WRONG:

REAL/REALLY

The correct adverbial form is “really” rather than “real”; but even that form is generally confined to casual speech, as in “When you complimented me on my speech I felt really great!” To say “real great” instead moves the speaker several steps downscale socially. However “really” is a feeble qualifier. “Wonderful” is an acceptable substitute for “really great” and you can give a definite upscale slant to your speech by adopting the British “really quite wonderful.” Usually, however, it is better to replace the expression altogether with something more precise: “almost seven feet tall” is better than “really tall.” To strive for intensity by repeating “really” as in “that dessert you made was really, really good” demonstrates an impoverished vocabulary.

List of errors