I teach foreign language students and they often write about how their food was “very delicious”, and it always sounds so jarring to me. There are a lot of really strong words that native speakers tend to not use very with.
eg:
very difficult task / very monumental task
very good cooking / very superb cooking
very happy man / very elated man
For some reason intensifiers like so and such don’t have those restrictions:
The task was very/so monumental.
It was very/such superb cooking.
He was very/so elated.
You can put ‘very’ before every suggested alternative. What then?
When very then?
I teach foreign language students and they often write about how their food was “very delicious”, and it always sounds so jarring to me. There are a lot of really strong words that native speakers tend to not use very with.
eg:
very difficult task / very monumental task
very good cooking / very superb cooking
very happy man / very elated man
For some reason intensifiers like so and such don’t have those restrictions:
The task was very/so monumental.
It was very/such superb cooking.
He was very/so elated.
Bring ‘fucking’ into it and even native speakers say how fucking delicious the food was.
It’s funny how it suddenly appears to work with “fucking” but “very” is weird.
Most of the alternatives feel odd with a very. Eg: very powerful, sure I get your message but it sounds awkward
Some of them feel better than others. Very boiling is kinda weird.
Very powerful works imo.