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I am writing a letter, I want to mention a thing by using double adverbs.
For instance,

it is really really cool, it is very very nice.

Something Like that,
is it the formal writing or not?

Jasper
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Ronald
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1 Answers1

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From Fox Kilmeade

If you have a cloud over Europe that extends across the Atlantic throughout the summer, that is going to be very very bad news for the president.

From USA Today (though a speech)

Very early on we made spoons out of agate, very very thin and very delicate; they were Russian silver spoons where we altered some of the design to give them more shape, but they were very nice because the agate was exceptional and we made a series of those

And many more results from COCA say that it's okay. However, I think it depends on the writer's style.

Another style that I came across is worth noting. Using a 'comma' between two very's. One such instance is from the NY Times.

But it's important to understand that 0.6 percent is still a very, very low rate by any historical standard.

In your question, you are using 'very very cool' or 'very very nice' -it seems you are writing to someone in an informal way. in this context, I'm pretty sure that you can go for it! But hey, don't exceed 'two'!

Maulik V
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    That 2nd example is a bit painful, 5 verys in one sentence! Looks like it was written by a child with limited vocabulary. I was always told at school, that if I couldn't think of a better word than 'nice', I needed to be writing about something else; 'very nice' would have had me at the front of the class explaining why ;) The first example is acceptable, for emphasis, but I'd still mark it "could try harder" ;-) – DoneWithThis. May 16 '15 at 10:34
  • @Tetsujin: I'd say it's 100% certain Maulik's example #2 is (relatively informal) *speech. Even a halfway competent writer* would almost certainly realise how awkward/ungainly very very thin and very delicate is phrased. There are a couple of obvious ways to "fix" it, depending on the exact nuance of meaning intended. 1: Delete the third very (and in speech, minimise inter-word gaps in thin and delicate, so the initial repeated very very applies to both attributes). 2: Resequence to very delicate and very very thin so the last quality mentioned gets the emphatic repetition. – FumbleFingers May 16 '15 at 12:23
  • @FumbleFingers yes, you are right. Mentioned! But do you suggest replacing it with some other example? – Maulik V May 16 '15 at 12:30
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    Have an upvote, Maulik! I think it's important on ELL that we should keep reminding questioners about the different standards normally considered applicable to speech as opposed to writing. Particularly, *formal writing*, which OP specifically mentioned here. Your newly-added final example is also good, because it shows how the repetitive format (including that all-important comma) can reasonably be used in (relatively) formal writing. – FumbleFingers May 16 '15 at 13:06