January 2017 - Word Counter Blog

The Best Words to Describe “Love”

Love has been described as “A Many Splendored Thing” in poems (William Waterway), in films (1955), and in Academy Award winning songs (lyrics Paul Francis Webster). The same descriptive phrase has been used for a TV soap opera.

“A Many Splendored Thing” originated in a poem by late 19th century poet, Francis Thompson. He was English, so he probably included a “u” in “splendoured” when he coined the phrase in The Hound of Heaven as he spent 182 lines investigating Christianity and God’s search for a missing soul. This would, of course, be 182 lines of words describing the concept of divine love. However, the phrase that has outlived him isn’t really a conclusive description. It’s rather a cop-out.

In the 1970 movie “Love Story” Erich Segal used the phrase “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” and at about the same time in our history of kitschy-coo, notebooks and stickers flooded the market featuring drawn outlines of a girl and boy, and sugar sweet “Love Is” statements.

The Search for the Best Words for Love

People have been looking for the best words to describe love for years, centuries, and perhaps for millennia. Perhaps they have been searching since the days when cavemen began grabbing cavewomen by the hair before dragging them into the cave as a mark of affection. It would have made sense for them to start considering something other than grunts to describe those feelings they were experiencing. Dragging someone by the hair could be hard work, and grunts could be misunderstood. A cliche or two could save a lot of effort.

Fairy tales, poets, Hollywood movies and Internet sites followed centuries later, finding thousands, if not tens of thousands of ways to continue the quest for the best words to describe love. The very fact they kept coming up with new ones indicates it’s not easy – and the best, and most conclusive, description has not yet been found.

What Is Love?

Anyone who can come up with a definitive answer will have discovered something important. It might have more impact than any other scientific discoveries which have earned experts Nobel Prizes over the years. This could happen because it would influence people’s everyday lives and relationships in a way that could change the world. At least then people might have a real reference point when trying to explain love.

As the situation stands now, there are no words, best or otherwise, that will describe love in a way that will satisfy everyone. There isn’t a phrase that will give everyone a lightbulb moment and a reason to respond, “That’s it! Now I know what love is. Now I can love, be loved and, maybe, be in love.”

Parts of Many Speeches

It’s no wonder it’s so difficult. The word “love” forms parts of many types of speech. It can be a noun (or naming word) for a series of sensations, feelings and emotions. It is also a verb or “doing or action word” when it comes to experiencing it. In addition, love also functions as a noun modifier in “love affair,” an adjective in “loving relationship” and an adverb in “He looked at her lovingly.”

Further complicating the idea of describing love in words is the fact that there are so many different types of love. As if it isn’t already impossible to describe the love experience in words, we are expected to find more words, more adjectives, adverbs and other nouns, to attach to that indescribable concept. This will break it down into categories that are more specific, but probably even harder to describe.

Adding to the Confusion

As a result, the following words, and more, are tossed in: unconditional and conditional, free, passionate, romantic, selfless and self, playful, divine, maternal and paternal, brotherly and sisterly, eternal and endless. It’s supposed to help if we add these to the word we find hardest to apply, and almost impossible to describe. It’s meant to make the unmeasurable more manageable by separating it into smaller categories.

The effect it has, however, is to set up a lot more puzzles and challenges. Now we have not only one concept to describe, and to understand, but several. Perhaps once we have come up with the best words to describe unconditional, or even maternal love, we can return to describing romantic love. Then we can hopefully, get closer to understanding the wonderful, scary, passionate and all-consuming experience that is love. It is, indeed, a “many splendored thing” but it’s also sometimes a many pitfalled thing. It can make you the happiest person around, particularly if you experience it as a verb of doing and experiencing. It can also break your heart if you keep falling in and out of the love noun.

Words that Describe Love

For those who are simply looking for a list of words that describe love, or make reference to it, here are some of the most popular:

adorable
affection
amour
angel
bliss
caring
chocolate
companion
compassion
concern
darling
dear
desire
devotion
endearment
family
fondness
forever
friendship
fun
God
happiness
happy
heart
hugs
husband
infatuation
inspiration
intimacy
joy
kiss
kisses
loyalty
marriage
passion
relationship
romance
sex
sweet
sweetheart
tenderness
trust
warmth
wife

What is National Word Day?

There seems to be a day for just about everything. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if I came across National Let’s Eat Takeout Day, and I’d probably support it if it existed. Earth Day is real enough, but why only one day? Shouldn’t we make every day Earth Day? Maybe we wouldn’t want to turn off the lights for an hour every night, but perhaps we could turn off the TV, or do something else that’s good for the environment.

Now we have National Word Day. Have you never heard about it? Here’s what you need to know!

Why National Word Day?

