![]() Have you noticed how much stronger sentences become when you delete the word “very”? I'm not saying you should never use "very," that avoiding it is a cardinal rule; I'm saying that an easy and effective self-editing hack is to question every "very." Most often, your sentences will have more impact, be more self-confident, when you avoid the hiccup that is “very.” Let’s look. Which of each of the sentence pairs here feels more satisfying? “The guest speaker was adamant.” “The guest speaker was very adamant." “His proposition was ludicrous.” “His proposition was very ludicrous.” “Her patience was enviable.” "Her patience was very enviable." “The Olympian runs like the wind.” “The Olympian runs very much like the wind.” In each of these examples, “very” wants to be useful and intensify the action, but in reality, it only takes up space. Am I overstating the uselessness of “very”? Well, don’t take my word alone for it. Here is what Bryan Garner has to say in his widely used Garner’s Modern English Usage: “VERY. As a WEASEL WORD. This intensifier, which functions as both an adjective and an adverb, surfaces repeatedly in flabby writing. In almost every context in which it appears, its omission would result in at most a negligible loss. And in many contexts the idea would be more powerfully expressed without it...” It’s often helpful to seek out more descriptive and precise words than rely on “very” to amplify. For example, you can use “furious” or “enraged” instead of “very angry.” “Perilous” instead of “very risky.” “Filthy” instead of “very dirty.” And so on. This is where your thesaurus or wordhippo.com comes in handy! You should also watch that you don’t use “very” to modify an adjective that represents a fixed state, i.e., one that can’t be strengthened or increased by degree. For example, in my opinion, you should never, and I mean never, write that something is “very unique.” If it’s unique, it’s one of a kind--that’s it. Same goes for phrases such as “very infantile,” “very antique,” “very lukewarm,” etc. (Merriam Webster has a softer take, see [here]. Sometimes in writing, “very” is necessary—for example, when you’re establishing a contrast. As in, “I wondered if the mayor was a little corrupt.” If the next sentence is, “I decided the mayor was very corrupt,” then the modifier serves a purpose, which is to confirm and clarify degree. But generally in writing, you should make it a habit to question every use of “very.” Test your sentence mentally without “very,” and if deleting the term gets you more quickly to the point and makes the sentence feel more “solid,” then go ahead and delete. Last thoughts: Remember when you were a kid and filled out the page on your writing assignments with sentences like this: “The scientist had some very, very, very, very revolutionary ideas”? You had to hit a certain number of words and thought you were being clever. It didn’t work. Your teacher certainly was on to you and had seen this trick a thousand times before. But the attempt reveals the nature of “very.” Which is that, often—most of the time—it’s filler or a bit lazy. Illustration generated by ChatGPT's DALL-E tool based on a custom prompt.
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