Have a go — no notes, and don't worry about getting it perfect first time.
You already know something about strength here. Complete this sentence:
"The customer wasn't just annoyed, she was furious."
Say two sentences about a meal, film or trip you had recently — but ban the words "very" and "good." Choose one stronger word instead: "The service was appalling." / "The view was breathtaking."
A: How was your appraisal meeting?
B: Fine, I suppose. Though my manager's feedback was, let's say, less than glowing.
A: That bad?
B: Frankly, I've had worse. But it wasn't exactly encouraging either.
Look again at what B says. B never actually says "the feedback was bad." Instead: "less than glowing," "not exactly encouraging." Why choose this route instead of just saying it plainly? Say your idea out loud before you check.
Small words that sit outside a sentence and label your whole judgement of it — not how something was done, but what you think about it.
Three honest verdicts:
Before you check: where do these words sit, and what's their job — describing an action, or judging the whole sentence?
The stance adverb does the work of a whole clause ("it's no surprise that...") in one word, right at the front.
1. You already suspected the trains would be late, and they were.
Give the news: ", the 8:15 was cancelled again."
2. The whole team resigned on the same day — nobody expected it.
Give the news: ", the whole team resigned on the same day."
3. Same meaning, different position. Rewrite this sentence with "frankly" placed right after the subject, instead of at the front: "Frankly, the whole evening was a waste of money."
Think about your week. Say two sentences using stance adverbs — one about something predictable, one about something that surprised you. Start with the adverb: "Predictably, ..." / "To my surprise, ..."
Some adjectives sit on a scale. Others already sit at the top of it — and that changes which intensifier fits.
Three verdicts:
Before you check: try saying "very brilliant" or "very exhausted" out loud. Does it sound right? What's different about these adjectives compared with "good" or "tired"?
1. The news shocked everyone — people weren't just surprised.
Complete it: "They were stunned."
2. Fix the slip: "I was very starving by the time we sat down to eat."
3. Fix the slip: "The hotel room was absolutely small for the price we paid."
Describe your week using one graded adjective with "very" or "really," and one extreme adjective with "absolutely" or "utterly." For example: "Monday was really busy, but Friday was absolutely chaotic."
The same fact can carry two different judgements — and sometimes the most diplomatic move is not to state the criticism directly at all.
Before you check: "careful with money" and "stingy" can describe the exact same behaviour. What changes between them? And what is "somewhat" doing in the third sentence — is it hiding the truth, or softening it?
1. You need to tell a colleague their report was slow to arrive, without sounding harsh.
Complete diplomatically: "The turnaround on this was speedy."
2. You're writing a peer review that needs to stay professional. The analysis had real gaps.
Complete it: "The analysis was thin in places."
3. Choose the word that stays fair rather than harsh.
Complete it: "He checks every price before buying anything — call it , not stingy."
Think of someone you know well — a colleague, a neighbour, a friend's parent. Say three things about them, choosing the more generous word each time: careful not stingy, confident not arrogant, slim not skinny.
Time to put all three tools to work in one honest review, out loud and in writing.
Think of somewhere you've actually reviewed, or would review, in your head — a restaurant, a hotel, a course, a film. (If nothing comes to mind, invent one.)
Give your verdict out loud for one minute. Try to include:
Write a short review (3–5 sentences) of the same place. Use all three tools from today — the checker will tell you which ones it finds.
Real life doesn't tell you which tool to reach for. Here everything is mixed — you decide.
Each sentence has one mistake in its word choice. Rewrite the whole sentence correctly.
1. "The lasagne was very delicious, honestly."
2. "My gran is famously stingy, even though she has saved half her pension every month for fifty years."
3. "Worryingly, the delay meant we arrived exactly on time."
4. "The queue was absolutely long by the time we got there."
5. You're writing feedback about a colleague who checks every expense claim closely before approving it. Which word keeps the feedback fair and professional? "I'd describe her approach to the budget as ___."
6. Complete: "___, the contract was cancelled the day before signing — nobody saw it coming."
7. Which sentence sounds right to a native speaker?
One-minute challenge: review your own job, in a way that would be fair if a colleague read it. Use one stance adverb, one correctly-intensified extreme adjective, and one diplomatic phrase. Count your own minute, or use the timer on the previous tab.
1. A quick one from long before C2 — turn the adjective into an adverb: "He listened (patient) while the client complained for ten minutes."
2. Before today, what did you already know about "very" and "absolutely" as intensifiers? Say one example sentence with each, out loud, before you check.
3. You didn't expect the corner shop to still be open at midnight. Give the news: ", the corner shop was still open at midnight."
4. The interviewer's questions weren't just hard. Complete: "They were impossible."
5. The airline left you waiting six hours with no updates — you want to stay diplomatic in your review. Complete: "The airline's communication was helpful."
Which practice helped you most today — fixing the mismatched intensifiers, choosing the diplomatic word, or the speaking tasks? Say why you think that one worked for you.
At the start we said: word choice and position quietly reveal your judgement, so you can review, give feedback, and describe people diplomatically. Tick what's true: