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As a native speaker, my reply is: no[1] Firstly this appears to be a way to boast about the size of your vocabulary. That's great, but, frankly you are walking

As a native speaker, my reply is: no[1] Firstly this appears to be a way to boast about the size of your vocabulary. That's great, but, frankly you are walking into a bigarsed zone of unintended connotations. Its more than likely to do the exact opposite. Second, half of the suggestions are wrong. for example "very ashamed" is not the same as repentant. shame and regret are two similar things, but not the same. same with "very healthy" being a synonym for exuberant. Exuberant is full of energy, not feeling healthy. again linked but not the same. All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray. All of you who are non-native, this website will confuse you and make you question your understanding. listen to bbc radio4/read the financial times, it will be better for you and there is wide range of styles to choose from (in the case of the BBC its free too) using 'very' is perfectly fine, just try to limit it's use to once a sentence at the very minimum(no you can't swap very minimum for "the least" maybe "at the very least"). "Very" adds emphasis in a clear and understandable way. in other words, it can make thing very readable, without very much effort. (yes I am taking the piss.) [1] apart from a few circumstances

koolba 4y ago
> using 'very' is perfectly fine, just try to limit it's use to once a sentence at the very minimum(no you can't swap very minimum for "the least" maybe "at the very least"). s/min/max/g I like to imagine it always being written in italics. If you don’t want it standing out and being very noticeable, then don’t use it at all.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  I think the sentence can be read both ways (which is arguably worse): it's either "limit it to once a sentence, or limit it more" or "limit it to (once or more)". Which goes to show that to communicate clearly a well-thought-out sentence structure is more important than fretting over the exact word to use.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- KaiserPro 4y ago
  I have been very clear, I need a good sub editor & proof reader. ;)
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  You can swap "very minimum" for "minimum". The "very minimum" means "the extreme minimum" or the "true minimum". Well, a minimum is already an extreme; and absent reasons for believing otherwise, it's reasonable to assume that a speaker wants you to believe she is truthful. You can use "very" simply for emphasis, rather like "literally" is often used; "I did my very best". If it's really being used just for emphasis, then you can delete the word "very", and simply set the following word in bold or somethiing.
Daub 4y ago
> All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray. I wholeheartedly agree that excessive and unnecessary verbiage can be a tiresome impediment to the clear transmission of ideas. That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say. A wide vocabulary is particularly useful when addressing complex subjects.
- KaiserPro 4y ago
  you're right of course. I should have been more clear. building vocab is _awesome_ everyone who can, should do it. but learning when to use those fancy new words is _more_ important. Getting good source material is key to that.
  - the_only_law 4y ago
    See: this thread even.
- throwamon 4y ago
  I know this dude who can say anything you can think of using only two words.
  - Daub 4y ago
    No shit?
    - noasaservice 4y ago
      Hell yeah.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
  - BeFlatXIII 4y ago
    Is he German?
Eupraxias 4y ago
The point is that when you use "very", you reveal that you have not attained that level of intellect which realizes that "very" is extraneous almost every time. This insight usually comes with a large amount of time invested in reading challenging books. It has little to do with expansive vocabulary, and more to do with understanding word choice and avoiding pretension. We pick "very" when we have not trained ourselves to be conscious of word choice. When we become conscious of it, we stop saying "very" quite naturally. And we start using annoying words like "quite". For anyone trying to sound like they have a better grasp of English, definitely lose the "very". Here's an example: which is better? "gregarious" or "very outgoing"? (It's a trick question - they're both bad... the correct answer is "outgoing") If you want to sound actually smart, remove words like "very", and don't change "outgoing" to "gregarious". The only people who use "gregarious" in a normal conversation are people who are trying to sound smart. A smart person is conscious of how to avoid using pretentious words in normal conversation. Smart people usually don't _need_ to demonstrate that they are smart. To sound intelligent, simply use the tone of your voice to indicate that you could say "very", but instead you just say "outgoing" - perhaps with some inflection or cadence variation. Smart people notice when someone omits words like "very", because they have been faced with the same issue.
- greenthrow 4y ago
  This is very bad advice.
  - Eupraxias 4y ago
    See, it sounds much more conclusive to say... This is bad advice. Adding "very" is subjective. Omitting makes it sound like fact. All of this push-back is... cute.
    - KaiserPro 4y ago
      its still bad advice, babes. adding very doesn't make it subjective. the whole sentence is subjective. the very is a modifier that indicates the person saying thinks its really quite bad. Don't hate on adverbs.
jelkand 4y ago
Words get more precise as they get more exotic, and that is not always what you want. I saw it too much in college--students whipping a thesaurus to make their papers seem 'smarter' but in reality making them incoherent. I agree, "very" is ok, but it is a crutch. In many of these cases, just dropping the 'very' would be better than picking a new word.
ASalazarMX 4y ago
Also, a great vocabulary is actually a disadvantage for non-native speakers if your pronunciation is not there yet, it's more likely to confuse than impress.
marginalia_nu 4y ago
I think the best way to sound well read is to just read more. It's very easy to spot when someone doesn't quite know the connotations of the words they use[1]. It's also hard to pick up those connotations without being exposed to the words in their natural "habitat". [1] It's exaggerated, but you basically sound like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xuTYrfrWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xuTYrfrWM
captainbland 4y ago
While I wouldn't use it like this in day to day speech, in rhetorical speech the use of "very" repeatedly can be used to emphasise a point. Someone warning against dangerous driving might say "a car at speed can be dangerous because it's very heavy, it's going very fast and so it's very likely to kill or give life changing injuries to somebody if it collides with them." I think it has a better effect when spoken than when written, though.

