[Grammar] Really and absolutely

[faab267]

Hi,
Can I use the adverbs really and absolutely anytime? "it's really awful" / "it's absolutely awful" / "it's really terrible" / "it's absolutely terrible" ?

 

[Tarheel]

You can do what you want, but be aware that those words are overused and that your sentence may have more punch if it is shorter. (Using more words doesn't always mean that you say more.)

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi.

Can I use the adverbs really and absolutely anytime? "It's really awful/It's absolutely awful/It's really terrible/It's absolutely terrible"?

Note my corrections above. Even a sentence as short as "Hi" needs a proper closing punctuation mark.

When you create a list of suggestions and separate them with slashes, you don't need to put quotation marks round each example. You just need one at the start of the list and another at the end. Don't put a space on either side of a slash. Don't put a space before a question mark. Each of your examples was a complete sentence so should have started with a capital letter.

I wouldn't go so far as to say you can use them "anytime". Sometimes, one or the other (or both) wouldn't work. For example, we can say "It's very yellow" and "It's really yellow" but not "It's absolutely yellow". Reading lots of good quality English from reputable sources will help you learn what's natural and what's not.