Onomatopoeia

Boom! Crunch! Pop!

Onomato . . . what?

Hard to spell but easy to use, an onomatopoeia (ahn-uh-mat-uh-PEE-uh) is a word that sounds like what it means.

If you think for a minute, you can probably come up with lots of examples. Hiss, snip, thud, clonk . . . Comic books are a great place to look for onomatopoeias in action. Pow!

Or, try thinking about a barnyard. Most languages have onomatopoeic words for the sounds animals make. In English, dogs woof, cats meow, and cows moo.

Using onomatopoeias

Onomatopoeias, like alliteration and consonance, can bring your writing to life by making the words themselves sound compelling to your reader.

Consider a sentence like:

Diego lay awake, listening to the unending sound of the clock on the mantelpiece.

It’s fine, but a little bland. A well-placed onomatopoeia can give it some punch.

Diego lay awake, listening to the relentless tick-tock of the clock on the mantelpiece.

If you don’t get why they’re different, try reading the sentences out loud. Really pay attention to the way the words themselves sound. Which sentence leaves you with a stronger impression of a clock ticking away across the room? Just as literary imagery helps your readers envision what you’re talking about, onomatopoeias help them hear it.

Beyond onomatopoeias

Still not convinced that just the sound of a word can affect your reader? Consider the phenomenon known as sound symbolism. Sound symbolism describes the tendency for clusters of words with similar meanings to share certain sounds. Here’s an example: think of a word to describe something that shines in the darkness. Does your word start with gl-? Chances are, it does. There is a conspicuous abundance of gl- words to describe things that shimmer: glow, gloss, glisten, glitter, glimmer, gleam, glint, glare, glaze, glitz.

Or, consider the words that come to mind when you think about gliding movement and smooth, wet surfaces: slide, slime, slippery, slick, slink, slither.

Linguists and psychologists are still learning about the relationship between sounds and semantic meaning. But there is a famous study that suggests the connection between certain sounds and meanings is not always arbitrary.

 

In 2001, V.S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard repeated an experiment Wolfgang Kohler had conducted in 1929. They told English speakers in the U.S. and Tamil speakers in India that the two shapes in the picture above were named Kiki and Bouba. Then they asked which name went with which shape. A whopping 95 to 98 percent of both English and Tamil speakers said the rounded shape was Bouba and the spiky shape was Kiki. Clearly, there is a connection.

So, the next time you want your readers to lose themselves in your writing, consider tossing in an onomatopoeia or two. If nothing else, most of them are awfully fun to say. Kaboom!

The Origins of the Most Popular Slang Words of 2017

Let’s face it—the English-speaking world would be significantly less exciting without slang. How would we have survived 2017 without subtweeting, dragging, or declaring various things “lit?”

Many English words begin their lives as slang. Dictionaries like Merriam-Webster monitor slang closely in order to understand new trends in English, eventually adopting new slang words into the dictionary. (If you’re interested in the ins and outs of this process, you can learn more here.) This year, eight slang words caught our eye. Here are the stories behind them.

2017: The Year of Shade

This year was marked by a number of new terms for showing passive aggression, both online and in person. We learned how to subtweet, throw shade, shade, read, and drag in 2017. Some masters of shade, like Demi Lovato, even managed to throw shade about shade, forming a type of meta-shade we all watched from the sidelines.

Throw shade

Of course, throwing shade was at the center of this storm of subtle insulting techniques. Fueled by the term’s extensive use on RuPaul’s Drag Race, “throwing shade” joined the mainstream lexicon for passive aggressive acts online and in person. The less popular verb form “shading” also gained some popularity, although not as much as its older, longer cousin.

For a prime example of throwing shade, look no further than this exchange between Bob Saget and Jon Stamos. (That’s right, shade has even reached the Full House set.)

And I like riding white horses into the ocean, barefoot.

