hi there it's Asiya
i hope you're all feeling very well
today i want to talk about something very important
and i'm sure it's going to be very interesting for all of you
and now
wait a moment that's not right
sorry everyone let's start again
hi there it's Asiya
i hope you're all feeling really well
today i wanna talk about something incredibly important
and i'm sure it's going to be be useful for all of you
do you get the idea
that's right we're gonna talk about how not to use the word very all the time
we're gonna look at words we can use instead of very
to make our writing and speaking look and sound more fluent and natural
and now let's get started
of course there is nothing wrong with the word very i'm not saying never use it
but there are lots of interesting alternatives also very is one of those words we use
far too much you know a little bit like the adjective nice a lot of english people use
nice all the time nice day nice dress nice cup of tea thinking of nice let's look at
some simple grammar nice is an adjective and we put it before a noun nice day what about very
and the other two words are used before really and incredibly well they are all examples of adverbs
we usually associate adverbs with verbs but we can also use them before an adjective or an adjective
with a noun a typical pattern is when we use the verb be with an adverb and an adjective
that's when we say things like i'm extremely interested in history
are you really sure this is the right address let's take the adjectives good and bad
think for a moment about different events different experiences were they good or bad
how good how bad think of a kind of scale from one to ten if five is just say good anything from six
up will make that sound stronger the adverb we use with good can do it for us we say it intensifies
the adjective that's why we call this type of adverb an intensifier an intensifier is a word for
example very and extremely that makes the meaning of another word stronger look at these examples
it was really good the film was incredibly good it was an incredibly good film
it was an extremely bad experience let's vary this with some other adjectives how about
cheap and expensive the food in that restaurant is always remarkably cheap it's a remarkably
cheap restaurant in summer everything is exceptionally expensive and on the subject
of summer let's try with hot and cold yesterday the day was unusually hot with temperatures well
above average it was a particularly cold night because there were no clouds
simple examples seven alternatives to vary all of them intensify the meaning of the adjective
or the noun group and there is something else we need to notice we can put all the adjectives in
our examples on a scale remember what i said from 6 up so think of some more adjectives like these
beautiful intelligent important interesting all of them we think of on a scale some people call these
adjectives gradable simply because we can make them neutral with no intensifier or we can make
them stronger when we use one or we can actually make them weaker go from one to four if you like
when we say slightly expensive or a bit cold other adjectives are different because they belong
at either end of the scale they represent extremes 0 or 10 they are ungradable or strong it's not
just cold it's freezing the house is destroyed and this pdf guide is free we can't use very
the intensifiers that go with these adjectives are different it was absolutely freezing last night
or the house is totally destroyed and this pdf guide is completely free
indeed i have a pdf guide with synonyms for 20 most common adjectives used in ielts writing and
it is completely free and you can download it by the link below or at the end of this video
when we start learning english we tend to use very with a simple adjective because we haven't learned
a more precise word that expresses what we really want to say for example most of us learn angry
before we learn furious so we say very angry i've chosen six examples first the six common
adjectives i am very happy very hungry very tired it was very good very damaged very scary
see what happens when we use a strong or ungradeable adjective instead i am absolutely
thrilled absolutely starving totally exhausted it was absolutely fantastic totally destroyed
absolutely terrifying now before we move on to think of some ways we can effectively cut down on
the use of very in our writing and speaking taking some real ielts questions as our guide there is
one more very or should i say extremely important aspect to study and practice collocations you
know what they are collocations are combinations of words that occur frequently in the language
with intensifiers there are common combinations that are well worth noticing remembering and using
in your own speech and writing the first example i have chosen is the intensifier
highly i think it's useful especially when we look at the words it often combines with
let's see the company has been highly successful for many years her exam results confirmed that
she is highly intelligent it is highly likely that robots will replace humans in many jobs
walking is a highly effective way to keep fit his appointment as minister is highly controversial
a second useful intensifier is utterly this is synonymous with completely totally and absolutely
but please be careful notice how it frequently combines with negative adjectives look
