adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
absolutely/really essential
▪ It is absolutely essential to keep this information secret.
absolutely/really necessary
▪ The police are advising motorists to travel only if their journey is absolutely necessary.
deeply/very/really shocked
▪ We are all deeply shocked by what’s happened.
really appeals
▪ The idea of working abroad really appeals to me.
really expect (=definitely)
▪ I didn’t really expect her to come.
really like
▪ I really like Sam.
really liked
▪ We really liked the film.
really matter
▪ campaigning on issues that really matter
really mean
▪ You don’t really mean that, do you?
really
▪ Do you really want to succeed?
really/actually exist
▪ Do you think ghosts really exist?
very/really proud
▪ Your family must be very proud of you.
very/really scared
▪ By this time I was feeling really scared.
very/really surprised
▪ I would be very surprised if that was the case.
very/really worried
▪ We were really worried about him during the divorce.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
good
▪ I had a very good social life and made about six really good friends.
▪ If some one has a really good day, I call.
▪ The evening was really good, but Mark and I rather missed reeling - no comparison to not-very-good disco.
▪ I felt really good last year when we were in this position, that we were going to come back and win.
▪ She had discovered the name of a really good - and expensive, but never mind! - hairdresser.
▪ With primary pupils you get a lot of really complicated questions, and sometimes really good ones too.
▪ It works for him and it's obviously brought him dividends because he's a really good player.
▪ Male speaker It's a really good piece of land.
necessary
▪ You may well ask if such precision is really necessary!
▪ But no coaching is really necessary in such matters.
▪ In truth, a guide wasn't really necessary for our party that good-weather day.
▪ The first step is to determine whether buttering up is really necessary.
▪ If the leader is so effective, is the group really necessary?
▪ Is it really necessary that we learn everything by trial by fire?
▪ Photographs Are these really necessary and do all the sections of the list need to have them?
▪ Is it really necessary for me to get under the bed and shine a light like this?
■ VERB
believe
▪ That you really believe that you could not possibly be a victim of this terrible conspiracy.
▪ But I really believe everybody is going to step up.
▪ You're less likely to be criticised for what you really believe in.
▪ If Coach, if Mr Lewis, really believed I could do this...
▪ I really believe that Liverpool can turn around that 4-2 first leg reversal and win this game.
▪ I really believe I could have hit a mosquito in the eye with a pine needle at thirty paces.
▪ Do we really believe that such an instinct is to be found encoded only into molecular and electromagnetic patterns within the brain?
▪ But I really believe in the role of luck in human affairs.
care
▪ She had contrarily thought that if he really cared he would have come running after her.
▪ Mr Steve George should not really care what the status of the building is.
▪ I decided I was going to do this and I didn't really care what anybody else thought I should do.
▪ I don't really care about what happened last year.
▪ Do you know, sometimes I feel that the only person he really cares for on this earth is the Begum.
▪ How deeply did people really care?
▪ She had really cared for my mother.
▪ Do I really care what she would think now?
enjoy
▪ But because I really enjoy it all how can I call it work?
▪ Highlight each of the skills you really enjoyed using.
▪ There comes a time to end everything, like leaving a party when you're really enjoying yourself.
▪ What he really enjoyed was the challenge and the stimulation of new problems to be solved in new and ingenious ways.
▪ Something the kids really enjoyed on our travels was a trip to the spectacular Tarot Gardens, near Capalbio.
▪ Kids 10 and younger will really enjoy it.
▪ Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the dressing up but I feel he is out of control.
▪ They're both getting fatter and healthier, and they really enjoy their food now.
feel
▪ I can't really feel much that is going on.
▪ You never really feel like you have accomplished anything tangible.
▪ If you are feeling really confident, you can try one foot and one hand together.
▪ Art and Debbie Pacheco made us feel really welcome.
▪ What did he really feel for her?
▪ I feel really good that I work out, because I overcame all the excuses.
▪ And what confused her was the fact that she didn't really feel angry.
▪ Was it self-deception or did she really feel warm to his touch?
get
▪ So, now we can really get on with the party.
▪ Her boss, Detective Hineline, is always giving her a hard time and she never gets really mad at him.