A post shared by John Stamos (@johnstamos) on Jul 19, 2017 at 7:12pm PDT

Photobomb

Where would we be without the glorious portmanteau that is photobomb. Although Google Trends indicates that this term has been used as far back as 2009, we can’t forget the glorious photobombs that happened in 2017.

We can all learn a little something from @jtimberlake‘s photobomb skills. �� #Oscars pic.twitter.com/1CeBDeVAHC

— People (@people) February 27, 2017

Facepalm

Facepalm is another portmanteau that rose to prominence long ago but gained new importance in 2017. The “facepalm” emoji was released as a part of Emoji 3.0 in June 2016, then was adopted by various devices through this year.

An Avalanche of Appetizing Appellations

It seems that this was also a year of many food-based slang terms gaining their rightful place in the dictionary. From true food words to delicious representations of other phenomena, this year was rife with scrumptious semantics.

Which of these makes you the hungriest? Vote for your favorite in our 2017 slang word poll.

Froyo

Who doesn’t love a good frozen yogurt? The popularization of “froyo” as a portmanteau is relatively recent, but frozen yogurt is nothing new. Although this diet-friendly treat has been around since the 1970s, its non-frozen predecessor dates back over 5,000 years.

Weak sauce

No, this word doesn’t refer to that watery marinara you made last week. Instead, “weak sauce” is the negative counterpart to the older “awesomesauce,” and is used to declare something inferior or unimpressive. We’re not sure about the origin of either “weak sauce” or “awesomesauce,” but clearly they’re here to stay.

So 12-0 UCF wouldn’t even have made an 8-team playoff?? Weak sauce. https://t.co/SnXcGAbM30 via @ForTheWin | #CFBPlayoff #CFB #UCF pic.twitter.com/iQGlwbfvIp

— Phil Buck (@Phil_Buck) December 4, 2017

Word salad

Along with “throwing shade,” “word salad” is one of those phrases that was discussed at length over the last year. Although the term has existed in psychology circles for some time and was used to describe specific symptoms of mental illness, it has recently gained a new, looser definition. Merriam-Webster describes this new usage as something closer to “nonsense.”

Verbing, Continued

Ghost

Using a noun as a verb is not a new language trend. And yet, every year, this linguistic phenomenon produces brand new dictionary words. Last year, verbing gave us “adulting,” and this year, it has reared its head again with “ghost.” The phenomenon of “ghosting” has been known in the online dating world for at least three years, and the word seems to stem from the spooky effect of silently exiting a chat conversation. No public claims have been made to the invention of this term, but it likely sprang up organically in the post-2012 dating app boom.

Want to update your dating lingo? Try using “cushioning,” “breadcrumbing,” or “benching,” which all describe behaviors similar to ghosting.

An Overdue Addition

Listicle

At this point, most people who read things online know their listicles. These short, pithy, lists of items are popular across the Internet, and Grammarly loves to use them as well.

Of course, sometimes listicles can be overdone.

Which common writing error is the worst?

This poll is part of a series that Grammarly is running aimed at better understanding how the public feels about writing, language learning, and grammar.

Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

If you are interested in more, check out last week’s poll.

Have you discussed grammar with educators?

This poll is part of a series that Grammarly is running aimed at better understanding how the public feels about writing, language learning, and grammar.

Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

If you are interested in more, check out last week’s poll.

Stop Confusing These Words: Immigrate and Emigrate

The difference between these two words is all about coming and going. When you immigrate, you’re coming to a new country. When you emigrate, you’re leaving your home country.

Immigrate: to move into a country from another one to stay permanently.

My ancestors immigrated to the United States sometime in the 1800s.

Emigrate: to leave the country in which one lives, especially one’s native country, to reside elsewhere.

My ancestors emigrated from Denmark in search of a fresh start in another country.

To learn more about confusing word pairs, read this post about the difference between verses and versus.

