The Power of Words

Jim

Today let us spend some time together in exploring an important subject: the power of words.  We will be surprised to realize that, in many cases, a single word can entirely replace two words, and can even further enhance the ideas/scenes we try to convey to our readers. Compare the following pairs of sentences:

  John runs quickly into the house.
  John dashes into the house.

  When the phone rang, Mary grabbed the phone receiver eagerly.
  When the phone rang, Mary snatched the phone receiver.

  Mary is very beautiful; her boyfriend is solidly built.
  Mary is gorgeous; her boyfriend is stocky.

  Edith looks very happy, but Charlie looks very angry.
  Edith looks elated, but Charlie looks furious.

  Many people who live in the Washington D. C. suburban area own big houses.
  Many Washington D. C. suburbanites own mansions.

So, now we may have grasped a general idea – minimize the usage of adjectives and adverbs.  If we pay sufficient attention, we may find that it is possible to replace

  Verb + adverb --> verb,

  Adverb + adjective --> adjective,

  Adjective + noun --> noun.

Try to be aware of such a possibility, and we will gradually increase our vocabulary capacity.

Questions and comments are welcome.

志利

wonderful article,it is useful for our study!

yeafi1981

It is too hard  to understand for me.

moon

thanks
my English is so poor

Q168

ydcloves 发表于 2012-8-29 20:47

                               
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It's so complicated..My reply can't show.

can you see them? go for it.

ccsspp454

ydcloves 发表于 2012-8-29 20:42

                               
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Yeah, but is this article expresses the different between oral and writen english?

why it appeares  ...

oral english = spoken english
"writen engsh" is written english