Downtoners are words or phrases which reduce the force of another word or phrase. Downtoning is the opposite of emphasising. The most common downtoners are:
a bit | a little bit, a tiny bit | hardly | slightly |
a little | barely | (only) just | somewhat |
These downtoners are adverbs, and we use them to modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs:
I’m a little bit fed up with George – he’s so selfish. (less strong than I’m fed up with George.)
I think he got slightly upset when we told him the news.
I was barely 16 years old when I joined the army.
You’ll have to speak up. I can only just hear you.
The city has changed somewhat in the last ten years. (somewhat is more formal than the other words in the list.)
We use vague language such as kind of…, sort of … or the suffix -ish to reduce the force of a word or phrase:
A:Are you hungry?
B:Well, kind of. (less strong than Yes.)
She had a saddish look on her face, I don’t know why. (less strong than She had a sad look on her face.)
