MODIFIERS

MODIFIERS

1. Being single is a lot wiser than being in a WRONG relationship!

2. Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends (to a remarkable extent / degree) on how you play it.

3. It is far better to be alone, than (to be) in bad company.

4. The future depends (almost) entirely on what each of us does every day.

5.  Society depends to a remarkable degree on the willingness of people to help each other.

6. It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. 

7. Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It's much too strict, but it's a hell of a teacher.

8. Anything nice that's said about me is diametrically opposed to who I am.

9. A great many people mistake opinions for thought.
 

If we want to make a negative form of an adjective or adverb, we can add "not" to the verb, we can use an adjective or adverb of opposite meaning, or we can use "not very" with the original adjective or adverb. The meanings of the phrases are not identical. Usually the phrase using "not very" is less direct, and thus more polite, than the other phrases.

EXAMPLES

Original phrase	Opposite meaning with "not"	Opposite meaning with "not very"	Opposite meaning with an opposite word
The girl was beautiful.	The girl was not beautiful.	The girl was not very beautiful.	The girl was ugly.
He worked quickly.	He did not work quickly.	He did not work very quickly.	He worked slowly.

DIFFERENCE IN MEANING BETWEEN "VERY" AND "TOO"

There is a big difference in meaning between "too" and "very". "Very" expresses a fact while "too" suggests there is a problem.

EXAMPLES

• He speaks very quickly.
• He speaks too quickly for me to understand.
• It is very hot outside.
• It is too hot outside to go for a walk.

OTHER ADVERBS USED LIKE "VERY"

Some common adverbs are used in the same way as "very" to heighten the degree of adjectives and adverbs.

Expressing very strong feelings	Expressing strong feelings	Expressing somewhat doubtful feelings
extremely, terribly, amazingly, wonderfully, insanely	especially, particularly, uncommonly, unusually, remarkably, quite	pretty, rather, fairly, not especially, not particularly
The movie was amazingly interesting.	The movie was particularly interesting.	The movie was fairly interesting.
She sang wonderfully well.	She sang unusually well.	She sang pretty well.
The lecture was terribly boring.	The lecture was quite boring.	The lecture was rather boring.

INVERSION WITH NEGATIVE ADVERBS

Normally the subject goes before the verb, however, some negative adverbs can cause an inversion when placed at the beginning of the clause. The order is reversed and the verb goes before the subject. This inversion is only used in writing, not in speaking.

Adverb	Normal word order	Inversion
Never	I have never seen such courage.	Never have I seen such courage.
Rarely	She rarely left the house.	Rarely did she leave the house.
Not only	She did not only the cooking but the cleaning as well.	Not only did she do the cooking, but the cleaning as well.
Scarcely	I scarcely closed the door before he started talking.	Scarcely did I close the door before he started talking.
Seldom	We seldom cross the river after sunset.	Seldom do we cross the river sunset.

QUOTES

* Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends (to a remarkable extent) on how you play it.
* The extent of the (aging / age-related) changes depends to a remarkable degree on lifestyle (choices) / the food one eats ... * Society depends to a remarkable degree on the willingness of people to help each other. * Everything depends to a remarkable degree on the decisions of just a few decision makers who control key policy levers. *  There is an apparent paradox in (the sense) that the value depends on the decision taken now, 
* The future depends (almost) entirely on what each of us does every day.
Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day. * It's either not good enough and dies altogether, or it develops. (I'm completely broke!" is the one I would most likely use most often;  I'm utterly broke!" for "I haven't a dime (or Euro cent, etc) to my name. I'm altogether/utterly annoyed by this turn of events," sounds better to me than "I'm completely annoyed by this turn of events".
@ Altogether can also mean "with everything included", or "accounting for everything until now", so you could say  Synonyms: On the whole, by and large, basically, mainly, primarily, largely, mostly, 
-"Are you happy with how the project turned out?"
-"Altogether, I'm utterly dissatisfied with the outcome."

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.
(For me), it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

(Truth is by nature divisive). It’s far more important to be divided by the truth than united by error. - John MacArthur.

What I have to say is far more important than how long my eyelashes are. It's far more important than that.

I am deeply superficial. (Ava Gardner)

I'm a bit of a romantic / a hippie / a control freak / a gadget freak / a tomboy / a rebel / a workaholic / a mummy's boy * Everyone likes a bit of competition. * I, on the other hand, have a bit of a southern accent.

I'm glad I know sign language. It's pretty handy. * Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.

I've never been cool and I don't really care about being cool. It's just an awful (whole) lot of time and hair gel wasted. * It was quite an emotional thing for me to do 'cause obviously I put an awful whole lot of myself into the role of Christine 

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln

I pretty much like all music except for (but) country. I'm not a big fan of country

I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not quite sure. (Are you quite sure it was your brother? Absolutely)

Just do it.- Nike

My life has been a roller coaster ride, but somehow I've always been able to land on my feet and still play the guitar.

Nothing happens quite by chance. * Not quite.

Most of us have a list of “I want to’s” but far fewer of us go any further than that. Why? It’s not because we can’t, although sometimes we like to tell ourselves that. It’s really because we don’t want to bad enough.If it’s important you’ll find a way. If (it’s) not, you’ll find an excuse.

