<h1>Intensifiers replacing "very"</h1>

The main purpose of intensifiers is enhancing and emphasizing the word that they are modifying.

English intensifiers constitute the main subclasses of modifiers of lexical verbs  (lexical verbs include all verbs except auxiliary verbs).

-ly intensifiers used instead of “very”.

We can apply –ly intensifiers before adjectives (incredibly intelligent) or adjectival past participles (incredibly tired).

These –ly intensifiers can be found acting into three different classes:

1.-Used for an extra emphasis replacing “very”, we can find in these class adverbs as terribly, deeply, extremely, immensely, really…

Peter is very thirsty after finishing the race.

Peter is terribly thirsty after finishing the race.

2.-Adverbs that retain their basic meaning. In other words, if you look for them at dictionary they are using their first meaning.

Examples as completely, fully, entirely, absolutely, totally, perfectly, utterly…

We are totally happy with the way you solve all your problems.

Try now to replace “totally” for any of the other adverbs provided in this list. As you can see, all they can replace it.

3.-Adverbs that team up with small sets of words .They work emphasizing adjectives. Let’s take a look at some examples:

highly +

acclaimed , critical , charged ( discuss, environment ) , educated , coloured (canvas , dress ) , intelligent , respected .

thickly+

populated, covered, wooded, spread.

painfully+

aware ( situation , danger ) , clear , obvious , embarrassed , slow (economic recovery ) , true .

utterly+

convinced, mistaken, stupid, delicious, different.

painfully+

thin, small, true, false.

Remember that modifiers are always modifying the meaning of another word of the phrase (in this case an adverb as “highly” is modifying the participle “acclaimed”).

 If we removed the modifier, the phrase would still be grammatically correct.