2017-08-07 Grammar: intensifiers

Greg Malivuk
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http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Are you a workaholic?
(From “alcoholic”, “-aholic” and “-oholic” are common endings on other words to describe addiction, especially informally.)
Handout p. 125 - Take turns asking these questions with your partner. How many “yes” answers do you have?
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Intensifiers: adverb that modify the intensity (strength) of an adjective or adverb
They often answer “how+adjective” or “how+adverb” questions.
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Degree complements: expressions (with “so”, “such”, “too”, or “enough”) that also give some consequence of the degree/intensity of the word
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p. 129 exercise 3 - Ask two questions to each other student and write sentences about these things.
Faisal is a pretty good soccer player.
Enrica is extremely fond of (Italian) pizza.
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“too” versus “really”, “very”, or “so”
*I’m so thankful for my teachers, they taught me too much. = The amount they taught me was a problem. They should have taught me less.
They taught me so much. = The amount they taught me was very high.

There are too many people. = It’s an excessive number, which causes some problems.
There are so many people. = It’s a very large number.
There are a lot of people. = There are many people. = It’s a large number.
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We can intensify “too” to show how excessive it is:
It’s far too expensive. / It’s much too expensive. / It’s way too expensive.
It’s a little too expensive. / It’s a bit too expensive / It’s slightly too expensive.
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Homework: p. 131 exercise 5 - Complete the sentences with “too” or “very”.