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.

There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational.


The words moderately, slightly, and barely are degree adverbs.

 INTENSIFIERS

Intensifier (Is not a degree adverb) is a linguistic term for a modifier that serves to enhance and give additional emotional context to the word it modifies. Intensifiers are grammatical expletives. Characteristically, English draws intensifiers from a class of words called degree modifiers, words that quantify the idea they modify. More specifically, they derive from a group of words called adverbs of degree, also known as degree adverbs. However, when used grammatically as intensifiers, these words cease to be degree adverbs, because they no longer quantify the idea they modify. Instead, they emphasize it emotionally. By contrast, the words moderately, slightly, and barely are degree adverbs, but not intensifiers. The other hallmark of prototypical intensifiers is that they are adverbs which lack the primary characteristic of adverbs: the ability to modify verbs. Intensifiers modify exclusively adjectives and adverbs. However, this rule is insufficient to classify intensifiers, since there exist other words commonly classified as adverbs that never modify verbs but are not intensifiers, e.g. questionably.

REALLY

Stand-up, I find it really difficult. It's not really my thing. * I'm at 250 lbs and I find it really hard to even get started because when it comes to diet and exercise I'm kind of fucked. * I'm a crap guitarist and I find it really hard writing on my own. * I find it really hard to say anything coherent or interesting about the work I do. *

I still really love acting. I find it really challenging. And I really love film; it's a lot of fun.

WAY TOO (MUCH TOO)

I'm way too disorganized. * I sleep way too much and I read tremendously. * I'm totally addicted to Japanese anime and spend way, way, way too much time watching it. (Japanese animation). * People are spending way too much time thinking about climate change, way too little thinking about poverty. * I think there are way too many films made, and I've probably made way too many films. * I drive way too fast to worry about colesterol. * I was originally going to become a biochemist, but it just got way too complicated. * I get angry at myself for staying in relationships way too long. *

MUCH TOO

Life is much too serious to be taken seriously. * Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon. * Very few editors worry about heresy - their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness. * Getting emotional about things is a peacetime luxury. In wartime, it's much too painful. * When I left university, I idled around without focus for much too long.

A HELL OF A (helluva) / LOT / LOT OF / LOT MORE (LESS) / LOT BETTER THAN 

Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It's much too strict, but it's a hell of a teacher. * I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay - which was so annoying! * Unfortunately these days, there is a hell of a lot that keeps me awake. * We have got to be a hell of a lot more aggressive. * We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad.' * Normally, if you go through a game without attracting attention, you are doing a hell of a job. * There's a lot more to being a woman than being a mother, but there's a hell of a lot more to being a mother than most people suspect. * In terms of asking questions, I plead guilty. I ask a hell of a lot of questions. That's my job. * Sure my career means a hell of a lot, but it will never come before Sandy and my son.

* I mean, there's a hell of a lot of grounds for protest, but you don't do it through music. * A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with. (Why Be Negative?)

* I started on the downers which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck.
- Downer: 1. a depressing experience: The opening scene's a downer  2. a state of depression: he's on a downer today. 3. a depressant or sedative drug, especially tranquillizers

- Upper: noun, Slang. 1. a stimulant drug, especially an amphetamine.  2. a pleasant or elating experience, person, or situation.

Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better. - Oreos: the trademark of a brand of sandwich cookies that have a white cream between round chocolate biscuits.

HELLA (slang)

I don't do yoga. I bite the hella outta my nails. I smoke, I eat all the wrong food, I don't exercise. Lisa Marie Presley

ADVERBS AS MODIFIERS

The extremely tired lioness is losing patience with her overly enthusiastic cub.

The number was variously estimated at anywhere from 80 to 120.

Anything nice that's said about me is diametrically opposed to who I am.

As can be seen even by this limited number of examples proteins carry out amazingly diverse functions

I set myself the mission of gleaning as much information as possible out of the much more experienced actors. The cast was astoundingly talented. glean /glin/USA pronunciation   v. [~ + object]

to gather or find out, usually bit by bit or slowly and with hard work:to glean information.

 Examples

• amazingly
• -ass, as in "a sweet-ass ride"
• astoundingly
• awful, as in "awful good"
• bare, as in "bare jokes" (slang)
• bloody, as in "bloody hell"
• crazy
• dead, as in "dead wrong"
• dreadfully
• colossally
• especially
• exceptionally
• excessively
• extremely
• extraordinarily
• fantastically
• frightfully
• fucking, as in "fucking awesome" (freaking; "so freaking good")
• fully
• hella (slang)
• incredibly
• insanely
• mightily
• moderately
• most, as in "Most Reverend"
• outrageously
• phenomenally
• precious, as in "precious little"
• quite
• radically
• rather
• real, as in "real nice"
• really: a really expensive car.
• remarkably
• right
• sick
• so
• somewhat
• strikingly
• super: Today was super cold (predicative). A super cold day (atributive)
• supremely
• surpassingly
• terribly
• terrifically
• too
• totally
• uncommonly
• unusually
• veritable
• very