Have you ever noticed we don’t use a lot of the words in our vocabulary? By the time you reach the age of four, you already know 10,000 words. Once you reach adulthood, you’ll probably know 20,000 to 35,000 different words, and you’ll keep learning new ones until you reach middle age (and possibly even later if you have a curious mind and like to read).

How many of the words you know do you use in everyday speech? I couldn’t find an answer to this question, but I’m ready to guess we probably use the same 10,000 we knew when we were little, if we even use that many.

There are currently 171,476 words in the English language, with more being added every day. I know because I counted them especially for you. Alright, I didn’t. I looked that up.

According to the same source, a further 47,156 words have become obsolete or archaic. What happened to them? People stopped using them so they became extinct. When we stop using words, they just die out of the language, and you have to admit that the mass-extinction of words is rather a sad thing.

That’s why we have National Word Day. It’s a words-conservation drive!

What Should You Do on National Word Day?

We are encouraged to give seldom-used words an airing in the hope that others will pick them up and use them too. National Word Day is a celebration of language. We are encouraged to take the words we use in conversation to the next level, making our speech much more colorful, individual and interesting.

If we are able, we are asked to actually immortalize a word. Is it possible? Yes, it is! We’ll see how a little further on.

Last, but not least, we’re asked to read the dictionary until we find a word we didn’t know. We must then memorize that word and immediately put it to use in our speech and in our writing.

When Is National Word Day?

In celebration of a poet and playwright who has kept many words that would otherwise have become obsolete alive, National Word Day is celebrated on the Ides of March. That’s the 15th of March, the day when Caesar is believed to have been assassinated. This day was immortalized by Shakespeare, keeping the word “Ides” alive, even though it’s usually only used when we read Shakespeare’s play.

On the Ides of March, you get your chance to make a seldom-used word or words immortal. Start thinking which ones you will choose! I think I will go for “rabelaisian,” a word I so seldom use that I had forgotten how to spell it and had to look it up. I like it because it rolls off the tongue nicely, and because it refers to bold, coarse, robust humor which I generally keep out of this blog, but I still enjoy. I would be quite sad if that word died out.

Who Started National Word Day?

I just did! And if I may say so, I’ve got it off to a good start with this blog post. Who gave me the right to do this? Well, it’s a free country isn’t it? You don’t think I have enough credibility to start a special day all on my own? I probably don’t, but you’re going to help me, aren’t you? What’s in it for you? Absolutely nothing! I won’t even promise you my eternal gratitude for your contribution.

Look at it this way: if one person celebrates National Word Day, people will think they’re crazy. If two people celebrate it, people will think it’s a conspiracy, but if you can get three people celebrating the day, people might just think it’s a movement, and join in. Well, that’s my theory anyway.

Who’s up for joining me in the celebration? You’d better start preparing now. It’s like Christmas shopping. If you wait too long, all the best words will be taken. Which one will you choose? Make your pledge now, and don’t forget to invite your friends!

How Many Paragraphs Is 1,000 Words?

This seemingly idle question may not be all that simple to answer. One thing is sure, 1,000 words all written without any paragraph spacing will drive your reader a little mad. The first point is clear: 1,000 words is a lot of words. Split it up into paragraphs for heaven’s sake, or expect your intended readers to head for the hills for a chance to rest their weary eyes on some open space.

So given you need to transform your 1,000 words into something easy on the eyes, you know you have to split it into paragraphs. How do you do that?

A Sentence Is an Idea, a Paragraph Is Closely Related Ideas

Whatever you’re discussing, you’ll discover a number of concepts which you presumably planned before you started writing. To make it all hang together nicely, you add a bit of space when you transition from one area of discussion to another. As with any rule, there are exceptions, but broadly speaking, essay writing and academic writing calls for paragraphs in the 100-200 word range.

Bear in mind that academic and essay writing usually means you’re writing for a fairly dedicated reader, but what about the huge chunk of the population who are frightened off by big chunks of text, even if they are only six or seven lines long (depending on font)?

Journalists and Commercial Writers Keep Their Paragraphs Short

“White space” is a wonderful illusion that tells your reader what you have to say is pretty easy to take in. I’ve seen some news articles in which each paragraph is only one sentence long. I feel that’s taking it to extremes, and it can have the opposite effect of making your writing look disjointed. I like to see at least three or four lines to a paragraph, and as an indication, my longest paragraph so far is just 74 words long.

You can assume commercial writing and news reports will have paragraphs approximately half as long as the ones you’d see in academic or essay writing. In this case, we’re looking at ten to twenty paragraphs per 1,000 words instead of five to ten.

Dialogues Have a New Paragraph for Every New Speaker

One context in which a paragraph can be as short as five characters is direct speech involving two or more speakers.

“Oh!”

Count ’em: two characters for the word, and three for the punctuation marks. To begin with, you’d introduce or refer to your speakers, but once the conversation is flowing nicely, you can start skipping them at times.

