Themes > Cross Culture > Common problems
Common problems

Intensifying adverbs

What's wrong?

Please correct the following sentences:

1. It's absolute terrible weather.
2. You're complete wrong.
3. I'm terrible tired.

What's the rule?

Two uses of intensifying adverbs are:

(1) to modify (affect the meaning of) adjectives:

Example

It's a highly sophisticated product.

(2) to modify other adverbs:

Example

He drives terribly fast.

Test it out

Exercise 1

Which sentence in each pair below is the correct one?

1. (a) We installed a complete new system.
(b) We installed a completely new system.
2. (a) It was a really enjoyable film.
(b) It was a real enjoyable film.
3. (a) The product is full guaranteed for a year.
(b) The product is fully guaranteed for a year.
4. (a) The new car was a closely guarded secret.
(b) The new car was a close guarded secret.
5. (a) He's a highly paid executive.
(b) He's a high paid executive.


Now, look at these intensifying adverbs and then do exercise 2.

A

B

C

D

E
completely badly quite partly barely
absolutely deeply rather slightly scarcely
entirely greatly     hardly
fully        

Exercise 2

Choose one adverb from the appropriate column in the diagram to fill the gap in each sentence:

1. (A) He's a qualified engineer.
2. (B) It was a written report and it needed a lot of corrections.
3. (C) They were impressed by the new product. It wasn't bad at all.
4. (D) He was only responsible for the mistake.
5. (E) I slept at all last night.

 

 
   


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