What are Intensifiers?
2020-02-07
LRC
TXT
大字
小字
滚动
全页
1The Fast and the Furious films, a series of car-racing movies, often describe a product called NOS, short for nitrous oxide.
2Nitrous oxide is a fuel that racers use to give more power to their cars.
3Racers push the NOS button on the controls, and their cars suddenly go much faster.
4Today on Everyday Grammar, we will explore the world of intensifiers -- words that increase the power of other words.
5You might say intensifiers are like the nitrous oxide of the English language.
6And just like NOS can be useful in a race, understanding intensifiers can help you when you are reading or listening to something in English.
7Let us begin with a few definitions.
8Intensifiers are words that make adjectives and adverbs stronger.
9Let me give you an example.
10Imagine a person uses the adjective cool to describe a car, as in:
11"That car is cool."
12That same person might strengthen or enforce the meaning of cool by using an intensifier, as in:
13"That car is so cool."
14Common English intensifiers are words such as very, really and so.
15Very is probably the most formal, while the word so is probably the least formal.
16The least formal intensifier, so, will be our subject of discussion today.
17The word so has an unusual history.
18The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that so comes from the Old English term swa.
19The Google Ngrams search engine shows so appearing as far back as the year 1500, the first year in Google's book records.
20So has had many meanings over time.
21We cannot explore all of these today.
22But as an intensifier, so appears to have been used in the early 1900s - and perhaps even earlier.
23Then, it fell out of everyday usage.
24A little over 25 or 30 years ago, so, as an intensifier, started to make a comeback.
25Language experts in England, Canada and the United States noted and studied its rise in popularity.
26Sali Tagliamonte and Chris Roberts looked at the rise of so by using transcripts of the American television show Friends.
27They found that the usage of so in Friends was similar to other studies of how English speakers used the term.
28In other words, the language in the TV show was close to the language of real life.
29What Tagliamonte and Roberts found was that so was fast becoming one of the most common intensifiers in everyday speech throughout North America.
30It was replacing the word really as the top intensifier.
31In a separate study, Tagliamonte found that so was by far the most common intensifier in new kinds of written communication - often in text messages.
32One possible explanation is that so is much faster to type on a computer or other electronic device.
33It also takes up less space in a message where space is so important.
34You might be wondering why intensifiers are important.
35Intensifiers are important because they often provide useful information about other words.
36As we said earlier, intensifiers go with adjectives and adverbs.
37If you see a sentence with difficult words, you can use your knowledge of intensifiers to predict the meaning of unknown words.
38Here are two examples. Can you provide the missing words?
39"That engine is so ___________."
40"The car race was so ________ to watch!"
41In both sentences, one word is missing. But you know that because both statements have intensifiers, the missing words are probably adjectives or adverbs.
42And since both statements appear to offer a description, you can probably predict that the missing words are adjectives.
43The context of the sentences before and after the statements can tell you if the adjective is either positive or negative in meaning.
44Imagine one of our example statements went on, as in:
45"The car race was so ________ to watch! I loved it!"
46You can tell from the sentence "I loved it!" that the missing adjective is probably positive in meaning. Perhaps the adjective means fun?
47The next time you are reading books written in English or listening to English speakers, try to find examples of intensifiers.
48Keep a record of them and try to use them in your own writing and speaking.
49But try not to use them too much.
50Like NOS in the Fast and the Furious movies, intensifiers are best used at certain times and for certain reasons.
51And that's Everyday Grammar.
52I'm Jill Robbins.
53And I'm John Russell.
1The Fast and the Furious films, a series of car-racing movies, often describe a product called NOS, short for nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is a fuel that racers use to give more power to their cars. 2Racers push the NOS button on the controls, and their cars suddenly go much faster. 3Today on Everyday Grammar, we will explore the world of intensifiers -- words that increase the power of other words. You might say intensifiers are like the nitrous oxide of the English language. And just like NOS can be useful in a race, understanding intensifiers can help you when you are reading or listening to something in English. 4Let us begin with a few definitions. 5Definitions 6Intensifiers are words that make adjectives and adverbs stronger. 7Let me give you an example. Imagine a person uses the adjective cool to describe a car, as in: 8"That car is cool." 9That same person might strengthen or enforce the meaning of cool by using an intensifier, as in: 10"That car is so cool." 11Common English intensifiers are words such as very, really and so. Very is probably the most formal, while the word so is probably the least formal. 12The least formal intensifier, so, will be our subject of discussion today. 13History 14The word so has an unusual history. 15The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that so comes from the Old English term swa. The Google Ngrams search engine shows so appearing as far back as the year 1500, the first year in Google's book records. 16So has had many meanings over time. We cannot explore all of these today. But as an intensifier, so appears to have been used in the early 1900s - and perhaps even earlier. Then, it fell out of everyday usage. 17A little over 25 or 30 years ago, so, as an intensifier, started to make a comeback. Language experts in England, Canada and the United States noted and studied its rise in popularity. 18Studies about so 19Sali Tagliamonte and Chris Roberts looked at the rise of so by using transcripts of the American television show Friends. They found that the usage of so in Friends was similar to other studies of how English speakers used the term. In other words, the language in the TV show was close to the language of real life. 20What Tagliamonte and Roberts found was that so was fast becoming one of the most common intensifiers in everyday speech throughout North America. It was replacing the word really as the top intensifier. 21In a separate study, Tagliamonte found that so was by far the most common intensifier in new kinds of written communication - often in text messages. 22One possible explanation is that so is much faster to type on a computer or other electronic device. It also takes up less space in a message where space is so important. 23Why so (and other intensifiers) can help you 24You might be wondering why intensifiers are important. 25Intensifiers are important because they often provide useful information about other words. 26As we said earlier, intensifiers go with adjectives and adverbs. If you see a sentence with difficult words, you can use your knowledge of intensifiers to predict the meaning of unknown words. 27Here are two examples. Can you provide the missing words? 28"That engine is so ___________." 29"The car race was so ________ to watch!" 30In both sentences, one word is missing. But you know that because both statements have intensifiers, the missing words are probably adjectives or adverbs. And since both statements appear to offer a description, you can probably predict that the missing words are adjectives. 31The context of the sentences before and after the statements can tell you if the adjective is either positive or negative in meaning. Imagine one of our example statements went on, as in: 32"The car race was so ________ to watch! I loved it!" 33You can tell from the sentence "I loved it!" that the missing adjective is probably positive in meaning. Perhaps the adjective means fun? 34Closing thoughts 35The next time you are reading books written in English or listening to English speakers, try to find examples of intensifiers. Keep a record of them and try to use them in your own writing and speaking. But try not to use them too much. Like NOS in the Fast and the Furious movies, intensifiers are best used at certain times and for certain reasons. 36And that's Everyday Grammar. 37I'm Jill Robbins. 38And I'm John Russell. 39John Russell wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. 40______________________________________________________________ 41Words in This Story 42button - n. part on an electronic equipment that is to be pushed 43etymology - n. an explanation of where a word came from; the history of a word 44dictionary - n. a book that lists and defines the words of a language 45transcript - n. a written, printed, or typed copy of words that have been spoken 46type - v. to write something on a word processor, computer or other electronic device 47context - n. conditions that form the setting for an idea or event 48positive - adj. agreeable; having good qualities 49negative - adj. disagreeable; lacking good qualities 50certain - adj. chosen or given; some 51We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.