▪ I get really finicky and picky.
▪ He really got hurt in our last game when we lost to the Steelers in the playoffs.
▪ She didn't really get the idea.
▪ Imagine what you do before the day really gets rolling: What do you have for breakfast?
▪ It is the charity that really gets things done for birds the countryside - action for birds, on your behalf.
▪ But I tell you, the adults really got excited about it.
happen
▪ Everybody tries desperately to have a good time, but it never really happens.
▪ I feel kind of foolish admitting it, but it really happened in a dream.
▪ To this day, I don't know what really happened to Kay Amin's body.
▪ At least this is a step toward the truth, what really happened.
▪ Only then would he know for certain that it had really happened, and that he would have to take some action.
▪ All this happened really fast: it probably takes a longer time to tell about it than it actually happened.
▪ Was it really happening in a world where women can be lawyers, prime minister, soldiers or just about anything?
▪ There is much on what is really happening at universities.
know
▪ This will only bring about grief for what do we really know about ourselves or some one else?
▪ No one really knows what happened.
▪ Last year none of them really knew me.
▪ He had not really known that until now, but it was true.
▪ We are looking at Organic growing by people who have been there and really know the problems.
▪ The whole body, the cells, whatever it is that is moving we do not really know.
▪ But no one really knows what it means.
▪ How could I have been living here all my life and never really known it before?
like
▪ Altogether, the solo is nicely formulated, but I don't really like the D notes which creep into bar 5.
▪ I went back to working in a business I knew I already really liked.
▪ Start thinking today what you would really like to work towards over the next few months and even years.
▪ That teachers really like it if you imitate them.
▪ I didn't really like him.
▪ I really like things having to do with sea level, being a paleontologist.
▪ I didn't really like her from the start, never mind feeling any love for her.
▪ I really liked Yale, but it was quite intimidating.
look
▪ Did he really look like that all the time?
▪ You know, really look at them and wonder about them?
▪ In fieldwork, you are really looking for anything that might confirm the existence of a ley.
▪ Wendi was really looking for a stepfather to her kids.
▪ It did look really smart though.
▪ When I really looked, he seemed so sad and out of it.
▪ Just lately I have made a conscious effort to really look at the book.
love
▪ You've got to love that idea really love it: they don't know.
▪ We really love playing clubs, too.
▪ They really love each other I really think they do.
▪ I love collaborating, but I really love the isolation of writing.
▪ But Clare really loved the country and had made some very good friends, especially in Zagreb.
▪ Edusha also admitted that she had never really loved Edek.
▪ I really love him, I really, really do.
▪ But, then-did he really love her?
matter
▪ It does not really matter how you describe the style - Wimbledon, long ball, direct.
▪ Well, the things that really mattered.
▪ It does not really matter so long as we accept both points of view.
▪ This time the alleged transgressions involve a violation of constitutional protections that really matter in a democracy.
▪ Does it really matter that much in the post-Cold War period?
▪ You've already got Oswin, so it doesn't really matter much.
▪ In the West, where the one thing that really mattered was water, states should logically be formed around watersheds.
mean
▪ I don't even know what you really mean by the word.
▪ And it turns out that he does not really mean it.
▪ I really meant to get in touch with you again after Paris, but somehow I felt I'd blown it.
▪ Without really meaning to, Chuck proves her right in seven comical episodes.
▪ Can I really mean to personify the community in this vivid way?
▪ People kept asking us: What does it really mean?
▪ Actually, I don't really mean that, back in time.
▪ Whatever that phrase really means, Tuesday's program Twentieth-Century Landscapes showed how freely composers exploited sound in the past century.
need
▪ I really need to talk to you.
▪ I didn't really need too much time to think about it, I just instinctively knew.
▪ Pleasure, a rarity at any rate, only serves to weaken one; what one really needs is stamina and discipline.
▪ I don't think you really need to approach it that way.
▪ But what dislocated workers really needed was some form of resource that would let them decide their own needs.
▪ It was so substantial that it really needs to be removed from the appetizer list and placed under entrees.
think
▪ And if you really think you're getting better, you can get better.
▪ Did he really think that abstention by the officers would influence the enlisted men?
