In a society that increasingly regards anything smacking of ‘rules’ or ‘procedure’ as unfairly restrictive, things like punctuation, grammar, and spelling are rapidly falling out of favor. If you are one who lauds this movement, feel free to scroll on now: you won’t enjoy this article. If, however, you are one who still feels that language is beautiful and powerful, continue as I denounce the word “ very ” and offer alternatives to it’s use.

Why Avoid ‘Very’

Very is laziness. It cheapens your work. We tend to add ‘very’ as a modifier to another word to heighten it’s meaning, but in doing so we lose the opportunity to make a much better statement. We might say, “The building is very large.” but saying, “The building is enormous.” conveys your thought so much better.

I offer validation on the topic from famous authors:

‘Very’ is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen. ~Florence King

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays. ~N.H. Kleinbaum

What To Use Instead

Now that we have established ‘very’ as useless, let’s look at some ways to convey our thoughts more eloquently:

Instead of ‘very’:	use		Instead of ‘very’:	use
afraid	terrified horrified hysterical		neat	immaculate pristine fastidious
angry	furious enraged sullen		old	ancient geriatric decrepit
bad	atrocious awful villainous wicked		poor	destitute impoverished meager deplorable
big	enormous gigantic		pretty	beautiful adorable
beautiful	exquisite alluring gorgeous		quiet	silent peaceful hushed
bright	dazzling brilliant blazing		risky	perilous precarious treacherous
capable	accomplished competent proficient		roomy	spacious capacious commodious
clean	immaculate spotless sterile		rude	vulgar boorish impertinent
clear	transparent crystal fair		sad	morose melancholy mournful
clever	brilliant adept cagy		serious	solemn meditative grim
cold	freezing frigid icy		small	tiny petite scanty
conservative	traditional conventional hidebound		strong	unyielding durable athletic
dirty	filthy squalid unkempt		stupid	idiotic moronic obtuse
dry	parched baked arid		tasty	delicious enticing delectable
eager	excited keen impatient		thin	gaunt emaciated cadaverous
fast	rapid expeditious fleet		tired	exhausted weary debilitated
fierce	ferocious barbaric rapacious		ugly	hideous macabre ghastly
good	superb splendid outstanding		valuable	precious cherished inestimable
happy	jubilant triumphal joyous		weak	feeble decrepit emaciated
hot	scalding scorching searing		wet	soaked drenched sodden
hungry	ravenous famished voracious		wise	sagacious perspicacious scholarly
large	colossal enormous gargantuan		worried	anxious tormented apprehensive
lively	vivacious effervescent frolicsome
loved	adored cherished idolized

Credit where credit is due: the above list inspired by: www.WritersWrite.co.za

The Result

As you can plainly see from the list above, using exciting words rather than “very something” adds a great deal of punch to your work and helps keep the reader engaged. The exception, of course, is in dialogue. If your character is not eloquent, then use speech appropriate to his or her skills. But in your discourse, use the more engaging forms and entertain your reader.

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