Very, Extremely, Really - What is an Intensifier?

Native English speakers love to share their stories with other people.  We like to express details when we share stories and we often use intensifiers to make our point.

Intensifiers are adverbs or adverbial phrases that strengthen the meaning of other expressions and show emphasis.  Intensifiers are placed before an adjective to make the adjective stronger.

Here is an example of how the sentence meaning changes when we use an intensifier.
--> My feet are cold. (No intensifier)
--> My feet are really cold.  (Intensifier: really)  Using really tells the listener that your feet are more than cold.  You are being more specific here.

I have students that repeatedly use the same intensifiers and that is why I decided to write this blog post.  Most of my students are Italian and use 'so' as an intensifier.  Using 'so' is OK, but there are many other intensifiers that are more interesting!

I created a list of commonly used intensifiers and their degree of intensity.




































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​Please comment below if you ave any questions and I'll be happy to answer them.

Let's go, ladies!

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