▪ We really thought we'd found a quicker way to get copies to our distant subscribers.
▪ She really thought she was sitting on the sofa in her living room.
▪ Had he really thought that or was he joking?
▪ Did they really think the Jerusalem question would be solved in a week?
▪ She wandered, without really thinking, down to the side of the lake.
▪ And although when I was very young I rarely told anyone what I really thought, I clattered on interminably.
understand
▪ I still meet research managers from other businesses who feel that their companies don't really understand or want them.
▪ Of all the servants, the only one who really understood my need to do things for myself was Koju.
▪ But quite often they have not really understood the question.
▪ They never really understood me, as the saying goes.
▪ Carolyn never really understood Alan's reaction to her being pregnant.
▪ When processes are so complex nobody really understands them, employees feel like anonymous cogs in a big machine.
▪ Paul still doesn't really understand why.
▪ But, you see, they never had the capacity of really understanding what was up.
want
▪ All kinds of conditioning causes us to act in a way that we know is contrary to what we really want.
▪ So do we really want to fight management mano a mano?
▪ But I've no regrets - I don't really want to own a car.
▪ And as I write these words I am not even sure I would really want to.
▪ Goal planning is the act of deciding what you really want to do and then how you will go about doing it.
▪ Stop denying yourself food, stop eating carrots when what you really want is carrot cake.
▪ He's going to resist and negotiate them down to whatever it is they really want.
▪ And does Terry really want him to?
work
▪ It's still early enough to finish them if I work really hard this month.
▪ The scar metaphor, which runs throughout, never really works.
▪ It works really well on the small screen, too.
▪ Miller and his colleagues worked really hard to secure the Worldwide Plaza contract: It was very important to Mosher.
▪ I could also assess whether this new formula or exercise was really working for them.
▪ It stops them from dropping out and makes them look longer and thicker - I think it really works.
▪ But I really worked hard on them-they represented my bes effort.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be (really/quite) something
▪ But there was something else, too.
▪ Cancer was something you cut out and that was that.
▪ It lies unassimilated on the edge of my under-standing; there is something I must learn from it.
▪ Practice time is something else everyone seems to take for granted.
▪ She thinks this is something that concerns you, too.
▪ Surely there was something more to it.
▪ That is something that special educators have, so far, lamentably failed to offer disabled children and their families.
▪ Yes, there was something in there and I bet myself it would be Jo's emerald pendant.
really and truly
▪ A trade that really and truly helped both teams.
▪ She was really and truly home.
▪ That she'd been really and truly in love and couldn't go on.
▪ What he would really and truly like was to do this new degree course for Bachelor of Civil Law.
▪ Who really and truly and honestly gives a shit?
see/find out what sb is (really) made of
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Really, Matt, did you have to make such a mess?
▪ Are you sure she's really a lawyer? She doesn't act like one.
▪ Considering this was your first time, I think you did really well.
▪ Do you really want to come with us? It'll be very boring for you.
▪ Do you think she's really sorry?
▪ Don't trust James -- all he's really interested in is your money.
▪ He really doesn't trust me, does he?
▪ He failed his tests, but he's quite a bright guy, really.
▪ His letter really irritated her.
▪ I'm always really hungry by noon.
▪ I really like your new haircut.
▪ I don't think she really believes she can win.
▪ Is your cousin really a movie star?
▪ It's really cold out there.
▪ It's all so long ago now, it's difficult to believe that any of it really happened.
▪ It doesn't really matter, does it?
▪ My kids would really like this.
▪ Neither of us really wanted to stay in Texas, but we couldn't leave his family at that time.
▪ No, really, I'm fine. Don't worry.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the tenure decision was really made because of my teaching.
▪ If they don't know what they do that you really like, you leave them guessing.
▪ Only now, he reflected, was he beginning to feel really secure.
▪ She used to really like those shopping trips to Nordstrom.
▪ The objectors really should reflect more on the alternatives.
▪ This is a dazzlingly entertaining novel, spirited in all ways, and really, really mean.
▪ Yet it was not really cold here; the temperature was well above freezing point.
▪ You really have to be ready for something like that.