I really have a problem with Really

I think that using a grammar checker can make you a bit self-conscious. You start noticing things about your writing: words and phrases you use a lot.
For example, really.
I seem to really like really.

An interesting thing about English is how you can construct a sentence in several different word orders, and the results can virtually say the same thing, and be acceptable English.

I had a sentence: I didn’t really even care about him.

It wasn't actually flagged by the grammar checker, but I'd noticed my predilection for really—or more accurately, it had been pointed out that the word appeared frequently in another paragraph—and I went on a bit of an excise exercise.

When I got to that sentence, something about it stood out. I realized that I could come up with different variations of the sentence that were virtually identical, but with different word orders:

I didn’t really even care about him.
I really didn’t even care about him.
I didn’t even really care about him.
I didn’t really care about him.

And Grammarly didn't object to any of them.

It's sort of the opposite of how you can change the meaning of the same sentence by changing the emphasis you put on the words:

What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called, love?
What? Is this thing called love?

In the end, I went with line 4 because the others felt a bit flabby, but I might have used any of the others.

I didn't really care.

Comments

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