this suggestion is utterly ridiculous what happened was utterly absurd
this dictionary is utterly useless i would be utterly incapable of working
as a teacher on the other hand to say something like the picnic was utterly fantastic sounds
really strange we just don't say that we would say the picnic was absolutely fantastic
one more example this time it's deeply we can use it to replace very when we're talking about
serious topics here are two examples we should all be deeply concerned about the housing crisis
or many societies are deeply divided on the subject of private education
deeply is all about strong feelings and opinions we can be deeply sorry deeply grateful
and of course deeply in love right let's pause for a moment and just go over what we have so far
first we have some intensifiers we can use instead of very when the adjective or adjective with a
noun is something we can place on a scale or grade here they are again really incredibly
extremely remarkably exceptionally unusually particularly then the intensifiers we use
when the adjectives are ungradable or strong completely totally absolutely from there we
went on to look at some very useful intensifiers that combine or collocate with certain adjectives
in special contexts here they are again highly utterly deeply now even if this video could last
all day i wouldn't have enough time to show you how all these intensifiers have mentioned and
others frequently combined with adjectives and noun phrases to make interesting collocations
but what i want you all to do is to take special notice of these words and how they combine
whenever you are reading or listening to english this is so very important when you write or speak
hey did you notice i said so very important instead of extremely incredibly or even vitally
important another new one for your collection to show you how we can use them effectively
let's look first at ways to use them in ielts writing tasks and then we go on to ielts speaking
using a range of intensifiers correctly will help push your band score up so let's start with task 1
general training but this example will be useful for everyone we need to write a formal request
this one is about leaving some important papers or documents at the hotel and writing to the hotel
manager asking to return them how about this i would be extremely grateful if you could send
me the documents to my office address moving on to task 1 academic where we're given data
in charts let's imagine we have percentages of foreign migrant workers in several countries
we could write both country a and country b have remarkably similar percentages of migrant workers
or the total percentages of migrant workers in country a and country b are remarkably
similar task 2 whether in general training or academic is where we really need to be at our best
our writing style has to be formal let's say our topic is a classic to what extent do you agree
or disagree the statement could be university education should be free for all students
let me outline one particular problem there are many who are deeply concerned
that university students are suffering financial hardship later i want to state my position
i am not totally convinced that higher education should be free of charge or if i want to explain
my view in more detail it is highly likely that many students from lower income families will not
be able to pay for their studies their right to study cannot be denied and therefore it is
absolutely essential that their tuition fees are waived and the ielts speaking test
well we all know that we don't speak the same way we're right it's a lot less formal we're gonna use
more idiomatic expressions and especially in parts one and two of the speaking tests talking about
ourselves how could that affect our intensifiers i think when we speak we use different intensifiers
and very is one of them we also use really as well as words like quite and pretty
quiet can either mean relatively in other words not a word we use to make the adjective stronger
but just to modify it to put it somewhere in the middle but when we emphasize it
when we say for example your essay is quite good then we really mean that it is very good pretty
is commonly used in the same ways as quite uh look at this answer to part one question
did you enjoy science classes at school i've included other intensifiers as well
science yeah those classes were really great i was pretty good at science subjects especially
chemistry we had this teacher who was absolutely brilliant explaining things and i think that's
the reason why most of us liked chemistry so much moving on to part two and part three
of the speaking test it's time to mix these more colloquial intensifiers with the ones we tend to
use more in writing what if we get this question in part 3 what jobs are most useful in society
look at this possible reply well it's extremely difficult to say most people
would agree that doctors nurses and teachers are absolutely indispensable in any society
and you have to be totally committed to do these jobs ielts examiners notice your use
of intensifiers spend some time to work on them if you do it's highly likely that your band score
in lexical results will be remarkably high and you will be extremely happy right now you can
download the list of synonyms for 20 adjectives commonly used in ielts writing it's absolutely
free thank you for watching me today and good luck with your preparation and your exam bye