Life through adverbs

Adverbs have a habit of reducing impact:

• This house is very expensive.
  

Fortunately, some give strength and life. We can see that [very] adds no extra information; it’s not exactly life giving.

However, there is a little family of adverbs who are perfect for communicating subtleties, imprecision or uncertainty. The modality family are cautious with their words and are invaluable because they add further information:

• This house is definitely worth buying.
  
• She clearly researches her reports.
  

Whereas [very] does not enhance, [definitely] and [clearly] add information.  

So, before you throw out the whole adverb family, remember, everyone has a talent.

Here are a few of members of the family:

• feasibly
• cautiously
• probably
• certainly
• irrefutably
• distinctly
• necessarily
• perhaps

Modality is the difference between a factual assertion and a cautious view:

• This is an expensive watch.
  

versus

• This appears to be an expensive watch.
  

Let words speak for themselves: cultivate the habit of using adjectives and adverbs to make your meaning more precise, and be careful of those you find yourself using to make it more emphatic.


Understand how to make a definite or indefinite statement or commitment,
and how to express yourself with our online course:

• Hedging and the art of cautious language

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