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Intensifiers and mitigators
Level: intermediate
Intensifiers
We use words like very, really and extremely to make adverbs stronger:
She speaks English very well.
They behaved really foolishly.
He put the glass down extremely carefully.
We call these words intensifiers. Other intensifiers are:
| amazingly | exceptionally | incredibly | remarkably | particularly |
We also use enough to say more about an adverb, but enough comes after its adverb:
She didn't win. She didn't play well enough.
Mitigators
We use words like fairly, rather and quite to make adverbs less strong:
She speaks English fairly well.
They behaved rather foolishly.
The children played quite happily.
We call these words mitigators. Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers.
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