Learn Amerian English Online
Updated Daily
Improve your English in the Reading Rooms
Listen and write
Yellow Level
Lesson Twenty Four
Intensifiers
Some adverbs are used with adjectives and other adverbs. Examples in this lesson are called “intensifiers.” Intensifiers provide greater depth of meaning for the words they describe.
This is an extremely unusual bike. The word “extremely” is an intensifier for the adjective “unusual.” |  |
I highly recommend the bakery we used for Heidi’s birthday cake. They did a great job. |  |
That’s quite an unusual color for a house. |  |
We surely got a lot of snow last night. or…. We sure got a lot of snow last night. (A lot of people in the U.S. use “sure” instead of “surely.”) |  |
Setting a mousetrap with cheese is an extraordinarily good way to catch a mouse. |  |
Ted’s girlfriend, Linda, certainly is beautiful. |  |
In each of the examples above, the intensifier can be taken out of the sentence without changing the meaning very much:
Ted’s girlfriend, Linda, is beautiful.
Next: Lesson Twenty-five