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Is "really" in the sense of "very", American English, or British English?

English Language & Usage Asked on February 26, 2021

Or is it both? If it is American English, what would be the British English equivalent, or vice versa.

“I really like this dress” as in “I very much like this dress”

One Answer

There's not really (put intended) a difference in how often it occurs, in any case not significant enough to label either usage as American or British English.

Let's look at the usage of "I really like" and "I very much like"; that should eliminate most possibilities mentioned by @Laurel in the comments.

The NGram graph for American English:

enter image description here

and the one for British English:

enter image description here

aren't that much different; you do see that 'really' gained a lot of traction in the last 60 years.

Answered by Glorfindel on February 26, 2021

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