My partner is English as second language and I never dumb down anything I say to her. She asks me the words she doesn’t know and I explain them as best I can or we look them up on my phone when I’m not certain I can articulate the meaning accurately enough to provide a good example. I think reducing the vocab that I use with her vs english-native friends and family would be insulting to her. Same as how I wouldn’t dumb it down speaking to a 10yo (it’s different for toddlers and those not much older, obviously).
I’m educated well enough, I was mostly being sarcastic but the fact is that no one uses that word. I figured what it meant based on context but still had to go look it up and was annoyed. Sometimes it seems like a writer feels like being vague and beats you over the head with a thesaurus.
Damn right! I have to look up any word I don’t know out a compulsive need to ensure that I fully understand what I’ve read. It’s a beneficial OCDish trait, unlike some of the other ones.
When was the last time you used the word exhort in a sentence? Or heard it? The word has a specific meaning sure but using uncommon vernacular makes the sentence vague.
When I write I use the right word that says what I want to say/get across. To pick a word that is less clear because it’s more common is infact doing to opposite of your complaint. It’s annoying to me you can’t expand your lexicon instead of have to “dumb” it down for people like you.
You can be as high and mighty as you want but you won’t find a wide audience without relaxing your lexicon and writing with prose. In translation, you’ve got to dumb it down because most people are dumb. We see a big and/or uncommon word and give up on the entire piece, I hate to break it to you but that’s just the way it is.
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My partner is English as second language and I never dumb down anything I say to her. She asks me the words she doesn’t know and I explain them as best I can or we look them up on my phone when I’m not certain I can articulate the meaning accurately enough to provide a good example. I think reducing the vocab that I use with her vs english-native friends and family would be insulting to her. Same as how I wouldn’t dumb it down speaking to a 10yo (it’s different for toddlers and those not much older, obviously).
I’m educated well enough, I was mostly being sarcastic but the fact is that no one uses that word. I figured what it meant based on context but still had to go look it up and was annoyed. Sometimes it seems like a writer feels like being vague and beats you over the head with a thesaurus.
There are two types of people. Those who get excited when they see a word they don’t know and those who get annoyed.
Damn right! I have to look up any word I don’t know out a compulsive need to ensure that I fully understand what I’ve read. It’s a beneficial OCDish trait, unlike some of the other ones.
This is the opposite of vague
When was the last time you used the word exhort in a sentence? Or heard it? The word has a specific meaning sure but using uncommon vernacular makes the sentence vague.
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Literally how does it make the sentence vague? I don’t want to be rude but do you not know what vague means either?
When I write I use the right word that says what I want to say/get across. To pick a word that is less clear because it’s more common is infact doing to opposite of your complaint. It’s annoying to me you can’t expand your lexicon instead of have to “dumb” it down for people like you.
You can be as high and mighty as you want but you won’t find a wide audience without relaxing your lexicon and writing with prose. In translation, you’ve got to dumb it down because most people are dumb. We see a big and/or uncommon word and give up on the entire piece, I hate to break it to you but that’s just the way it is.