“No!” exclaimed Mary.

“Yes!” John couldn’t help being amused at Mary’s surprise.

“You don’t really mean it, do you?”

“Of course I mean it, silly!”

It’s a lot less cumbersome to skip a mention of the speaker than to add “said Mary” and “John said” after every direct quote. So theoretically, you can have a paragraph consisting of one word plus punctuation marks. 1,000 words in direct speech would therefore mean you’d write way more than the five or ten paragraphs our initial guideline suggested.

How Many Paragraphs in 1,000 Words?

Here’s a basic summary.

Probably not less than 5 paragraphs.
For easy reading, probably no less than 10.
For direct speech, one for every time you change speaker (however many times that is).

Does It Matter?

Not necessarily, but bear in mind that even teachers who are paid to read students’ writing get tired eyes. The easier it is to read and understand what you have written, the more likely your teacher is to notice those clever details you included. There’s also a distinct possibility they won’t start hating you while they read your work. Yes, they’re supposed to be unbiased, but everyone is human!

When writing in other contexts: an article, a blog, or a book, keeping paragraphs short helps to hold your reader’s attention. Yes, there are famous writers who just wrote without much attention to paragraphs, or even punctuation, but their work isn’t an easy read, and no matter how educated we may be, “easy” is invariably the preferred option.

To take easy reading to the next level, try using sub-headers every paragraph to three paragraphs. This is applicable to blogs and web pages, and to a certain extent, in academic writing. When you hit a web page for info, what do you do? I look at the header, and then I scan the sub-heads to get an idea of the writer’s approach to the subject. If it looks like fluff, I kill the page and move on. But if the sub-headers are interesting, and seem to tell me there’s something worth learning, I’ll read the whole piece.

Whatever You Do, Use Paragraphs

Using paragraphs well (with or without sub-heads) makes your work more accessible to your reader, and, to a certain extent, it shows you’ve ordered your thoughts and are discussing one point at a time. If you can’t organize your work into paragraphs consisting of related thoughts, you may be jumping around too much. Check it out and try again.

How Many Paragraphs is…

The following list is an approximation for those who are writing essays with the standard 100 – 200 words per paragraph and 50 to 100 words for blog or article easy reading. The actual number of paragraphs will depend on numerous factors and this is nothing more than a general rough estimate. Below are estimated words to paragraphs conversions:

250 words is 1 to 3 paragraphs for essays, 3 to 5 paragraphs for easy writing
500 words is 3 to 5 paragraphs for essays, 5 to 10 paragraphs for easy writing
750 words is 4 to 8 paragraphs for essays, 8 to 15 paragraphs for easy writing
1000 words is 5 to 10 paragraphs for essays, 10 to 20 paragraphs for easy writing
1500 words is 8 to 15 paragraphs for essays, 15 to 30 paragraphs for easy writing
2000 words is 10 to 20 paragraphs for essays, 20 to 40 paragraphs for easy writing
2500 words is 13 to 25 paragraphs for essays, 25 to 50 paragraphs for easy writing
3000 words is 15 to 30 paragraphs for essays, 30 to 60 paragraphs for easy writing
4000 words is 20 to 40 paragraphs for essays, 40 to 80 paragraphs for easy writing
5000 words is 25 to 50 paragraphs for essays, 50 to 100 paragraphs for easy writing

Below are estimated paragraphs to words conversions:

1 paragraph is 100 – 200 words for essays, 50 – 100 words for easy writing
2 paragraphs is 200 – 400 words for essays, 100 – 200 words for easy writing
3 paragraphs is 300 – 600 words for essays, 150 – 300 words for easy writing
4 paragraphs is 400 – 800 words for essays, 200 – 400 words for easy writing
5 paragraphs is 500 – 1,000 words for essays, 250 – 500 words for easy writing
6 paragraphs is 600 – 1,200 words for essays, 300 – 600 words for easy writing
7 paragraphs is 700 – 1,400 words for essays, 350 – 700 words for easy writing
8 paragraphs is 800 – 1,600 words for essays, 400 – 800 words for easy writing
9 paragraphs is 900 – 1,800 words for essays, 450 – 900 words for easy writing
10 paragraphs is 1,000 – 2,000 words for essays, 500 – 1,000 words for easy writing
15 paragraphs is 1,500 – 3,000 words for essays, 750 – 1,500 words for easy writing
20 paragraphs is 2,000 – 4,000 words for essays, 1,000 – 2,000 words for easy writing
25 paragraphs is 2,500 – 5,000 words for essays, 1,250 – 2,500 words for easy writing
50 paragraphs is 5,000 – 10,000 words for essays, 2,500 – 5,000 words for easy writing
100 paragraphs is 10,000 – 20,000 words for essays, 5,000 – 10,000 words for easy writing

Are Words Symbols?

