[HN Gopher] Replace the "Very" in Your Sentence
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Replace the "Very" in Your Sentence
Author : no-reply
Score : 45 points
Date : 2022-10-13 21:34 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.losethevery.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.losethevery.com)
| baal80spam wrote:
| Very + healthy = instrumental
|
| What?
| metadat wrote:
| What's not very healthy about an instrument? Think about it. Or
| very don't.
| smeagull wrote:
| Yeah, just use literally. It's literally a better word.
| [deleted]
| swayvil wrote:
| Very + excellent = not yet added
|
| Very + squamous = nya
|
| Very + blue = nya
|
| Lol
| tallytarik wrote:
| There's a good reason _not_ to do this: your new fancy word is
| less likely to be understood by those with lower English
| literacy.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Very anti-intellectual.
| tallytarik wrote:
| Not Yet Added
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Q: How many Northern Californians does it take to change a
| lightbulb?
|
| A: Hella!!!
|
| Q: How many Southern Californians does it take to change a
| lightbulb?
|
| A: Totally!!!
|
| There's a perceptual dialectological difference between "hella
| pregnant" (Northern California) and "totally pregnant" (Southern
| California).
|
| Hella Nor Cal or Totally So Cal? The Perceptual Dialectology of
| California
|
| http://eng.sagepub.com/content/35/4/325.abstract
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20141008111115/https://people.du...
|
| This study provides the first detailed account of perceptual
| dialectology within California (as well as one of the first
| accounts of perceptual dialectology within any single state).
| Quantitative analysis of a map-labeling task carried out in
| Southern California reveals that California's most salient
| linguistic boundary is between the northern and southern regions
| of the state. Whereas studies of the perceptual dialectology of
| the United States as a whole have focused almost exclusively on
| regional dialect differences, respondents associated particular
| regions of California less with distinctive dialects than with
| differences in language (English versus Spanish), slang use, and
| social groups. The diverse sociolinguistic situation of
| California is reflected in the emphasis both on highly salient
| social groups thought to be stereotypical of California by
| residents and nonresidents alike (e.g., surfers) and on groups
| that, though prominent in the cultural landscape of the state,
| remain largely unrecognized by outsiders (e.g., hicks).
|
| [...]
|
| By far, the most frequently remarked-upon slang term in the map-
| labeling data was hella, accounting for 47.4 percent of the slang
| and other lexical labels. Hella is a slang term originating in
| Northern California and one that remains--aside from a few brief
| moments in the national spotlight due to its circulation in
| popular culture-- largely restricted to that region (Bucholtz
| 2006). The term, which apparently lexicalized from (a) hell of
| (a), functions as both a quantifier (There were hella people
| there) and an intensifier (He runs hella fast). Four respondents
| also mentioned the slang term hecka, the G-rated equivalent of
| hella, but this term was not counted separately, because tokens
| of hecka always co-occurred with hella. For Southern Californians
| in particular, hella represents a crucial shibboleth separating
| the two major regions of the state. As shown in Figure 7,
| respondents tended to identify hella overwhelmingly as a Northern
| California slang term, and its appearance in other regions of the
| map drops dramatically from north to south. Thus Northern
| California was variously labeled the hellas, Land of the Hella's,
| and Hella capital, and one respondent provided an isogloss
| designating "the 'hella' line." (In the map data, the Central
| Coast around Santa Barbara seemed to be the dividing line between
| users and nonusers of hella, and the fact that the study was
| conducted in this region may have enhanced respondents' focus on
| this particular issue.) [*10: The respondent's confusion may also
| be due to the existence of the Crips, a notorious Los Angeles-
| based gang.] Hella users were also negatively evaluated by
| Southern Californians, and the term came in for a good deal of
| criticism, such as Hella is not a real word and [hecka is]
| probably the worst word ever.
|
| Isogloss:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isogloss
|
| Hella:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella
|
| >Hella is an American slang term that originated in the San
| Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as
| in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the
| Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. It is possibly a contraction
| of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot [of]", in turn
| reduced to "hell of", though some scholars doubt this etymology
| since its grammatical usage does not align with those phrases. It
| often appears in place of the words "really", "a lot", "totally",
| "very", and in some cases, "yes". Whereas hell of a is generally
| used with a noun, according to linguist Pamela Munro, hella is
| primarily used to modify an adjective such as "good".
