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Then they need to insert a security token, sent to their email address to verify very this.

Is that correct? I want to express that it is to verify exactly the email address just mentioned. If it is wrong, how do I express that without repeating email address again?

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  • Where is the "very" coming from? Why is it there? What is "this"?
    – Catija
    Mar 18, 2016 at 22:56
  • Like "this very issue" or "The car has history. This very car won the Rally Dakar"
    – SebBr
    Mar 19, 2016 at 0:02
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    In those cases, "very" is being used for emphasis. It doesn't really work as a word-substitution the way you want it to. If you were going to write the sentence using "email address twice", how would you phrase it?
    – Catija
    Mar 19, 2016 at 0:10
  • What does the security token verify?
    – user3169
    Mar 19, 2016 at 0:12
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    I think you'll have better luck by rearranging the sentence: "To verify their email address, they are sent a security token, which needs to be inserted in/on/at [place to insert token]." Or maybe it's "which needs to be inserted by following a link in the email"... something like that.
    – Catija
    Mar 19, 2016 at 0:19

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*Then they need to insert a security token, sent to their email address to verify very this.

No. This is not just non-idiomatic, it's difficult if not impossible to understand what you mean without an explanation.

Then they need to insert a security token, sent to their email address to verify this very email address.

This is a correct use of very as an adjective. Very in the sense of “the one just mentioned, emphatically” is an adjective, it needs a noun after it. But the sentence sounds clumsy.

Then they need to insert a security token, sent to their email address to verify the address.

That sounds right, linguistically speaking. But from a technical point of view it doesn't make sense to me: a security token is a physical object (at least in this context, but the sentence claims that the security token is sent to an email address. If the token is some kind of verification code (a nonce, in technical terms), and you don't want to use the technical term “nonce”, then you can call if a (one-time) verification code, and that code would be entered or typed rather than inserted.

Then they need to type a verification code which was sent to their email address to verify the address.

If that's not what you mean then this sentence needs more work.

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The sentence you may be looking for is

Then they need to insert a security token, which is sent to their email address, for verification.
Then they need to insert a security token for verification, which is sent to their email address.

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5
  • Needs some commas "Then they need to insert a security token, which is sent to their email address, for verification."
    – MaxW
    Mar 18, 2016 at 23:25
  • I want to express that it is not just for verification but to verify that exact email address just mentioned
    – SebBr
    Mar 19, 2016 at 0:05
  • Errr, it is email address verification: "for verification ( of the email address )", what other verification would it be for?
    – Peter
    Mar 19, 2016 at 0:28
  • You know, I know, everyone else should know, but...
    – SebBr
    Mar 20, 2016 at 16:05
  • @Peter It could be a verification of the security token. Or of the user's identity, or other concepts that were mentioned in previous sentences.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Mar 20, 2016 at 22:30

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