Symbolism is all around us, and although some symbols are universal, some concepts have symbolic significance that are purely individual. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, words are made up of symbols (the alphabet), but words also have a deep symbolic significance in themselves. Even your name is symbol that represents your identity!

Words can be symbols all on their own, or they can be combined to create symbolism. So how are words used as symbols? Here are some examples of specific words as symbols

Colors

Colors, and the words we use to define them are highly symbolic.

“He wore purple.” Purple is associated with royalty and has been since Roman times. Originally, this happened because purple dye was so expensive that only the very wealthy could afford it. In those days, the really wealthy people were aristocrats or monarchs, hence the symbolism of purple for royalty which we still use today.

“She was in a black mood.” Black has many symbolic connections. It could represent grief, but in this context it represents anger and negativity. It’s rather unfair because black is a perfectly lovely color, but there it is!

“Her intentions were white as the driven snow.” White symbolizes purity. I can vouch for it because whenever I wear white, it gets dirty fast!

“When he started to act up, I just saw red!” Here, red symbolizes anger, but it can also symbolize danger. For example, “When he behaved so badly, it was a big red flag for me.”

Miscellaneous Examples

Our ability to equate words with associations has led to everything from flowers to times of the day and directions being used as symbols.

“She chose the left-hand path.” Being left-handed was once considered sinister. In fact, “sinister” even meant “left” at one time. A person who is interested in the left-hand path is into the occult. As a left-hander, I take exception to that.

“It was a downward spiral.” To us, “downward” symbolizes something that is not going well. Personally, I love going downhill, especially on a bicycle, but in other contexts the connotation is less positive.

“Who said life was going to be all roses?” In this example, roses refer to easy living with everything being beautiful and positive. But as we know, every rose has a thorn.

“It’s your baby!” A baby symbolizes responsibility, and no wonder! But it also symbolizes immaturity, helplessness or weakness. For example, “Don’t be a baby!”

“It was the dawn of a new era,” or “It suddenly dawned on me!” Dawn or sunrise represent something new.

“In your twilight years, you want peace of mind.” Just as dawn symbolizes a fresh start, twilight symbolizes a period when things come to an end.

“Alcohol was his crutch.” A crutch helps us along, but it also symbolizes other ways to get by.

These forms of symbolism are so universal among English speakers that few people even think of the reasons for the symbolism behind them.

Are All Words Symbols?

“Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch on absolute truth…” (Nietzsche)

It’s time to open your mind. Although we’ve looked at words being used symbolically, Nietzsche contended that all words are symbols, and if you think about it, he was absolutely right! A word is just a collection of syllables, but when we hear it, all sorts of ideas and associations come flooding into our minds.

These can be quite subjective. For instance, the word “lavender” could make you think of the countryside, or it could make you think of elderly people, your mother’s garden, or perhaps a friend. It all depends on the personal associations or symbolism the word has to you. No wonder communication is such a minefield.

Have you ever found yourself arguing with someone who is basically agreeing with you in different words? That’s because your frame of reference is different. The words you used don’t have the same associations or symbolism for the other person as they do for you.

Words are symbols for thoughts, and no matter what language you speak, you use them according to the thoughts you associate with those words. For example, if you had a happy childhood, the word “mother” brings along all kinds of positive associations, but for some people, it just can’t have the same effect, even when they understand the broader cultural context.

It would be impossible to show you an example of the way we use all words as symbols other than to say this entire article is a combination of symbols intended to convey a set of ideas. Because we have a shared context, the English language, most of the words mean similar things to all of us, but if your context differs from mine, you may have trouble understanding what I’m trying to say.

Words Are Used Symbolically and All Words Are Symbols

So now you know. If you thought words were just words, think again. We may share a mutual understanding of words, or we may fail to understand one another because the symbols (words) mean different things to us based on our life experiences or frame of reference.

Paragraph Writing: How to Write a Good Paragraph

Although there are many opinions on how many types of essays there are, everyone seems to agree on what you need to formulate a good paragraph. You’ll probably have read that a sentence expresses a single idea. A paragraph is a group of sentences dealing with a similar idea. As soon as you move on to a new set of ideas, you move on to a new paragraph.

When you create an essay outline, you will probably list ideas that need to be included in your essay. If you’re thinking clearly, each of these ideas would have a paragraph to itself. If some of the ideas you jotted down are closely related, they’d probably form part of the same paragraph.

Crafting a Paragraph

In a way, you could see each paragraph as a mini-essay.

You introduce the topic
You provide the contributing information
You draw a conclusion

But how do you know if you have crafted a good paragraph? It will have four characteristics:

Unity
Order
Coherence
Completeness

You achieve these four characteristics through using the three parts of your paragraph wisely and with forethought.

