Intensifiers

Intensifiers are degree adverbs that turn up the volume. They answer to what extent? by amplifying rather than softening. The soup was hot gives you a fact; The soup was very hot gives you a warning. They add emotional weight and emphasis, which is why they appear so often in both speech and persuasive writing.

Intensifiers are the direct opposite of mitigators. Where a mitigator like slightly pulls back (slightly warm), an intensifier pushes forward (incredibly hot). The most common intensifiers include *very, remarkably, extremely, amazingly, incredibly, completely, exceptionally, super, and really. Among these, very is the most neutral and versatile—it intensifies without adding its own emotional colouring. Words like incredibly and amazingly, by contrast, carry built-in surprise or admiration: The 5k race was incredibly tough says both "very tough" and "I was impressed by how tough it was."

A common learner mistake is overusing very. While grammatical, a string of very adjectives flattens your writing: The movie was very good and very exciting becomes monotonous. Varying your intensifiers—The movie was remarkably good and truly exciting—immediately lifts the prose. Reserve the strongest intensifiers like completely and exceptionally for moments of genuine emphasis; using them too often weakens their effect.

Remember that intensifiers follow the same gradability rule as all degree adverbs. Use them freely with gradable adjectives (very tired, extremely happy), but be selective with non-gradable ones. While really freezing works colloquially, very freezing does not—freezing is an absolute state. For non-gradable adjectives, reach for absolutely or completely instead.

Intensifiers are not just for adjectives. They can amplify verbs (I completely forgot) and other adverbs (She ran remarkably fast), always sitting before the word they modify. Master them and you gain control over the emotional temperature of every sentence you write.