Speaker 1: I think this is really going to be a helpful
lesson for you today. Very and really are two very
basic words in English, but I do know that they
can be really confusing for a lot of English learners.
Let's discuss.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight oh three.
Is it really or very? For a lot of English learners,
Really and very can be confusing to use. So if
you sometimes use one of them in the wrong situation,
you're going to want to listen to this podcast English
lesson till the end. Both very and really are used
to make adjectives and adverbs stronger, but they are used
a bit differently from a grammatical point of view. We
use very before an adjective or an adverb. In this usage,
very has a kind of formal sound like the book
I am reading is very interesting, or a lot of
the skyscrapers in New York City are very tall, and
the people in this city walk very quickly. This use
of very sounds stiff or formal, like something you may
read in a grammar book. You know, grammar books are
very interesting. On the other hand, really is more informal
and conversational sounding, so we tend to use really in
everyday conversation. Really is more dramatic than very. The book
I'm reading is really interesting, or a lot of the
skyscrapers in New York City are really tall, and the
people in this city walk really quickly, so really is
more expressive sounding than very, which is more dry sounding.
In summary, both very and really boost the strength of
an adjective or adverb. For instance, it is very hot
and it is really hot mean almost the same thing.
But if you are writing formally, very might be the
better choice. Choose very for more formal contexts and really
for informal everyday conversation. By the way, we can use
very and not really as an adjective before a noun.
When we do, very gives emphasis to show that the
noun is the actual or exact noun we are talking about.
Like I remember when I saw a classic car in
an old movie. It was a nineteen fifty eight Chevy
bell Air, And recently I saw someone driving that car
in my neighborhood, and I sent to my friend Paul,
that is the very car that I saw in the movie,
the very car that I saw in the movie. This
means that the car is exactly the car that I
saw in the movie. Let me give you another example.
When I was a university student, I had a ballpoint
pen which was made of wood. It was my grandfather's pen. Well,
unfortunately that pen was lost a long time ago, but
recently I was looking for a wooden pen and I
found one in the stationary shop. That was the very
pen I was looking for. In other words, that was
the exact pen that I was looking for. Oh yeah,
and you can use the phrase the very same before
and noun the very same means exactly the like that
is the very same car I saw in the movie.
In other words, that is exactly the car I saw
in the movie. Yep, that was the very same pen
I was looking for. And finally, you may be wondering, like,
I can say I really like pizza, but I can't
say I very like pizza. Why is that? Well, the
reason is that really and very work differently in sentences.
Really can be used to strengthen a verb directly. So
in I really like pizza. The word really intensifies the
verb like, meaning you like pizza a lot. On the
other hand, very is just used to modify adjectives and adverbs,
but not verbs. That's why I very like pizza doesn't
sound very natural. To use very with like, you would
need to change the sentence. For example, you could say
I like pizza very much. Here very is modifying much,
which is an adverb, which in turn intensifies like. To
sum up, we use really to modify verbs directly, and
really or very to modify adjectives or adverbs. Keep in mind,
the best way to remember English like this and any
other word or phrase in English, is to take that
word or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true
for you or true in your world, and then memorize
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eighth three. Remember learning another language is not easy, but
it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you on
your journey.
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