First Sentence

The first sentence in a paragraph is important, and it’s called the “topic sentence.” It should represent the overall idea that governs the rest of the paragraph’s content. It’s the sames as your essay introduction leads into your essay. All the sentences that follow will contribute to this topic sentence. For example, in this paragraph, I began by telling you that the paragraph starts with a topic sentence. Now I am telling you what it is for, and how it relates to the other sentences in the paragraph. If you do this well, you’ll achieve the first of our characteristics: unity.

Contributing Sentences

Your contributing sentences must lead logically to the concluding one. This means you need to present it in some kind of order. Will you choose chronological order, order of importance, or relate each successive sentence to the other using logic? That depends on what you are writing about, but your aim is to make your paragraph easy to follow from point A to point B to point C. Finally, you want to tie all your points together to underline the point you are trying to get across. Order helps to convey the sense of what you are saying. If you confuse your reader, you have not written a clever paragraph.

Order Should Bring Coherence

Have you ever listened to someone talking, and it sounds like they’re just babbling and not making any sense? They are speaking incoherently. When a person speaks coherently, each thought follows neatly from the previous one, and it is easy to understand what they are saying. Although it’s not a must, using transition words helps to show how one thought relates to another. There are many such words and phrases which include:

Because
In addition
By contrast
Next
Afterward
Accordingly
No doubt
Of course
On the other hand
Naturally
Also
After
Before

Another important trick to remember is to keep all your sentences in the same verb tense. It just makes it so much easier for your reader to follow your thoughts.

Your Concluding Sentence

Don’t leave your reader wondering “So… what?” at the end of your paragraph. Pull your threads together into a concluding sentence. It should support your introductory sentence while acknowledging what you have discussed in the supporting sentences. This helps your reader to see how the supporting information relates to the topic. You may think it is obvious, but your reader may not!

Practice

Writing a really good paragraph is something of an art, but like any skill, you can learn it through practice. That’s why teachers will set paragraph writing tasks for their students. But if you love writing, or just want to improve your writing skills, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t set yourself a few tasks. Choose from a list of paragraph writing prompts, or make up a list of your own.

Here are some ideas:

Why I enjoy my hobby so much
My favorite winter activity
My opinion on _________ (Choose anything you like)
Why I hope to become a ___________
I think the most important thing about a person is __________
Why I admire my best friend
My favorite season is ___________
My most embarrassing moment was when_________
The thing I’m most scared of
What I dreamed last night

Remember, keep it to one paragraph! After you’ve written it, leave it for a while because it’s hard to evaluate your own work right away. Later, go and look at your exercise. Ask yourself:

What is my opening sentence?
Do my other points support it?
Did I reach a conclusion, and does it match the opening sentence and the supporting ones?
Have I presented my information in a logical way? Could I have done it better?

Writing a paragraph isn’t all that difficult, but you can’t just run at it like a bull at a gate. If you think things through, you’ll find yourself naturally falling in with the rules we’ve discussed here. Thoughtful work is usually good work, so engage your grey matter and get writing!

The Different Types of Essays

To succeed at school, you need to be able to write different types of essays. Your teachers will seldom tell you exactly which type of essay you should be writing, so you need to be able to figure it out from the question you have been asked. Once you’ve identified the right type of essay to answer the question, you’re not home free yet, but at least you’ll know how to structure it and what type of content to include.

There are various opinions on how to categorize essays and how many types of essay there are. The simplest interpretation says that there are only four types of essays:

1. Narrative essays
2. Descriptive essays
3. Expository essays
4. Persuasive essays

I personally think this is a bit of an oversimplification. I also think there are overly complicated classifications of essays, so to keep things relatively simple, we’ll stick to 10 types. Feel free to disagree with me if you like!

Descriptive Essays

In this type of essay, you’re painting a word picture. You can certainly include some facts, but you’ll focus on the experience, what it feels like, looks like, smells or sounds like. Your aim is to draw the reader in so he or she can experience what you are writing about in the same way you experienced it.

Definition Essays

A definition tells you what something is. Although a definition is short, a definition essay discusses a complex concept in much greater depth than you would get from a few lines. They’re most often used to discuss philosophical or abstract topics.

Compare and Contrast Essays

You’ll be given two similar-seeming yet different things to compare. To write this essay, I suggest that you prepare carefully. Which elements are the same? Which ones are different? Once you are sure you know what information you want to include, you’re ready to go.

Cause and Effect Essays

Although the name seems self-explanatory, we need to remember several causes can contribute to a single effect, and conversely, one cause could result in several effects. For example, several factors contributed to the US involvement in the First World War (multiple causes, single effect). However, being in the war had several effects on the US (single cause multiple effects).