|
| Usage:
|
| Intensifier
|
| While intensifiers similar to hella exist in many colloquial
| varieties, hella is uncommonly flexible. It can be used to modify
| almost any part of speech, as shown below:
|
| That pizza was hella good: hella modifies the adjective good,
| where Standard American English would use very.
|
| Chris's pizza is hella better than anyone else's: hella modifies
| the adjective better, replacing much.
|
| I ate hella pizza: hella modifies the noun pizza, replacing a lot
| of.
|
| I hella bought four pizzas: hella modifies the verb to buy,
| replacing really or totally.
|
| I ran to the pizza joint hella quickly: hella modifies the adverb
| quickly, replacing very.
|
| Was the party fun last night? -- Hella!: hella is used on its own
| as a reply replacing very or totally.
|
| SI prefix
|
| An online petition begun in 2010 by Austin Sendek of Yreka,
| California seeks to establish "hella-" as the SI prefix for 1027.
| The prefix was recognized by Google in May 2010, and Wolfram
| Alpha in May 2011. In 2013, Andrew McAfee suggested the term
| hellabyte with this usage.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25788993
|
| Quixotic Californian crusade to officially recognize the
| hellabyte (theregister.com)
|
| https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/14/hellabyte_si_prefix/
|
| The Californians:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt-tG6ufH90
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIklKPzND20
| hey2022 wrote:
| I hear people use totally much more often than hella in the Bay
| Area.
| Blammar wrote:
| "very hard" -> formidable ? I don't agree because there are
| multiple interpretations. I would have liked multiple results,
| e.g., formidable, diamond-like, arduous, etc.
|
| In other words, don't use this site blindly.
| Crazyontap wrote:
| > In other words, don't use this site blindly.
|
| Very true!
|
| For example:
|
| Very + Old = Ancient
|
| My granda is very old vs My grandma is ancient.
| chitowneats wrote:
| "Very old" is still rude. Seems roughly equivalent to me.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| While I think this advise of yours should be clear to any user
| of a thesaurus or this site, I figured I'd share my default
| answer to a replacement for "very hard".
|
| "very hard" -> "difficult"
|
| Which is interesting because that's also an opinionated synonym
| for "hard", which without context has many definitions and
| interpretations. I'm also not even sure I think of "difficult"
| as being more hard than hard. I digress. Have a good evening.
| THENATHE wrote:
| Formitible for difficult, and for something like hardness you
| could use "extremely"
| nomel wrote:
| Another with multiple interpretations: very + gay = glamorous
| aeturnum wrote:
| On one hand, I think this kind of service can help people expand
| their vocabularies.
|
| On the other hand, there's a downside risk of replacing
| unimaginative writing with confused writing. "very + fragile ->
| feeble" is absolutely not a reliable translation[1]. The
| suggestions furnished by this service seem to generally 'work' in
| the sense that their possible meanings include "very +
| (category)," but without context you explode the set of messages
| you might communicate. Something that is fragile breaks easily.
| Something that is very fragile more so. Something that is feeble
| is lacking strength in general, it may give out at any time, it
| connotes a sense of being underweight, etc. All concepts that
| "very fragile" may be hoping to avoid invoking (however
| clumsily).
|
| Switching words switches meanings.
|
| [1] One might argue that 'fragile' does not need assistance at
| all in this case.
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| I ran a few words through and I am not willing to buy into the
| elimination of very.
|
| As noted (very or not) _unique_ and _incomparable_ are not the
| same. These words have nuanced differences.
|
| Every word I checked failed to provide the a proper equivalent.
| Context matters.
|
| _very hard_ is not always _demanding_
|
| _very clean_ = /= _sparkling_
|
| _very old_ = /= _ancient_
|
| _very dark_ = /= _bleak_
| Imnimo wrote:
| You have to use a _lot_ of judgment to pare these down, or you
| 'll do more harm than good.
|
| "My car is very fast" -> "My car is breakneck"
|
| "It's going to be very cold tomorrow" -> "It's going to be
| Siberian tomorrow"
|
| "Those shoes are very expensive" -> "Those shoes are lavish"
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| You can usually replace "very" with "fuckin'" and convey the same
| meaning.
