INTENSIFIERS AND DOWNTONERS IN ENGLISH
Hey All,
Learning to Speak English is a kind of journey where your preparation and execution is the key.
In the process of unveiling the concepts required for spoken English and help you pattern yourself and your English communication skills, I picked up the concept of INTENSIFIERS AND DOWNTONERS IN ENGLISH. Let me introduce them to you here….
* INTENSIFIERS
Intensifiers are words which make the adjectives and even adverbs more stronger so that you get to know the intensity of the adjective or adverb you are using. Literally intensifiers increase the strength of the adjective/adverbs.
I hope it gave you the simplest and the clear idea of intensifiers, but that is only the definition and probably the outline. Now let me leave you a few examples for your better understanding. These intensifiers emphasize on the fact or make the sentence more interesting.
As you might be having the basic understanding of what Adjectives and Adverbs are….
Just to hint or remind you in case you don’t know them.
Adjectives – The words which define the nouns.
Adverbs – The words which describe more about the Verbs(Action words) or Adjectives.
We have done the exams well.
We have done the exams incredibly well.
They were busy last Sunday.
They were extremely busy last Sunday.
Sharon was interested in sports.
Sharon was really interested in sports.
I was unhappy in the relationship.
I was totally unhappy in the relationship.
She is a studious student.
She is an extremely studious student.
He is impatient.
He is absolutely impatient.
He is an interesting personality.
He is a very interesting personality.
Now just listing down some of the intensifiers… absolutely, amazingly, really, utterly, terribly, unusually, completely, exceptionally, truly, highly, entirely, extremely, particularly, remarkably,……
* DOWNTONERS
Downtoners on the contrast are the words which reduce or lessen the intensity of the Adjectives or Adverbs that you make use of. Though, I have made it quite obvious and understandable it is always good to look into a few examples. When you get to learn and glance through the examples it is easy for your understanding.
Literally downtoners decrease, weaken the strength of the adjective/adverbs.
We learnt the skill quickly.
We learnt the skill fairly quickly.
The chips was salty.
The chips was mildly salty.
We ate quickly.
We ate quite quickly.
My classmates performed the tests well.
My classmates performed the tests moderately well.
They showed attitude.
They kind of showed attitude.
He played the match well.
He played the match pretty well.
I was confident with my speech.
I was pretty confident with my speech.
My parents approved our love marriage.
My parents sort bf approved our love marriage.
Now just listing down some of the downtoners…. kind of, mildly, to some extent, sort of, almost, fairly, pretty, moderately,….
WHY ARE INTENSIFIERS AND DOWNTONERS ESSENTIAL IN SPOKEN ENGLISH?
Having clearly discussed about intensifiers and downtoners, it is vivid that these intensifiers and downtoners significantly help you to give a suitable modulation along with the appropriate usage of either the intensifiers or downtoners accordingly. This can help you to convey any fact or message with the accurate and real intensity of the message.
Hereby you can clearly understand that conveying the degree of intensity of the adverbs or adjectives is the prime importance of these Intensifiers and Downtoners.
There are even more intensifers and downtoners available which you could use in your conversations. Explore and use them aptly dear ones. Hope you found this little piece of information incredibly useful. Apply and Enjoy English Learning dear ones.
Catch you soon with yet another interesting English topic,
Janet