Narrative Essays

If you like creative writing, these will be among your favorite essays. In a narrative essay, you tell a story. Remember, it has a beginning followed by a number of events that lead up to an ending. Plan carefully!

Process Essays

This type of essay involves a step by step explanation of how something happens or is done. Getting your steps in the correct order is important if you don’t want to turn your process into a muddle. Write your process essay in chronological order.

Argumentative Essays

Are you opinionated? Good! The argumentative essay explains your opinions and the reasons why you believe they’re right. You can even look at some possible counter-arguments and why you believe they’re wrong. Ultimately, you’re trying to get your reader to agree with you, so the more facts you can present to support your points, the better.

Critical Essays

You don’t have to criticize the thing you’re writing about unless you think there is reason for it, but you’ll be evaluating it critically. You’ll provide reasons why you think something was well done or badly done. If you think it was great, why did you think so? Are there any faults that bothered you? Why did they bother you? What evidence can you present to support your opinion?

Expository Essay

You could sum this type of essay up as follows, “Get all the facts, and then interpret them!” You must reach a conclusion, and this has to be supported by your research or personal experience. In higher education, you have to show your ability to research your topic, and you’ll probably be citing experts along the way. In the end, you give your own opinion, but you’ll point out how several sources contribute to it. As long as there is logic in that, your answer can’t be wrong. These essays are exciting because even when you use existing knowledge, you may find yourself obtaining a new perspective or reaching a novel conclusion.

Persuasive Essays

In a way, these are similar to argumentative essays, but they’re not quite the same. An argumentative essay will hit people with the facts, while a persuasive essay has a softer touch and may appeal to moral values or emotions. See it as the difference between winning a debate and winning someone over to support a cause. There are differences, but also similarities.

What Type of Essay to Write?

When looking at an instruction or exam question, study the VERBS your teacher has used. Circle them and think about what they imply. If you’ve just been told to name or list things, give nothing but the facts.

Other words indicating that you should usually give nothing but the facts:

Analyze
Explain
Illustrate
Prove
Show
Compare
Contrast
Discuss

In addition, you want to look for words indicating that you should give your opinion:

In your opinion…
What do you think about…
How do you feel…

If you have any doubt about the type of essay you should be writing, ask. While your teacher likely won’t tell you when assigning, she will explain the correct type of essay to write for the particular situation and how you can figure that out. This should prove beneficial so you can deduct the correct type to write in future situations.

What Are the Most Popular Words in Songs?

Are you writing a song? Would you like it to be really catchy? Why not go with what works for everyone, and use the most popular words found in hit songs? If you’re wondering whether there actually are words that songwriters continually resort to, it won’t take you long to hit on the word “love.” I have no idea how many songs contain that word, but I’m ready to bet they number in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions!

Here’s a great song lyric:

Love, love, love
Love, love, love
I got love
You got love
We got love
Everybody’s got looooooove!

ALRIGHT ALREADY! I’ll stop! Please don’t hit me over the head again! I thought it was an absolutely brilliant lyric… My artistic sensibilities are wounded, I tell you. Wounded!

In the Interests of Linguistics, Science and Music

Owing to the stiff critique my first ever song lyric faced, I decided to look for other words that are popular in songs. If I can find enough, I can make a song generator. You know: list of first lines, list of second lines, list of third lines – join the dots between them and combine them anyhow you like, and voila! One perfect song lyric. And in case you’re wondering, I’ve seen it done, and it works!

Before we can start generating phrases, we need the words. The first thing you’ll likely notice is popular words in songs tend to be short. You aren’t going to find a lot of Shakespeare in most popular song lyrics. You’ll also find words are rather genre specific. For instance, “dark, black, bloody, thunder, fire, ice, and angels” all sound like they fit into gothic or metal genres, but we’ll take a broader overview.

Yeah (Now there’s a great word! You can write a whole song… Noooo! I promise I won’t! Just saying! Put down that baseball bat!)
Feel (Aw, c’mon! Are you saying I can’t just use “Love,” “Yeah,” and “Feel” as the only words longer than three letters in my song? No fair! I thought I was getting real artistic depth there. So what if I added….)
Girl (There! My song has a girl in it! Better? No? Onward!)
Heart (What, you want more? Ok. What if I give you a whole bunch more words? Will you let me write my song then? Here goes at rapid fire.)
Take
Life
Back
Never
Die
Away
Give
Time
Night
Day
Man
Dream
World
Little

Song Attempt Number Two

Ahem. Pretends to tune guitar. Gets up close to mic. Closes eyes. Opens mouth. Sings:

“Oh yeah! Can you feel it girl?
It’s a new life, a new day
Never say die
Take the night away
Give me time to dream…”

Buzzers buzz. Got Talent judges give thumbs down. Objects:

“Nonsense! It’s a great song! It has all the best words in it!”