| [deleted]
| mesarvagya wrote:
| Fuckin true
| iLoveOncall wrote:
| "very rude" is turned into "ill-mannered". I would say the second
| one is softer (very soft actually) than "rude".
|
| For many of them, looking into multiple dictionaries it appears
| that they are synonymous of the word, rather than a stronger
| meaning.
| alibrarydweller wrote:
| "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. It also won't do in your
| essays." -- The Dead Poets Society
| wizofaus wrote:
| Great movie but not the best advice - "morose" doesn't even
| mean "very sad", it means ill-tempered/in a bad mood. I
| wouldn't even say there is one good word that means "very sad",
| but "morose" is definitely not it. The site in question came up
| with "inconsolable", but that's hardly appropriate if you're
| talking about "very sad news" (after a few attempts it come
| back with "somber" which at least sort of works in that case,
| though I'd still struggle to imagine myself telling a friend
| that their divorce was "sombre news").
| me_again wrote:
| Mark Twain supposedly said:
|
| 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.
| dang wrote:
| https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/08/29/substitute-damn/
| MisterSandman wrote:
| Outside of writing an English essay, I don't see why the use of
| very is looked down upon. "Very good" or "very smart" is fine and
| is common in everyday speech.
| sxg wrote:
| One reason is because "very + <adjective>" often only vaguely
| approximates what the writer means. "Very good" has such a wide
| range of interpretations that it almost has no meaning. If I
| tell you I went to a "very good" restaurant, then how was my
| experience? Was it above average? A step beyond merely
| acceptable? Best restaurant ever?
|
| Alternatively, saying that "I went to a marvelous restaurant"
| better indicates that my experience was exceptional.
| bckygldstn wrote:
| Very works but it's missing out on an opportunity to give more
| detail.
|
| Most of the adjectives in this app have multiple alternatives,
| one of which is likely closer to what you're trying to
| represent.
|
| Or to put it another way: concepts like "smartness" are
| complicated and multidimensional. Someone who is "very smart"
| could be: good at their job, naturally intelligent, built up
| knowledge though experience and hard work, street-smart,
| smarter than average, smartest person in the world ever etc.
|
| I wouldn't say there's always a better single word alternative
| to "very adjective" but it's worth thinking about when writing
| (and probably not worth thinking about in everyday speech!).
| nomel wrote:
| Big words better. How else will you immediately judge someone's
| intellect?
| DonHopkins wrote:
| By if they say something anti-intellectual like that.
| lintroller wrote:
| Accuracy and precision is vital in communication. I agree
| that the speaker does have a responsibility to know his
| audience and shouldn't use fancy words to project intellect,
| education, or status. However, if there is an opportunity to
| be more exact, one should take it without remorse.
| nicoburns wrote:
| I would agree that accuracy is important, and sometimes
| technical words can help with this. But all too often
| people use big words just to sound intelligent and only end
| up obscuring their message.
| gpm wrote:
| Accuracy and precision is sometimes vital, but modifying
| words with very is frequently a good way of achieving that.
|
| "I want a fast game", "I want a very fast game". This site
| suggests "rapid", "breakneck", and "dashing" as
| alternatives for "very fast". "Very fast" is pretty clear
| very precise compared to those words. Maybe I could speak
| about "a breakneck pace" instead, but would I have really
| gained anything other than showing off my vocabulary?
|
| Speaking of very precise, it doesn't even have a suggestion
| for an alternative to that - though admittedly if I wasn't
| forcing things I would have phrased that sentence as "more
| precise than those words".
| nomel wrote:
| I agree completely. Just don't take someones plainly worded
| communication with less value, only because it's plainly
| worded.
|
| Of course, this all falls completely apart with groups
| containing a significant number of members with <language>
| as a second language, where plain speech is required.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| I think this sort of perspective is becoming a bit of a meme.
| Not every use of longer or uncommon words is for the sake of
| signalling intellect or w/e. This is just such a negative,
| juvenile perspective to take if you are deploying it often.
| nomel wrote:
| I was referring to the reverse perspective of perceiving
| intellect, rather than signaling intellect.
|
| It definitely happens both ways, but I think it's much more
| damaging to those who are perceived as being dumb, or whose
| ideas are not considered, because they're direct/plain.
