The following article by Mark Powell is taken from the MacMillan Education on-line teaching resource site.

Genetically Modified

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), a grammatical modifier is an "adjective or adverb that changes the meaning of a noun, pronoun or verb". Strange, that. Because to the majority of the British business community it's a word that changes absolutely nothing at all.

For example, when a German manager says there is a slight problem, he can probably calibrate the slightness to three decimal places. When a Brit says it, you can be sure it's anything but slight.The conversation might go something like this (note the modifiers).

A classic case of British understatement? Sure, but the key phrase here is "a bit". A bit, a little, a tad, a touch, quite, rather, slightly somewhat. What is it about these meaningless little modifiers the Brits just can't resist? Could it possibly be genetic?

It works both ways, of course. If softeners don't really soften, then intensifiers don't intensify either. When a Brit responds to your business proposal with "Very interesting", book your flight home. Anything said "with the greatest respect" means, of course, "with the utmost contempt". Sentence adverbs lie as well. "Hopefully" is a sign of despair and a point mentioned "incidentally" is likely to be the most important thing on the agenda.

Take it from the horror novelist Stephen King, "the Road to Hell is paved with adverbs".