Gets booed off stage for being a spoilsport. Mutters, “I know what went wrong. It was all the times I used “the.” Next time, I’ll leave it out.”

Heads home and sulks. Looks for more popular song words for music inspirations. Jackpot! Now I have:

Baby
Good
Keep
Around
Again
Eye
Mind
Fall
World
Time
Hell
We
Like
Breathe
Ya
You
Thang
Get
Fire
Rock
Don’t
Woman (Oh! My girl’s all grown up! What a lot of letters she has now!)
Music
Dancing (Another big word!)
Lonely
Like
Polka
Serenade
Boogie

Oops! I slipped back to the 1940’s with those last three. I thought they were rather strange. I mean, when last did you hear a song that goes:

“Yeah! Baby! Let’s Polka that thang all night long!”

I don’t somehow think it’s going to hit the charts.

Favorite words in songs have changed through the decades as we saw with “Polka” once being a popular song staple. The reality is popular song words in the past ago aren’t the same as they are today. Let’s take a quick spin through the decades:

Since 2010

We
Yeah
Hell
Die

What a cheerful bunch we are. I even had to censor one word out. Traveling back a decade…

2000s

U
Like
Breathe
It
Ya

Perhaps just a little more cheerful. And back again…

1990s

U
You
Up
Get
Thang

I never realized “thang” was retro. Rewind…

1980s

Love
Fire
Don’t
Rock
On

Rock on that love and don’t fire me?

1970s

Woman
Disco
Rock
Music
Dancin’

Yay! Let’s Disco, Woman! Rock on!

1960s

Baby
Twist
Little
Lonely

Cute! Let’s twist, my lonely baby!

1950s

Christmas
Penny
Mambo
Three

I’m not at all sure what to make of that!

1940s

Polka
Serenade
Boogie
Blue

Don’t be Blue! Let’s Boogie that Polka!

1930s

Moon
In
Swing
Sing

Let’s sing that swing in the moon… Now what? Woman? Baby? Girl? Lady?

1920s

Blues
Pal
Sweetheart
Rose
Mammy

What a breadth of interests: family, horticulture, romance and friendship, and all tied together with a little melancholy!

I think we’ve taken the time machine far enough back to suit anyone, but for interest’s sake, the preceding two decades feature “Josh” as a top word. I am not sure who Josh is, but he was in a lot of songs. He may have been someone’s uncle, because “uncle” also hits top ratings. With my next song, perhaps I should try to span the decades. No! Don’t run away! Really! Some people.

Is English the Hardest Language to Learn?

When we try to decide which language is the hardest to learn, we have a problem. Everything, but everything, is subjective. There are a lot of factors that contribute to language learning difficulties. Broadly, we could sum these up as:

The language(s) you grew up speaking
Your attitude
Your personal context

If you grew up speaking English, learning to speak English is something you’ve been doing since you were tiny, and English seems easy. Because it’s related to the Latin languages, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese shouldn’t be all that difficult to also learn, and even French makes some kind of sense. However, in all these languages, you’ll have to get around some tenses and pronunciations that come naturally to native speakers, but which will seem awkward to you.

You’ll probably struggle with languages like Mandarin and Arabic because they are completely unrelated to any language you already know, and the same must be true for non-native speakers trying to learn English.

So, is English the hardest language to learn? No. English can be difficult, but if you didn’t grow up speaking them, these languages are harder:

Mandarin: That tone system is difficult to master if your language doesn’t have something similar. As for the alphabet, you’re going to take quite a lot of time just learning enough of it to get by.

Finnish: There are cases and cases within cases, it can be really tricky to navigate.

Arabic: There are four variations of each of the letters, and where you use them depends on where in the word they belong.

Japanese: Just try that alphabet – there are 2,000 to 3,000 characters you must learn to have basic reading skills.

Why Is English Often Said to Be a Difficult Language?

English is packed with linguistic quirks that might even make you think they were deliberately put there just to make the language difficult to learn. Don’t take it personally. It just happened, we promise! Here’s what makes English so hard:

English Rules Are Hard with Multiple Exceptions

Just think of these inconsistencies:

The teacher taught. But the preacher never praught.
One goose, two geese. One moose, two mooses (not meece)
“Look” and “see” have similar meanings, but “overlook” and “oversee” mean completely different things.
One mouse, two mice. One house, two houses.
Vegetarians eat vegetables, but humanitarians do not live on a diet of people!

I’m sure you could come up with a few more of these if you thought about it. There are rules, there are exceptions to rules, and there are exceptions to the exceptions!

The Correct Word Order Can Be Hard to Explain

Example: “It’s a little fierce cat,” versus “It’s a fierce little cat.” The second one just sounds right if you’re an English speaker, and if there’s a rule somewhere, I don’t know it. If you were to say “It’s a big fierce cat,” it wouldn’t sound wrong at all.

