only go with some adjectives.
If you can get the right collocation, it shows a high level of English and is often tested in exams,
like the Cambridge FCE and Advanced and IELTS.
Some intensifiers go with particular adjectives depending on the meaning of the adjective.
For instance, "I'm afraid your mother is dangerously ill."
These two go together.
The car engine was dangerously hot.
The house was seriously damaged.
Fortunately, none of the passengers was seriously hurt.
Some intensifiers go with particular adjectives.
For example, we use the intensifier highly with the adjectives successful, intelligent, likely and unlikely.
She was a highly intelligent woman.
He’s a highly successful businessman.
But we do NOT say: We had a highly tasty meal.
It is better to say a really tasty meal, or an insanely tasty meal.
That is a highly good idea. It's not right.
You would say that is, it would be better to say, it's an incredibly good idea.
We use the intensifier bitterly with the adjectives disappointed, unhappy and cold.
I was bitterly unhappy at work.
We were bitterly disappointed to lose the football match.
It can get bitterly cold in winter in Canada.
Unfortunately for this you just something you need to learn and can always check them in a dictionary.
So now it’s your turn.
Add intensifiers and a downtoner to this sentence to strengthen the meaning of the adjective.
It was a long day.
So, the adjective is long, right?
So, write 3 sentences down below in the comment section,
one to weaken the adjective, one to moderately strengthen the adjective and one to add a real punch.
I promise to give you feedback on you answer.
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