DEAD WORD HELPER

  • Pretty – attractive, appealing, gorgeous, striking, alluring, charming
  • Bad – evil, unhealthy, regretful, awful, immoral, depraved, naughty, unscrupulous
  • Say – speak, reveal, whisper, allege, voice, express, input, declare
  • Big – extensive, bulky, immense, vast, considerable, spacious, enormous
  • Sad – miserable, depressed, gloomy, wretched, dejected, despondent, sorrowful
  • Good – decent, suitable, respectable, virtuous, noble, worthy, wholesome, effective
  • Said – revealed, uttered, articulated, declared, stated, pronounced, verbalized
  • Like – enjoy, fond of, adore, keen on, partial to, respect, admire, passionate about
  • Like – similar, comparable, identical, resemble, analogous, akin to
  • Think – consider, deem, judge, believe, reflect, ponder, deliberate, ruminate
  • Happy – content, pleased, blissful, exultant, ecstatic, delighted, jovial, buoyant
  • Get – obtain, acquire, procure, secure, achieve, accomplish, annex, gain
  • Go – travel, proceed, progress, advance, ensue, move forward, press forward
  • Nice – enjoyable, agreeable, pleasant, lovely, wonderful, pleasurable, entertaining
  • Love – adore, worship, fancy, express affection for, find irresistible, fond of
  • Going to – bound for, directed, aimed at, intended for, parting, exiting, retreating
  • A lot – plenty, abundance, sufficiently, profusely, amply, plenteously, copiously
  • Seen – observed, perceived, distinguished, noticed, witnessed, glimpsed
  • Saw – imagined, pictured, envisioned, predicted
  • See – observe, perceive, glimpse, discern, notice, witness
  • Got – obtained, found, acquired, procured, secured, gained, searched out
  • Very – extremely, incredibly, exceptionally, exceedingly, extraordinarily, vastly
  • Also – moreover, likewise, similarly, correspondingly, furthermore, besides
  • Too – excessively, overly, extremely, exceedingly, overmuch
  • Went – traveled, proceeded, progressed, voyaged, trekked, moved, journeyed
  • Little – slight, petite, diminutive, miniature, bantam, modest, minor, insignificant
  • Thing – object, article, item, entity, gadget, device, mechanism, contraption
  • Stuff – paraphernalia, gear, material, substance, articles, packages, property
  • Feel – touch, stroke, caress, handle, manipulate
  • Feel – sense, experience, suffer, bear, detect, recognize, identify, distinguish
  • Most – greatest, maximum, supreme, highest, extreme, paramount, ultimate
  • Many – countless, several, various, voluminous, scores of, plentiful, abundant
  • Much – abundant, ample, considerable, copious, plentiful, heaps, a great deal
  • Few – insufficient, scarce, rare, uncommon, limited, in short supply
  • Some – handful, hardly any, trickle, minority, dribble
  • Ought to –behooves, requires
  • Numerous – copious, diverse, infinite, voluminous, plentiful, populous, ample
  • Tons of –see numerous or a lot

Problem-Solving Strategies to Eliminate the“To-Be” Verb

1. Substitute-Sometimes a good replacement just pops into your brain. For example, instead of “That cherry pie sure is good,” substitute the “to-be” verbiswithtastesas in “That cherry pie sure tastes good.”

2. Rearrange-Start the sentence differently to see if this helps eliminate a “to-be” verb. For example, instead of “The monster was in the dark tunnel creeping,” rearrange as “Down the dark tunnel crept the monster.”

3. Change another word in the sentence into a verb-For example, instead of “Charles Schulz was the creator of thePeanuts cartoon strip,” change the common nouncreator to the verbcreated as in “Charles Schulz created thePeanutscartoon strip.”

4. Combine sentences-Look at the sentences before and after the one with the “to-be” verb to see if one of them can combine with the “to-be” verb sentence and so eliminate the “to-be” verb. For example, instead of “The child was sad. The sensitive young person was feeling that way because of the news story about the death of the homeless man,” combine as “The news story about the death of the homeless man saddened the sensitive child.”

5. Form an appositive:

The man is a doctor,he helps people get well. The man, a doctor, provides help to sick people.

There are three kinds of dogs. Three kinds of dogs, terrier, bull dog, and collies, live at the kennel.

6. Move the adjective:

The waves are destructive. The destructive waves knock down buildings.

The land is compressed. The compressed land builds pressure along the fault line.

7. Add action:

The land areas are moving past each other. The land areas move past each other, building friction and pressure.

My friends are nice. My nice friends stroll around town with me.

The boy is a good basketball player. The boy plays basketball well.

We were playing basketball all weekend. We played basketball all weekend.

8. Move words around: (Use words like include or exist)

There are three types of volcanoes. Three types of volcanoes include, shield, cinder-cone, and composite.

Do not simply drop the dead verb---you will then be worse---no sentence at all:

Hydrothermal vents are underwater volcanoes. Hydrothermal vents underwater volcanoes.

Instead: In the ocean, volcanic action often occurs as hydrothermal vents.