Improve Your Vocabulary: Adverbs of Intensity

Whoa, you are way too intense, buddy.

Woo.

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on adverbs of intensity or adverbs of degree.

So, are you tired of constantly saying: "I'm very tired", "I'm so tired", "I'm really tired",

"I'm a little tired", and that's it; you only have four adverbs you use again and again?

Well, this lesson is going to fix that problem.

I am going to give you a ton of different options that you can use to, for example,

modify your adjectives, your adverbs, and even your verbs.

Okay?

So we're going to go all the way from: "ehh..." to "kind of intense", to "pretty intense",

to "OH MY GOD SO INTENSE!"

Okay?

So, let's start on this side with: "ehh..."

Okay?

So, here we have: "a little", which I think most people learn as, like, their first adverb

of degree to talk about something that's, you know, kind of there, kind of not.

"A little".

"A bit" is another word that you can say, instead of "a little".

Or: "slightly".

Okay?

So, for example: "I'm a little hungry.

Yeah, I'm a bit tired.

Yeah, it's slightly cold in here."

Okay?

So: "a little", "a bit", "slightly".

This is just poquito.

Okay?

I only know it in Spanish.

Or troche in Polish.

That's all I know.

Un puh en Fran�ais.

Okay?

Teach me the other words in your languages in the comments.

Okay?

So, next: "kind of intense".

So, you can say: "fairly", like: "I'm fairly sure they're going to win".

"rather": "I'm rather certain", okay?

"somewhat", so: "Mm, it was somewhat boring".

"moderately": "They played moderately well".

"considerably": "This movie was considerably better than the last movie."

Okay?

"nearly": "I nearly fell" or "I nearly died" if you want to, you know, use something that's

a bit more idiomatic and not literal.

"kind of": "I mean, I'm kind of excited, I guess."

Okay?

"sort of".

"kind of", "sort of" - same group of words.

I have a video on "kind of" and "sort of" that you can check out.

It means a little; not really.

Okay?

So: "kind of", "sort of".

"Yeah, I mean it was sort of okay, I guess."

Okay?

And: "noticeably": "The movie was noticeably better than I remember."

Okay?

Next: "pretty intense".

We have: "awfully", "pretty", "really", "so", "very", "mostly", and "quite".

Okay?

So, let's use some examples.

These are just examples that come to my mind, which should let you know that these are very,

very common combinations that we use with these adverbs.

So: "It was awfully hot yesterday."

All right?

"I'm pretty sure that's right.

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect".

"really": "They played really terribly."

Okay?

Or: "They played really...

They played really well.", "They played so poorly.", "They played very elegantly", maybe.

Maybe not "elegantly", but, you know: "very tired", "very hungry".

"very" you can use with everything pretty much.

Okay?

"mostly": "We're mostly finished this chart; mostly done."

Okay?

Mostly good.

"quite": "It was quite good.", "I'm quite certain that this video is going to improve

your English."

"OH MY GOD SO INTENSE!"

So hot.

Okay?

Ready, Totoro?

Yeah.

Okay.

So, we have: "completely" which is like 100%.

Okay?

So: "They got completely destroyed", if you're talking about sports and one team destroyed

the other team 10-nothing in a game of, I don't know, soccer, or hockey, or baseball.

"totally": "It was totally worth it."

Okay?

"thoroughly": "Huh, I am thoroughly impressed.

You cleaned your room very well.

Thoroughly impressed."

So, "thoroughly" is another way to say: in all areas, completely, totally.

Okay?

"thoroughly".

"Thoroughly impressed; satisfied".

"absolutely": "It was absolutely magical."

Okay?

Like, the original Lord of the Rings trilogy was absolutely magical.

I went to a Lord of the Rings concert recently, which for me, was absolutely magical.

Okay?

"perfectly": "I am perfectly satisfied.

I'm perfectly happy".

"extremely": "It was extremely cold."

Okay?

"utterly": "It was utterly awful."

Okay?

So, all of these are basically synonyms for the word "completely".

If you want the 100% translated definition, I recommend checking out something like a

Google Translate, but most of these...

All of these, actually, are another way to say: "completely" or "extremely", "very".

More than "very".

Okay?

Like, 100% to 99...

99 to 100.

All right, so we have: "ehh...", "kind of", "pretty", "OH MY GOD SO INTENSE!"

So, now, to finish this lesson, I'm going to give you some more common combinations,

all right?

Now, these are adverb and adjective combinations.

In this video, you have heard me use adverb and adjective combinations, adverb and adverb

combinations, like: "pretty well", okay?

And you've heard me use adverb and verb combinations or collocations.

At the bottom, I'm just going to give you some common adverb and adjective combinations

as a warmup for something else I'm going to mention later, so stay tuned and come through

with me, with this.

That kind of made sense.

All right, so: "perfectly": "perfectly happy".

"utterly": "utterly exhausted".

"absolutely": "absolutely certain".

"pretty": "pretty sure".

"mostly": "mostly finished".

"sort of": "sort of bland".

If you don't know what "bland" means, it means, like, plain, boring.

You can use "bland" to talk about food, if there's no flavour.

You can also use "bland" to talk about a textbook that's very boring.

You can use "bland" to talk about a movie or a performance.

All right?

And then: "a little": "a little hungry".

Okay?

And "noticeably": "noticeably different".

So, you can notice that it was different.

So, the second movie was noticeably different than the first movie, as an example that I

used, here.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of intensity, I think, for one video, for one lesson.

So, if you want to test your understanding of this material, as always, you can check

out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

And, if you liked, you know, learning these common combinations, you can also check out

my other video on words that go together, which talks about stuff like this - adverb

and adjective collocations.

If you don't get enough there, and you say: "Alex, I want more.

I need more, but can Rebecca do it?"

I say: Yes.

Yes, Rebecca can do it, too, because she has another video that looks at adverb and verb

collocations.

Okay?

So there's a lot of stuff for you to study.

Check out both of those videos attached to this video.

After you do, leave comments on those videos, too.

And after you've done the quiz, checked out the videos, you can add me on Facebook, add

me on Twitter, subscribe to my YouTube channel, tell all your friends.

And if you really want to support what we do, you can also donate at the "Support" link

on www.engvid.com.

So, til next time, thanks for clicking, and let's get out of here, Totoro.

You're so intense.