ļoti

Traditionally considered a borrowing from Slavic, this word has more recently been claimed to come from an older adjective *ļots (“evil, terrible”) (cf. placenames like Ļotumi), related to Russian лю́тый (ljútyj, “heartless, cruel; angry, furious”), and perhaps from the same source as ļauns (“evil”). The semantic change would be from “terrible, evil” to “very,” a quite frequent change (cf. the use of words like terribly as adverbial intensifiers in e.g. terribly good; the same happens also with briesmīgi (“terribly, horribly”), šausmīgi (“terribly, horribly”) in colloquial Latvian).[1]

• IPA^(key): [ʎùoti]

ļoti

1. (with an adjective or adverb) used to intensify the meaning of the word it accompanies; very

   ļoti gudrs cilvēks ― very wise, intelligent person

   ļoti augsta celtne ― very tall building

   ļoti grūts darbs ― very hard work

   ļoti ātri braukt ― to ride very fast

   ļoti klusu runāt ― to speak very quietly

   ļoti žēl ― very sorry; (it's) a great pity

   ļoti daudzi palīgi ― very many assistants

   ļoti daudz grāmatu ― very many, a lot of books

   ļoti maz naudas ― very little money

   naktis uznāca ļoti aukstas un lika klabināt zobus ― the nights were coming very cold and made (people's) teeth chatter

   tas bija ļoti tālu, tik tālu, ka paši kalni nebija redzami, tikai virsotnes un sniegs ― that was very far, so far that even the mountains were not visible, only the peaks and the snow

2. (with a verb) used to intensify the action or state described by the verb; much, very much, a lot

   ļoti steigties ― to hurry a lot, to be in a big hurry

   ļoti priecāties ― to rejoice very much, to be very happy

   ļoti lūgt ― to ask very much, to implore

   ļoti skumt ― to become very sad

   ļoti iemīļots rakstnieks ― a very popular (lit. much beloved) writer

   pēkšņi viņam ļoti iegribējās aizbraukt uz mājām ― suddenly he very much wanted to leave and go home

   aiz pirts aug balto ceriņu krūms, kas ziedu laikā tik ļoti patīik māmuļai ― behind the bath(room) a white lilac bush is growing which when in bloom so much pleases mother

• gluži
• īsti, īsteni
• milzum
• neparasti
• visai

• maz