koolba 4y ago

> using 'very' is perfectly fine, just try to limit it's use to once a sentence at the very minimum(no you can't swap very minimum for "the least" maybe "at the very least"). s/min/max/g I like to imagine it always being written in italics. If you don’t want it standing out and being very noticeable, then don’t use it at all.

wongarsu 4y ago
I think the sentence can be read both ways (which is arguably worse): it's either "limit it to once a sentence, or limit it more" or "limit it to (once or more)". Which goes to show that to communicate clearly a well-thought-out sentence structure is more important than fretting over the exact word to use.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
KaiserPro 4y ago
I have been very clear, I need a good sub editor & proof reader. ;)
denton-scratch 4y ago
You can swap "very minimum" for "minimum". The "very minimum" means "the extreme minimum" or the "true minimum". Well, a minimum is already an extreme; and absent reasons for believing otherwise, it's reasonable to assume that a speaker wants you to believe she is truthful. You can use "very" simply for emphasis, rather like "literally" is often used; "I did my very best". If it's really being used just for emphasis, then you can delete the word "very", and simply set the following word in bold or somethiing.

Daub 4y ago

> All of you who want to sound either more "well read", or more native, this website will lead you astray. I wholeheartedly agree that excessive and unnecessary verbiage can be a tiresome impediment to the clear transmission of ideas. That being said ‘the more words you know, the more things you can say’ as my old English teacher used to say. A wide vocabulary is particularly useful when addressing complex subjects.

KaiserPro 4y ago
you're right of course. I should have been more clear. building vocab is _awesome_ everyone who can, should do it. but learning when to use those fancy new words is _more_ important. Getting good source material is key to that.
- the_only_law 4y ago
  See: this thread even.
throwamon 4y ago
I know this dude who can say anything you can think of using only two words.
- Daub 4y ago
  No shit?
  - noasaservice 4y ago
    Hell yeah.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- BeFlatXIII 4y ago
  Is he German?

Eupraxias 4y ago

The point is that when you use "very", you reveal that you have not attained that level of intellect which realizes that "very" is extraneous almost every time. This insight usually comes with a large amount of time invested in reading challenging books. It has little to do with expansive vocabulary, and more to do with understanding word choice and avoiding pretension. We pick "very" when we have not trained ourselves to be conscious of word choice. When we become conscious of it, we stop saying "very" quite naturally. And we start using annoying words like "quite". For anyone trying to sound like they have a better grasp of English, definitely lose the "very". Here's an example: which is better? "gregarious" or "very outgoing"? (It's a trick question - they're both bad... the correct answer is "outgoing") If you want to sound actually smart, remove words like "very", and don't change "outgoing" to "gregarious". The only people who use "gregarious" in a normal conversation are people who are trying to sound smart. A smart person is conscious of how to avoid using pretentious words in normal conversation. Smart people usually don't _need_ to demonstrate that they are smart. To sound intelligent, simply use the tone of your voice to indicate that you could say "very", but instead you just say "outgoing" - perhaps with some inflection or cadence variation. Smart people notice when someone omits words like "very", because they have been faced with the same issue.

greenthrow 4y ago
This is very bad advice.
- Eupraxias 4y ago
  See, it sounds much more conclusive to say... This is bad advice. Adding "very" is subjective. Omitting makes it sound like fact. All of this push-back is... cute.
  - KaiserPro 4y ago
    its still bad advice, babes. adding very doesn't make it subjective. the whole sentence is subjective. the very is a modifier that indicates the person saying thinks its really quite bad. Don't hate on adverbs.

jelkand 4y ago

Words get more precise as they get more exotic, and that is not always what you want. I saw it too much in college--students whipping a thesaurus to make their papers seem 'smarter' but in reality making them incoherent. I agree, "very" is ok, but it is a crutch. In many of these cases, just dropping the 'very' would be better than picking a new word.

ASalazarMX 4y ago

Also, a great vocabulary is actually a disadvantage for non-native speakers if your pronunciation is not there yet, it's more likely to confuse than impress.

marginalia_nu 4y ago

I think the best way to sound well read is to just read more. It's very easy to spot when someone doesn't quite know the connotations of the words they use[1]. It's also hard to pick up those connotations without being exposed to the words in their natural "habitat". [1] It's exaggerated, but you basically sound like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xuTYrfrWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xuTYrfrWM

captainbland 4y ago

While I wouldn't use it like this in day to day speech, in rhetorical speech the use of "very" repeatedly can be used to emphasise a point. Someone warning against dangerous driving might say "a car at speed can be dangerous because it's very heavy, it's going very fast and so it's very likely to kill or give life changing injuries to somebody if it collides with them." I think it has a better effect when spoken than when written, though.