Adverbs of Degree - Intensifier - BE 4 Unit 6: Risk

We can use adverbs to strengthen the meaning of adjectives:

The US has seen some extremely high awards for damages.

We can also use them to soften the meaning:

The report was slightly critical.

Conjunctur:

to soften the meaning:
a bit
fairly
quite
rather
reasonably
slightly
somewhat
moderately

to strengthen the meaning
entirely
exceptionally
extremely
fully
highly
increasingly
totally
very

What were your last sales results like last year?

Exceptionally good. I made my targets with two month of spare.

What is your new CEO like?

Extremely talented and highly intelligent. She brings out the best in people.

Do you really think we should invest in …volatile market?

Well, first of all we should stay calm and review what we already own.

What did you think of the HR Director’s presentation?

To be honest, I don’t think she was fully prepared. She seemed to be reading it most of the time.

Are you confident that the merger will go ahead?

Fairly confident, although we still need a few more meetings to sort out one  or two problems.

*

Fairly accurate

Incredible well- prepared

Absolutely awful

Severely criticized

Badly misjudge

Deeply disappointed

Slightly damaged

Totally unrealistic

Superbly presented

Thoroughly enjoyed

*

Adverbs of degree - BE 4 Unit 6: Risk

They were incredibly well-prepared for the sales conference, nothing was left to chance. The organization was flawless.

The defense minister was severely criticized for apparently failing to address the poor safety record of the 500 airplanes purchased in 2005.

The consultants were deeply disappointed by the board’s failure to adopt their recommendations.

The commercial the new designers have produced is absolutely awful. In fact, it is the worst I have seen in my lifetime.

Wikipedia offers a fairly accurate and comprehensive definition of business terms, with links to other related websites or articles, and sometimes statistics.

Our visitors thoroughly enjoyed the social evening we organized. Some of them said they had never had so much fun.

The 16%  pay increase sought by the union was totally unrealistic and declared that it might consider a six to ten percent increase next year.

HMV ended its book deal with Amazon as the UK music retailer and bookstore accepted it had badly misjudged the threat from the Internet.

Although most of the hotels had only been slightly damaged by the sea surge, tourist avoided the area.

According to the adv., it was a superbly presented detached house, but in facet two of the rooms overlooked a derelict factory.

__

It has been a highly successful year for Company.

January was exceptionally good, as sales rose dramatically from … to …

However, sales then went down steadily until then end of …

This was due to rather serious distribution problems, which fortunately were very rapidly overcome.

The recovery which followed was absolutely remarkable.

September and October were slightly less successful, probably owing the appearance on the market of similar products at considerably lower prices.

National advertising proved to be remarkably effective. 

*-*

We have done exceptionally well this year. For the past 5 years, we have sold about 200 units a year, but we have already shifted 450 this year.

The employee happiness scores were 3/10 two years ago, 4/10 last year, and 5/10 this year. So, our workers are becoming increasingly happy.

The flight delays and cancellations totally ruined our conference. We were supposed to have 100 delegates, but only about 50 were able to attend.

Entering the German market looks a bit risky, but I don’t think we will encounter any major problems. Let’s do it.

He has been working successfully in top management for more than 20 years. So, he is fully qualified to run the company.

We have sold 50 a year for the past 5 years. So I think increasing your sales target to 35 next year is highly ambitious.