Making Adjectives, Adverbs and Verbs Weaker or Stronger

Words like really, kind of, very, extremely, etc. are called intensifiers.

Intensifiers can describe adjectives by making them stronger or weaker.

For example:

How nice is he?

He’s extremely nice.

He’s pretty nice.

He’s not very nice.

He’s not nice at all.

Easy, right?

The intensifiers we studied were these:

Extremely

Super

Really

Pretty

Kind of

A little

Not very

Not ____ at all

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The useful thing about intensifiers is that they can often be used with adverbs.

We practiced using them with can & well.

For example:

How well can you sing?

I can sing really well.

I can sing kind of well.

I can’t sing very well.

Still easy, right?

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Here’s the problem – We also studied ways to make verbs (like & want) weaker or stronger.

Doing this is similar to using intensifiers, but different.

Let’s use want, for example:

I really want one.

I want one a lot.

I kind of want one.

I want one a little.

I really don’t want one.

I don’t want one at all.

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For verbs, we can’t use extremely, super, very, pretty or not very.

This is Konglish:

I pretty like her.

I extremely want to.

I very hate it.

Etc.

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For verbs, we can only use really and kind of the same way we do for adjectives and adverbs, but the others are different.

This is OK.

I really like it.

I kind of want one.

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Remember that really, really don’t and kind of come before the verb.

I really want to.

I really don’t like him.

I kind of want one.

A little and a lot come after the verb and the object.

I like her a lot.

I want one a little.

We use don’t when we say not at all.

I don’t want to at all.

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Like and want need objects:

I really like her.

I want one a little.