Five Tools Dyslexic People Can Use To Improve Their Writing

By Nelson Lauver, Author of Most Un-Likely To Succeed

I’m nervous and thinking about turning around and getting back in my car. Just ring the doorbell, I tell myself. I find the courage, and my blind date answers the door with one hand while holding back Lola, an exuberant 80-pound rescued pit bull mix, with the other. I can’t believe my eyes! Jane could be a model. She’s stunning, with a movie-star smile. I soon learn that she is also good-natured and witty, and she can cook!

Jane has it on good authority that I’m not a serial killer, or she wouldn’t have invited me to her home for dinner in the first place. It’s been an hour or so, and I’m starting to relax. I think the wine is helping.

Perhaps it’s premature but I’m smitten. However, if we’re to have a future, I need to know if she was paying attention in English class, because I wasn’t. Can she spell? How is she at putting a sentence together? Can she collaborate? I need to know because I’m a professional writer with dyslexia, and I depend heavily on those I trust to proofread. As luck would have it, Jane had paid attention in school, and that being the case, I ask her to marry me. Not that first night, of course, but some time later.

My wife is my biggest cheerleader. We don’t often think of people when we think of compensatory strategies to deal with dyslexia, but my wife is responsible for my writing career reaching a higher level.

I have Alexa, too. While voice-activated Alexa (A.K.A. Echo) from Amazon can’t help me with syntax or comma placement, she does just fine as a substitute spelling coach when Jane isn’t home.

Another compensation tool I use is the spell/grammar check function in Microsoft Word. It works about 50 percent of the time. The other 50 percent of the time it flashes an error message with the phone number for Hooked on Phonics.

I much prefer video and audio to heavy reading. However, I do find an ebook much easier to decode than standard print; don’t know why. Also, larger text and double-spaced lines make reading easier.

Voice-to-text software doesn’t work well for me, while other dyslexics swear by it. So, by all means, try it!

I have many writer friends who fluidly produce prose worthy of admiration. For that reason, and no other, I hate their guts—in a nice way of course. I, on the other hand, hunt and peck the keyboard. The slow pace gives me lots of time to think about what I’m saying. I think it makes my writing more conversational.

Nonwriter friends praise me, telling me that they could never manipulate words into pictures or vice versa. To that, I suggest an introduction to my editor.

Like most dyslexics, I think in pictures and feel dyslexia gives me an advantage over other writers. But the fact remains that I can’t spell, have weak punctuation skills, and chicken scratch penmanship that is no better than that of your average second grader or family doctor.

The world will forgive you if you can’t ride a bike, play the violin, or kick a soccer ball, but society won’t forgive you if you can’t spell, read, or write well. For this reason, many bright and talented dyslexics are sent to the back of the line. It’s not fair, but it’s a fact of life. Even with modern technology, it’s difficult to find strategies for improving one’s writing.

I’m always on the lookout for any promise of help in my fight for better wordsmithing. Several months ago I stumbled across Grammarly, an automated, online proofreader and grammar/spelling checker.

Grammarly goes far beyond the standard spell-checkers that we’ve all come to know and loathe. It’s like having a friendly coach sitting next to you as you write. And while I am not going to replace my human editor, it’s clear that the job description has changed. My editor no longer needs to spend so much time with a red pen marking heavy corrections. We now have much more time for discussing characters and storylines, and that makes for a better reader experience!

In my twenty-one years as a writer, I have found Grammarly to be the single most valuable tool for making me a better writer. I recognized its benefits instantly. A dyslexic writer no longer needs to seek out an attractive grammar cop and go to the expense of an engagement ring. Although, I’ll never regret ringing that doorbell.

Looking for more tools? These will help.

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Nelson Lauver is the host of the American Storyteller Radio Journal and author of the award winning memoir Most Un-Likely To Succeed. He is also a keynote speaker, humorist, syndicated broadcaster, strategist, entrepreneur, voice-over artist, co-founder of the Jane and Nelson Lauver Foundation, and director of ProblemTank, a neurodiverse thinktank.