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Show HN: Insteadofvery.com
As non-native English speakers, we're often advised to avoid overusing intensifiers like "very".
This is a simple app to find synonyms of "very x" phrases that are not always possible to find using a standard thesaurus.
Built it using OpenAI, FastAPI, and MongoDB (to cache the results).
- gizajob 2y agoCan you make one of these for “super” please – I find how its use has crept into language to be super annoying.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tomcam 2y agovery annoying
- QuelqueChose 2y agoNice site, would you be putting it on GH at some point? I'm very interested, no, captivated by simple projects like this using FastAPI and want to learn that
- surgical_fire 2y agoRight after "very horny", there's the entry for "very hard". "My dick is onerous" might have been a phrase construct that went through my mind.
- mtmail 2y ago[flagged]
- DiggyJohnson 2y agoWhat?
- jagger27 2y agoThey crafted a prompt that breaks out of the structure of word suggestions because this webapp is powered by an LLM.
- 4m1rk 2y agoYep, no prompt sanitization ;)
- redundantly 2y agoThat's very neat.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- frizlab 2y ago“instead of very horny” -> There are four suggestions with “very”
- _8j50 2y agoI like very though. It's very very veritably vivacious. I can't stand people who care about this stuff. The purpose of language is communication. If you understood what was said, the language used did it's job. Those alternatives to very are valid and if your intent is precision then I can see why you would use them. But my counter argument is, "very" is understood by a wider audience and is less confusing. The same reasoning applies in programming does it not? Is it not considered good coding practice to use syntax and features that are easily understood by junior devs? Shouldn't complex syntax and features be used sparingly where needed? When is superb required over "very nice"? The reality is that language does have rules and for good reason. But grammar nazis use their superior knowledge of those rules to gatekeep random things and use those rules to manipulate others to their advantage. Using rarely used words in a langauge is just as bad as using jargon or rare dialects. If a random 2.0 gpa highschool kid can understand you. Your vocabulary is perfect.
- aspenmayer 2y ago> When is superb required over "very nice"? Superb Owl season!
- kej 2y ago>So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.
- mock-possum 2y agoWhich is also couched in off-puttingly heterocentric language. What if you’re not a boy, and what if you’re not interested in wooing women? Is just not a very big deal to be lazy in that case?
- kej 2y agoIt's a movie from 1989 about an all-boys school in 1959 that still managed to include a bunch of LGBTQ subtext; I think it's fair to read this line as commentary on lazy writing instead of sexuality.
- ashton314 2y agoSubstitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. Mark Twain
- seabass-labrax 2y agoGood quote, but I think editors in our time are more likely to 'upgrade' the profanity into something more intense than they are to remove it.
- saghm 2y ago"There are three types of lies: lies, lies, and statistics" - editor of someone who was probably not Mark Twain
- greeniskool 2y agoI like the concept a lot. Was hoping there would be a crowdsourced element to it — a way to suggest our own synomys rather than just relying on the LLM. Oh, and heads up, right now looking up anything with a forward slash (/) fails with an Internal Server Error and no output to the end user.
- 4m1rk 2y agoThanks for the idea and the bug report. I mean anything relying on crowdsourcing is a chicken-and-egg problem. Will add it if people start using it.
- robofanatic 2y agoActually I have seen people using “Very Good” more often than its alternatives.
- aspenmayer 2y agoLess is usually more. Just leave them out entirely, thank you very much. /s https://www.forbes.com/sites/katelee/2012/11/30/mark-twain-on-writing-kill-your-adjectives/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katelee/2012/11/30/mark-twain-o... “Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” - Mark Twain https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2913-substitute-damn-every-time-you-re-inclined-to-write-very-your https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2913-substitute-damn-every-... https://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=letters/UCCL01772.xml;style=letter;brand=mtp https://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=letters/UCCL...
- morkalork 2y agoThat's some damn fine advice, thank you!
- Nition 2y agoDid you look at the site? It's not suggestions for replacing the word 'very' with an alternative word, it's suggestions for replacing the word after 'very' with a more intense synonym, so that 'very' can be removed.
- aspenmayer 2y agoI did, it was well done. I’d rather use the dictionary/thesaurus functionality on my OS/software or a dedicated site for that, though. I don’t really like sites like this because they don’t seem authoritative to me, and I don’t really know who runs them or their motives. Did you read my links? Mark Twain isn’t talking only about the word “very” either. > I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English—it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- loloquwowndueo 2y ago“Instead of very fun use… Lively The concert was very lively.“ I mean, if it’s going to suggest using “very” instead of “very” … shrug
- mewpmewp2 2y agoAlso if I say it's lively, it doesn't imply that it was actually fun for me. So clearly the meaning changes. > The party was enjoyable. Instead of fun this has slight implication to me that it was possible to enjoy it, but as if it wasn't fun just naturally. Like you had to actively put in effort to enjoy it.
- neilv 2y agoWhat about guidance on which of the terms to use? (An example sentence isn't as useful as definition or discussion.)
- RACEWAR 2y agoAgreed. Context sometimes feels like the first casualty when language is intensified.
- fburnaby 2y agoit's like a very small part of a thesaurus.
- 4m1rk 2y agoIndeed, yet you can't find another word for "very red" in thesaurus :D
- aspenmayer 2y agoCrimson is kinda like very red subjectively.