Advance your English with 7 INTENSIFIERS

Hi.

I'm Rebecca from engVid.

After teaching English for more than 30 years, my goal in all my lessons is to help you to

learn English more quickly and easily.

So in the next few minutes you're going to be able to take your English to a higher level

by learning seven advanced expressions with intensifiers.

Now, what does that mean?

What are intensifiers?

Let's find out. Okay?

So let's start with this example in a general situation.

Okay?

"Joan likes music."

We can say that, or we could say: "Joan really likes music."

In this example, the word "really" is an intensifier, and what an intensifier does is that it strengthens

or emphasizes the verb.

She doesn't just like music, she really likes music, and that's fine to say.

Okay?

That's called an adverb intensifier.

All right?

Doesn't matter, but maybe for those of you who like to understand grammar, I'm just telling

you what the words are.

All right, let's look at another example from a business context.

"We appreciate your offer."

Okay?

No intensifier, there.

The next example: "We really appreciate your offer."

Now, again, the word "really" was the intensifier.

But do we use only "really" as intensifiers?

No.

We use many, many other words because it would be very boring to keep saying "really" all the time.

Also, "really" might be fine in this example because it's kind of informal and conversational,

but here it's a little bit more formal, a little bit more businesslike, so you want

to use better English, you want to use more advanced English, and you want to use more

advanced expressions.

So, what do we usually say instead of that with the verb "appreciate"?

We usually say something like this: "We truly appreciate your offer."

Okay?

Now, in this example, the word "truly" is the intensifier instead of "really".

Right?

And the verb stays the same, so that's "appreciate".

So, when you have an intensifier like "truly" or "really" plus a verb, like "appreciate",

that's called a collocation.

Okay?

Or a word combination, two words which are used together very frequently.

All right?

So people expect to hear them together. All right?

So when you use them, you sound much more natural.

You also sound a little bit more formal, more polite, more educated, a little bit more refined

and cultured, and just more advanced in English.

All right? Because obviously if you say:

"I truly appreciate your offer", instead of saying: "I really appreciate your offer",

then you're going to sound more advanced.

Now, of course, it depends on the situation.

If you're just talking to friends, maybe you want to keep saying "really appreciate", but

I'm going to show you seven other expressions...

Six other expressions-you've already learned one, all right?-which you can use and which

are used very often in academic circles and also in professional circles because you can

use these expressions in speaking and writing, you can use them in social and business situations,

like especially in customer service, in meetings, negotiations, presentations, discussions. Right?

And, of course, we can use them in a lot of academic situations, like in your essays,

or your IELTS, or your TOEFL.

Imagine if you started using this kind of vocabulary instead of regular vocabulary.

Of course you're going to get higher marks.

All right?

So, let's look at some of these expressions.

All right, so let's first start with an overview of these six advanced expressions.

All right?

I'll just read them right now.

Don't worry about understanding them or how to use them.

I'm going to explain that in just a minute. Okay?

All right.

So the first one: "Strongly recommend",

"honestly believe",

"deeply regret",

"fully recognize",

"sincerely hope",

and "positively encourage".

Okay?

So, what did you notice in those?

Each of them had an intensifier. Right?

"Strongly", "honestly", "deeply", "fully", "sincerely", "positively", and each of them

had a verb; "recommend", "believe", "regret", etc. Okay.

So, why are they expressions?

Why are they called collocations?

Because these expressions, these two-word combinations are used together, and they are

recognized as good expressions to use together.

All right?

So let's go through them now so you understand exactly how to use them.

So, the first one: "We strongly recommend you back up your files."

All right?

You see this instruction very often to do with your computer. Right?

So you don't want to lose your files, so they tell you:

"We strongly recommend you back up your files."

All right, another example: "I strongly recommend you go to the hospital."

All right?

Now, I've used examples with "we" and "I", you can use any pronoun, or name, or anything like that.

Okay? Let's go.

"We honestly believe he is innocent.

He's not guilty. He is innocent."

Or: "I honestly believe you deserve a raise.

You've been doing such a great job. You deserve a raise."

What's a raise?

"A raise" means when you get more money.

All right?

You can get a promotion, a higher position or...

And sometimes with that you get more money, which is called a raise.

All right?

Sometimes you get a promotion, but no raise; sometimes you get a raise, but no promotion;

but sometimes you get both. All right.

Number three: "We deeply regret the inconvenience to our customers",

or "to our passengers". All right?

If something went wrong, if you're on an airline and there's a delay, you might hear an announcement

at the airport that says:

"We deeply regret the inconvenience to our passengers, however we will be boarding in the next half an hour."

Okay?

Something like that.

So this is a formal, very polite way of the airline telling you they're really sorry.

Okay?

Next: "I deeply regret missing your wedding."

Now, just to review a little bit, so "regret", what does "regret" mean?

It basically means I'm sorry.

Okay? It's a more formal word for that.

And same here: "We honestly believe" means I honestly think.

And here: "We strongly recommend", means strongly advise or suggest.

Okay? Just in case you weren't sure what these words meant.

All right.

Number four: "We fully recognize"...

Sorry. "We fully recognize your contribution to the project."

Okay?

Somebody did a lot of work on a project, and the company or the management says:

"We fully recognize your contribution to the project."

Or: "I fully recognize the importance of learning English."

That's why I'm watching these videos.

Okay. All right.

"Fully recognize" means I really know, I completely know.

I understand that.

I got it, I'm aware of it. Okay?

All of these words basically mean "really", but they're just different words and more advanced words.

Number five: "We sincerely hope you will fly with us again."

After many flights, especially I noticed on American Airlines, they say this before you

get off the plane, they say:

"We sincerely hope you fly with us again. We really hope", okay?

So, "sincerely" just means "really" also.

Or you can say: "I sincerely hope you achieve your goals."

Okay? "I really hope that you achieve your goals."

And "hope" is basically like a wish.

All right.

And the next one: "We positively encourage our students to use the library."

Positively encourage.

"To encourage" means, again, to recommend.

All right?

"Positively", again, means really strongly, very much, really.

Or we could say:

"I positively encourage you to speak English as often as you can in order to improve your fluency."

All right?

So, again, all of these expressions are more advanced and they are considered good ways

for you to get a higher mark and also to advance in your career because you're using better,

more sophisticated English.

All right?

Let's do one last review to help you to remember these expressions and how they go together.

All right?

Okay, now, one more point: Even though it's very good to use these advanced expressions,

don't use them all the time-okay?-in the same piece of writing.

Because sometimes they come across a little bit heavy, so you can use one, you can use

another one, but don't use too many of them at one time because they are strong.

Okay?

But to have a little fun and to review the seven expressions that you've just learned,

we're going to read something that I wrote especially for you.

So: I sincerely hope you start using these expressions.

I fully recognize they're a little challenging.

I deeply regret there's no magic pill for learning English,

but I honestly believe you can do it.

I strongly recommend you take the quiz at www.engvid.com.

I truly appreciate the opportunity to help you to optimize your English.

And last: I positively encourage you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Okay?

Now, one other thing you can do if you want to make sure that you really have learned

these expressions is choose one, even just one expression, and leave a comment on our

engVid comments-okay?-on our engVid website.

I do read all the comments there, and very often I answer different people who have written the comments.

So, hope to meet you there. Take care.

Bye for now.