WriteWorld: “Why?” She said questioningly
I really really really want to know why. Why do people say we can’t use adverbs? I’ve read books and they use adverbs. What’s with adverbs really? By the way, i love you blog—it’s been said many times already but there’s nothing else I could do to make you happy but know it. - drowningchimes
Do not believe anything that tells you you can’t use this or that in your writing. There is not, by any means, a right way to write. You can use adverbs in your writing. Adverbs are a fundamental part of speech, no different than any other.
The problem comes when people use them a lot. When you use any word or type of word continuously, it shows. It gets repetitive. It gets annoying. They also happen to be the part of speech most likely to clutter your sentence to no avail. They can weaken your prose:
- They can be reduntant. E.g: “I hate these idiots!” He yelled angrily. You have a strong verb right here, no need to use “angrily”, I got the idea he was angry.
- They can prop up a weak verb. Let’s take a look at “to boldly go”. Okay, split infinitive. What I mean is that just saying “to go” sorta sounds bland. You may think the adverb is necessary. But no. The verb just happens to be weak, generic, bland. How about replacing the verb? “To venture”, “To explore”. These verbs are more specific, more evocative so to speak.
- The speech tags deal. We go back to talking about “said”. Instead of picking some pompous word to replace said, we spice it up with an adverb. This is often (yet, not always) unecessary. Most of the time, you can let the dialogue speak for itself. Or you can use more things to explain how the characters are saying it, if it’s not clear. “I am dying here!” Kyle waved his arms in the air, trying to make his friends notice him.
- You (probably are) telling instead of showing.
Before using an adverb, you can ask yourself these questions:
1) Does it change the word it modifies? Does it make the verb or adjective mean something drastically different?
2) Does it convey some vital piece of information in a way that’s better or more evocative than real description or a stronger verb by itself?
It’s a thing on style, however. If you like to use lots of adverbs, and feel like they’re necessary, go for it.
In the end, yes, books have adverbs. You can use adverbs. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t. Do ask yourself if the message you’re trying to get across with your writing is being sent the best way it can be.
-Alex
concernedresidentofbakerstreet:
is it data or data
is it route or route
is it caramel or caramel
is it either or either
is it read or readI hate all of you so much right now
is it tear or tear
omfg i am so sorry to all you non-native english speakers that need to learn this shit
#welcome to english #here’s your bag of 150 wtfs #use them wisely
Teach me more my Jedi master!
hahahaha you think this is difficult? try fucking Latin!
do you ever get weirded out by the fact that everyone around you is constantly within their own mind and thinking a million secret thoughts and battling internal struggles just like you and that you’re not the only one who thinks these things and that the people around you aren’t just faces meant to fill up your life but they’re actually really deep people who have a lot more to them than you ever actually even think about
TEAR AND TIER ARE PRONOUNCED THE SAME BUT TEAR AND TEAR ARE PRONOUNCED DIFFERENTLY
im glad english is my first language because if i had to learn it as a second language id jump off a bridge
holy dicks, that’s useful
reblogging for future reference
reblogging for future essays
reblogging for future roleplays
Reblogging for future family get togethers
-Sir, we’ve found this and we needed you to name it.
-Pineapple.
-But we figured we might as well just call it “Ananas” since the majority of the world refers to it as-
-Pineapple.
-But sir-
-Pine. Apple.
the english language may be difficult to learn but at least we dont insist on assigning genders to inanimate objects
Test Your Vocabulary: how many words do you know?
Most Native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words. And for foreign learners of English, we’ve found that the most common vocabulary size is from 2,500–9,000 words.
I scored 21,500 FUCK YES
I got 21,000
That’s decent, isn’t it? I got a bit worried when I saw so many words where I just went ‘what even…?’27,200…
21’100 ! And I didn’t learn English at school. (Ok… One year. But with the laziest teacher in the World !)
(Two third of the words I knew in the second part were French… But shush !)
30,000! But then again, we’re taught English at school. Now, if it this was a test on pronunciation, I’d probably score only half of that. Or less. *grimace*
35,800 Don’t ask me to pronounce them out loud. I learned a lot from reading.
37,300 words
yeah, there’s a lot of words I know but can’t pronounce.my best friend says I’m the only person she knows who’s vocabulary gets bigger when I’m tired and not censoring myself.
39,500 and that’s why you should take Latin, kids.
42,900. But to be fair, I think having a background in Victorian Lit probably helped, because there are some very old-fashioned and obscure words on the list.
Wow okay I need college ASAP so I can learn/read more, goddamn. 28,800 words. UUUUUGH.
