In Hamlet, when Hammy Jr. asks Polonius whether a cloud looks like a whale, Polly replies,
Very like a whale.
In contemporary English, however, "very like …" feels ungrammatical. You instead have to epenthetically say "very much like …".
Interestingly this restriction doesn't seem to apply to some similar constructions; I find the following all acceptable:
- "Very whale-like" (PP replaced with adjective)
- "Very similar to a whale" (synonymous phrasal preposition)
- "Really like a whale" (synonymous adverb)
- "Exactly like a whale", "Truly like a whale", "Somewhat like a whale" (different adverb)
- "Nothing like a whale" (adverb replaced with a word of arguable lexical class)
- "Very near a whale" (different preposition)
- Cerberus pointed out (in chat) that "That is so very like you" is also acceptable (different argument to preposition)
But these still unacceptable:
- *"Very by a whale", *"Very in a whale", *"Very inside a whale", *"Very toward a whale" (different preposition)
- But "Directly by/in/inside/toward a whale" are fine.
What determines whether "very" can modify a prepositional phrase?
Best Answer
“Very out of the way”
It is a bit tough to find cases of very modifying individual prepositions, but it is easy to find cases of very modifying entire prepositional phrases as a unit, just as it does other adjectives and adverbs.
Sometimes you can use it to mean “very much” or “very far”.
At which point, the whilom preposition starts acting more adverbially, and adverbs can be veried without half so much trouble. But some of the directional or adverbial ones really do seem to be modifiable by degree:
Being very like something
However, back to your main point about very like something.
I’m not sure that I’m willing to call like a preposition (the OED calls it an adjective for these sorts of uses), but here are assorted OED citations of “very like”:
And regarding your original Shakespearian citation, the OED notes that this has become (or was at one time) a set phrase, to be very like a whale:
So in summary, I think that whatever you call like, there is no problem with things being very like other things.