Focus 13 degree adverbs

Degree adverbs can be used before adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs to give information about the extent or degree of something.

They are happy. - They are extremely happy.

He is always late. - He is almost always late.

Other degree adverbs: completely, fairly, quite, rather, slightly, too, totally, very (much).

Very and too

Before an adjective or another adverb we use very when we mean ”to a higher degree” and too when we mean “more than enough” or “ more than is wanted or needed”.

The weather was very hot in Majorka.

It is too hot to stay in this room.

Very and very much

We don’t use very before verbs, but we can use very much before some verbs to emphasize how we feel about things:

61

I very much agree with the decision.

We can use very but not very much before participle adjectives.

She was very disturbed to hear the news.

It’s very disappointing.

Extremely, very etc; absolutely, completely, etc

We usually use extremely, very, etc. with gradable adjectives and absolutely, completely, etc. with ungradable adjectives.

0. Extremely … effective, difficult, hard

Dreadfully … angry, disappointed, sorry

Hugely … entertaining, enjoyable, successful

0. Absolutely … clear, necessary, sure, true

Simply … awful, enormous terrible

Utterly … exhausted, unbearable, unrecognizable

Quite

Quite has two meanings: to a particular degree, but not “very” (=”fairly); and to a larger degree, or “very much” (=”completely”)

I was quite satisfied with the result.

No, you are quite wrong!

For more information see the corresponding topic in Part II.

EXERCISES

Ex. 1 Fill in very, too or very/too if possible.

1.Dan was … engrossed in his book even to look up. 2. This has made many people … angry. 3. The town looked … prosperous. 4. He found the opening … small for him to get through. 5. The snakes around here aren’t dangerous. 6. He spoke … clearly, and I was able to hear every word. 7. My mother’s not … well at the moment, I’m afraid.

Ex.2 Fill in very, much, very much, if possible.

1

62

.She is not sleeping well because she is … worried about work. 2. You could try phoning him but I … doubt that he’ll be at home. 3. Her handling of the meeting was … admired by her colleagues. 4. The team captain was … criticized for the quality of his leadership. 5. Out of the shop walked three … satisfied customers. 6. Although the patient … wants to leave hospital, we can’t let her go yet. 7. I … appreciate the opportunity to talk to you. 8. Palmer had a … encouraging first set, but played poorly after that.

Ex.3 Put the following adverbs before each set of adjectives: badly, enormously, perfectly, severely, terribly, virtually.

1. … boring , important, sorry.

2. … identical, impossible, unchanged

3. … acceptable, adequate, clear

4. … damaged, needed, wrong

5. … handicapped, limited, weakened

6. … popular, influential, powerful

Ex.4 Replace all the examples of quite with either completely or fairly.

It’s quite unusual for me to get annoyed, but I was quite appalled by my boss’s attitude. He’d asked me to finish the report by next week. Well, even that would be quite difficult. Bit then this morning he told me he wanted it by tomorrow. He knew that was quite impossible for me to finish it by then. But he is quite determined to have it. It’s not fair. He knows I’m quite good at writing reports, but he also knows I’m quite useless at working under pressure like that. My old boss was quite different. He was quite thoughtful and quite brilliant at organising people. I think it’s quite likely I’ll start looking for a job elsewhere.