|
| I see this fairly often in meetings. Someone says something
| very direct and plain, with the root of the problem laid
| out, but it fails some "complexity" threshold that makes
| the contrived, incorrect, but fancifully worded explanation
| get more traction, eventually looping back around to the
| simple explanation, with no real acknowledgment.
| trog wrote:
| This is missing an important factor for writing: context. There
| are many places where it's fine to wax lyrical and reach for the
| thesaurus. But if you're trying to write clearly and concisely
| then there is something to be said for simplicity.
| protomyth wrote:
| _very + unique = incomparable_
|
| Nice, although a rather large group of TV viewers of The West
| Wing know that "unique means one of a kind, something can't be
| very unique"[0]. It still amazes me how some of the quotes from
| that show stick with me all these years later.
|
| 0) https://youtu.be/Fvb1e4-YgRE?t=162 or the whole scene
| https://youtu.be/Fvb1e4-YgRE
| TrevorJ wrote:
| The dialogue in that show was fantastic. I'd love to see more
| shows with that particular sort of stylization. Sorkin is
| _very_ unique.
| crtified wrote:
| When emphasising language becomes habitual, it's intended impact
| may actually be lessened, by way of the "boy crying wolf" effect.
| That is, if everything is described as "very" and "really" and
| "actually", then those emphasisers no longer stand out. We start
| to ignore them, and the collective energy spent writing them is
| somewhat wasted.
|
| So I say: let a standalone word suffice, whenever possible. Save
| emphasis for appropriate moments.
| [deleted]
| HL33tibCe7 wrote:
| > very + difficult = strenuous
|
| It also offered up "laborious" and "challenging". None convey the
| actual intended meaning
| kens wrote:
| Very nice!
| coding123 wrote:
| Very charming!
| daveslash wrote:
| _Very Funny_ you two.....
| imwillofficial wrote:
| This website is the epitome of "do one thing and do it well"
|
| Bravo
| BarryMilo wrote:
| I mean, the idea is interesting but I don't think it's done
| very... well.
| jordanwallwork wrote:
| I find it frustrating that you have to click to refresh the
| result. Why it doesnt't autorefresh after a short period
| makes no sense to me. I kept typing in words and thinking it
| was getting no results before realising I had to keep hitting
| the refresh button
| thayne wrote:
| it doesn't even refresh if you hit the "enter" key on your
| keyboard.
| __derek__ wrote:
| I expected the site to literally lose the 'very' a la Hemingway's
| quip about ten-dollar words.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| discovery - very = disco
|
| bravery - very = bra
|
| delivery - very = deli
|
| slavery - very = sla
| powersnail wrote:
| I've seen such advice in many writing forums (other examples
| include don't use adverbs, don't use passive voice, etc.), and
| while it certainly pays to heed your choice of vocabulary, I'm
| not convinced that simply avoiding a fixed set of words or forms
| is good advice. Let alone replacing them with a fixed set of
| substitutes.
|
| Open a few good books and essays, and see if there are adverbs,
| "very", passive voices, or other bad forms. These are reputable
| works written by careful and capable writers, and enjoyed by many
| readers. If they are all deemed wrong in the eyes of such advice,
| it's the advice that's wrong.
|
| The valuable lesson is to actively _think_ about the words you
| use, whether the text accurately convey what you mean, in the
| tone you desire, and is readable by your intended audience.
|
| I'd say a good pair of thesaurus and dictionary is much better
| than this website. At least you got multiple candidates, an
| explanation of each, and get to choose the most appropriate one.
| thayne wrote:
| Easy way to stump it: Take the output and put it in the input.
| very + cute -> adorable. very adorable -> no result (may need to
| repeat for some words).
| Kiro wrote:
| Why not just put in gibberish? Why bother using the output?
| DonHopkins wrote:
| very very => no result
|
| very slightly => no result
|
| very not => no result
|
| ;(
| version_five wrote:
| Extremely
| ruined wrote:
| ludicrous
| [deleted]
| lxchase wrote:
| Looks like you can see what adjectives are in the database at
| this endpoint:
| https://api.airtable.com/v0/appHLMobCaTLuVQQy/Data?api_key=k...
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(page generated 2022-10-13 23:00 UTC)