Writing in English as a Foreign Language: Help and Advice
Quote from JaySM on August 15, 2023, 1:53 amQuestion:
I was informed recently that “just” could also be used when expressing time as well. For example, “this just happened” and “that just came” but I’ve heard it used more to express different types of emotions, at times frustration and annoyance.
“That’s just not right.”
“Just stop.”
There are multiple uses for this one word that I often find them littered in my writing when I’m trying to exercise my English. Is there another word that is synonymous to this so I’m not adding just all the time?
I'm not a native speaker, but I've thought about this in the past... So I have some suggestions.
"This just happened" can be "This happened (not even) a moment ago"
"That's just not right" can be "It's simply not right"
Also, I've found that oftentimes 'just' is just a filler word, and you can do perfectly fine without it: "That's not right!" and "Stop!"
A thesaurus or dictionary of synonyms and antonyms may also be of use if you want substitutes for words that you're repeating too often.
You can also feed ChatGPT your paragraph and allow it to make stylistic suggestions. Make sure to tell him to explain his reasoning, and then you can probably discard 75% of what he says, but the other 25% are good ideas that help. I wouldn't recommend letting it write your stuff because his fictional texts sound cheap, but it is a good sounding board to check for sentence structure and better synonyms, especially when English isn't your first language. At least that's my experience. A bit like a more advanced "Word Editor".
A programmer told me that this is actually the AI's strength - that you can ask it for its reasoning and engage with it, like asking it for clarification and correcting its thinking to get more precise input. It's supposed to be pretty good at Socratic dialogues as well. I didn't have much luck with that when I tried, but usually, the "error" sits in front of the screen, not behind it. So it might work better for you than it did for me.
Quote from Salvyus on August 15, 2023, 5:24 amQuote from JaySM on August 15, 2023, 1:53 amQuestion:
I was informed recently that “just” could also be used when expressing time as well. For example, “this just happened” and “that just came” but I’ve heard it used more to express different types of emotions, at times frustration and annoyance.
“That’s just not right.”
“Just stop.”
There are multiple uses for this one word that I often find them littered in my writing when I’m trying to exercise my English. Is there another word that is synonymous to this so I’m not adding just all the time?
I'm not a native speaker, but I've thought about this in the past... So I have some suggestions.
"This just happened" can be "This happened (not even) a moment ago"
"That's just not right" can be "It's simply not right"
Also, I've found that oftentimes 'just' is
justa filler word, and you can do perfectly fine without it: "That's not right!" and "Stop!"
Very good, Salvyus, especially your last point.
Quote from JaySM on August 15, 2023, 1:53 amQuestion:
I was informed recently that “just” could also be used when expressing time as well. For example, “this just happened” and “that just came” but I’ve heard it used more to express different types of emotions, at times frustration and annoyance.
“That’s just not right.”
“Just stop.”
There are multiple uses for this one word that I often find them littered in my writing when I’m trying to exercise my English. Is there another word that is synonymous to this so I’m not adding just all the time?
Well, Salvyus has already made an excellent point above.
However, be careful with panicking about 'overuse'. For example, you might have a character who uses the word 'just' a lot. The word might be just right (haha) for a particular sentence or phrase. This is not mathematics! And even after your editing, your reader might still pick out problems you couldn't have foreseen.
And don't go overboard with trying to find synonyms and antonyms, either. John Grisham advises against using a thesaurus while writing:
I know, I know, there’s one at your fingertips.
There are three types of words: (1) words we know; (2) words we should know; (3) words nobody knows. Forget those in the third category
and use restraint with those in the second.A common mistake by fledgling authors is using jaw-breaking vocabulary. It’s frustrating and phony.
I interpret this as being discouragement of using a thesaurus while drafting, though it sounds like you may be at the editing stage.
I need English spelling help. Google isn’t giving me a clear answer.
I hear “windy road” all the time to state that there are a lot of curves on the road. But the spelling looks off to me no matter how much I look at it and I keep reading it as “windy” as if the road is very windy with wind. I googled it and it show as both “winding” and windy.
Which is correct?
Winding is the correct term (as the verb is "wind"), because it can be used both as an adjective ("There is a winding road") or an adverb ("I am winding down the road").
Windy is used as an adjective for the noun "wind", as -y is exclusively for adjectives and not adverbs ("It is a windy valley", or "It is windy in the valley").
Quote from JaySM on January 12, 2024, 5:24 pmI need English spelling help. Google isn’t giving me a clear answer.
Yeah... Don't trust Google, LOL!
Hope the writing is going well!
Is by chance somebody here working in a medical profession? I'm translating a story that leans into medicine and have trouble finding the right translations for some things...
What language are you translating from/into?
You may be able to seek help from a specialist medical dictionary, possibly a bilingual one. Tell me the languages you are dealing with, and I will take a look.
