English Help Online's Blog

Today I’d like to go over another word that we often use in casual conversations: “way”. It is used to emphasize something. For example:

I live way out in Iruma, so my friends don’t often come to visit me there.

This box is way too heavy for me. I’ll carry a lighter one.

The book we had to read for English class was way too long. I couldn’t finish reading it.

Tokyo is way bigger than my hometown. The population of my hometown is only 650,000 people.

In the first example, the words “way out in” indicate that the location is very far away. Also, this word is often used with comparatives and superlatives and has the same meaning as “much” in these cases. Therefore we could say, “Tokyo is much bigger than my hometown” or “This box is much too heavy for me”, but that sounds much more formal. The word “way” is always used in casual conversations.