Degree Words خیلی، بسیار، کمی، کاملاً

Persian degree words stand before the adjective whose degree they adjust: خیلی خوب kheyli khub “very good,” کمی خسته kami khaste “a little tired,” کاملا متفاوت kâmelan motefâvet “completely different.” خیلی and بسیار raise degree, کمی lowers it, and کاملا presents a property or change as reaching its endpoint. Their position is stable, but their register and compatibility are not identical.

A practical map

Every form in the table is an adverbial modifier. It does not agree with a noun and does not take a copula of its own. In ordinary prose, many writers spell the final item with conventional tanvin as کاملاً; this guide's unpointed audio examples use کاملا, pronounced kâmelan.

Position before a predicative adjective

In a copular clause, the degree word comes immediately before the adjective, and the copula follows the adjective phrase.

English also places very before an adjective, but Persian keeps that order even when the copula is an enclitic: خیلی خسته‌ام “I am very tired.” The degree word never hosts the copula; خسته does.

Position inside an attributive noun phrase

An attributive adjective still follows its noun through ezafe. The degree word then sits directly before that adjective: noun + ezafe + degree + adjective. There is no extra ezafe between the degree word and adjective.

The noun گزارش licenses ezafe before the whole adjective phrase بسیار دقیق. Persian does not copy English order as بسیار دقیق گزارش. Nor does بسیار make دقیق agree: adjectives remain invariant.

خیلی and بسیار: similar degree, different social fit

Both خیلی and بسیار can mean “very.” خیلی is the default high-frequency choice in everyday Iranian conversation and is also acceptable in ordinary writing. بسیار is favored in formal prose, presentations, official statements, and ceremonious politeness. It is not archaic, but repeated بسیار can sound stiff in relaxed conversation.

These are both grammatical. Register is a choice, not an error contrast. A formal email can use بسیار سپاسگزارم naturally; a message to a friend normally uses خیلی ممنون.

خیلی before a comparative means “much,” not literal English “very”: خیلی بهتر “much better.” The basic comparative page explains difference modifiers.

کمی and informal یه کم

Before an adjective, کمی reduces degree: کمی سرد “a little cold,” کمی پیچیده “somewhat complicated.” It often softens criticism or presents a manageable problem.

In everyday Tehran speech, یه کم is the common informal counterpart. Because this form belongs to a colloquial register, keep the rest of the sentence colloquial too.

کمی also quantifies nouns, as in کمی آب “a little water.” Syntax distinguishes the uses: in کمی خسته, the following adjective is graded; in کمی آب, a quantity of a noun is introduced. See few and little for noun quantity.

کاملا and endpoint meaning

کاملا presents a property, state, or change as total. It combines most naturally with expressions that have an interpretable endpoint: ready versus not ready, empty versus containing something, understood versus not understood, or different throughout the relevant respects.

The second کاملا modifies the extent of an event rather than an adjective. English uses the same adverb in both functions; Persian likewise lets scope come from the expression that follows.

There is no absolute ban on grading words such as “complete” or “unique”: speakers can coerce them into scales, for example when something is closer to meeting a definition. Still, formal editing should distinguish خیلی دقیق “very accurate” from کاملا دقیق “completely/exactly accurate.” The latter makes a substantially stronger commitment.

Adjective degree versus adverbial scope

The surface order degree word + descriptive word can modify a property or the manner of an event. The predicate tells you which:

Persian does not add an English-style -ly ending to show this difference. The copula بود makes the first adjectival; the event predicate صحبت کرد makes the second manner-oriented.

A short dialogue

Here کاملا reaches an endpoint, while کمی locates the temperature only a small distance along a scale.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting the degree word after the adjective

2. Adding ezafe between a degree word and adjective

3. Copying English adjective-before-noun order

4. Adding comparative morphology to the degree word

Key Takeaways

• Put degree words before adjectives: خیلی خوب، بسیار دقیق، کمی سرد، کاملا آماده.
• In an attributive phrase, ezafe comes after the noun, not after the degree word.
• خیلی is the everyday default; بسیار is more formal; colloquial Tehran often uses یه کم for کمی.
• کاملا means total degree or coverage, not merely “very.”
• The following predicate determines whether the modifier grades an adjective or the manner/extent of an event.