I sometimes collaborate with a Dutch lady who is an excellent researcher, but I always have to change her wording. If I know why, I add a comment so that she can learn, but quite often, I can’t explain why I made certain changes.

Weird spelling

English has its roots in many languages, and some spellings seem to have little to do with the way you pronounce a word. Just think of “yacht.” It’s pronounced “yot,” but that’s not what the letters tell us! Other weird ones include:

Through
Bough
Rough

All three end in “ough” but they are pronounced as “Thru,” “Bow,” and “Ruff” — are we crazy?

Then there are silent letters like the “h” in “Ghost” and the “b” in “Debt.” And as for the letter “c,” it can’t decide whether it should be pronounced as an “s” or like a “k.” While we’re at it, by what logic did we decide some words end in “ck?”

Inflection Changes Meaning – at Least a Bit

Am I kidding? No, I am not! The words you place emphasis on can change the meaning of a sentence, even if it’s only slightly. Let’s look at an example

“I know I got that letter.” Easy peasy. It’s a simple statement of fact.

“I know I got that letter.” Place emphasis on the I, and suddenly you’re implying that someone else might not believe you or doesn’t know what you know.

“I know I got that letter.” Now you’re wondering what happened to the letter, because despite the fact that you know you got it, you can’t seem to find it.

“I know I got that letter.” Here you’re saying you received a letter, but another one didn’t turn up.

Regional Accents

I’m sure this is true of other widely spoken languages too, but pity the person who has to learn English. English speakers from around the world might often sound like they’re speaking completely different languages! We even have difficulty talking to each other sometimes.

When I was at school, we were very excited and interested when an Australian girl joined our class. There was just one problem: none of us could understand a word she said! Closer to home, the US has many regional accents, and we can have difficulty communicating with our own countrymen and women.

English May Not Be the Hardest Language, but…

If you’re an English speaker, don’t mock others who struggle with your language. Who knows? One day, you might find yourself in a position where you must learn theirs. Struggling with the complexities of English (and there are plenty) doesn’t mean someone is stupid, and you should always encourage people to study new languages.

Top Words for 2017

At the end of every year, we see a list of new words people started to use a lot and are being included in dictionaries as colloquialisms at the very least. We also come across popular words that always existed, but weren’t used much until some major event or trend triggered a revival.

To make this more fun, we’ll also look into the crystal ball and make some predictions for the top words in 2017. Feel free to contribute! My crystal ball is a little cracked, so the picture isn’t too clear. If you happen to have an HD crystal ball, I’m sure you could contribute!

2016’s top Word: and the winner is…

Post-truth. If you don’t know the meaning of this word, you’d better learn it now. As you can tell, the prefix “post” means “after” and that’s followed by “truth” so this literally means “after the truth.”

However, as far as I can see, it hasn’t got anything to do with what comes after the truth. Rather, it relates to something that happens completely outside of the truth, or at least is assumed based on flimsy evidence. It means thinking with your emotions and how you feel about things, rather than looking at facts. Apparently, it’s quite the trend these days, so switch off your smarts and go with your gut. Woohoo! Suddenly, we all become geniuses!

Other Brand-New Top 2016 Words

Brexit. No list of 2016’s new words would be complete without Brexit. Initially coined to describe the UK’s exit from the European Union, it has now come to mean anything that’s anti-globalization. It’s also seen as implying passionate nationalism. I suspect that several other words will be coined to follow it, and we’ll go into those a little later.

Trumpism. As you can tell, 2016 was a year for politics with the gloves off. It’s been such a weird year that we’ve had to create new words to describe some of the new phenomena. Trump, love him or hate him, has certainly come up with a new post-truth style, and the utterances that arise from this have become known as “Trumpisms” this year.

Sharenting. Luckily, it hasn’t all been politics. We still have social media for those “OMG! Little Johnny’s got his first tooth!” moments. Go ahead, show your sharenting skills and post that pic. After all, I post pics of my kittens, and we can have some blissful relief from political discussion by entering an argument about which is cuter: your baby or my kittens!

Uberization. Wow! Guess what? Spell check already recognizes this one. As you may have guessed, Uberization relates to the so-called “sharing economy” in which service providers offer services directly to prospective clients for less than they’d pay if they went through a company.

Existing (and slightly altered) Words Everyone’s Googling

Merriman-Webster lists these words as having been wildly popular in 2016.

Surreal: “marked by the intense irrationality of a dream.” I kid you not, it has been a strange year, and the popularity of this word is a symptom of that.
Revenant: “one that returns after death or a long absence.” I like this word a lot, and we have Hollywood and Leo DiCaprio to thank for getting it back onto everyone’s radar.
Icon: “a person who is very successful or admired.” Sigh. A lot of icons have died this year, and the headlines probably contained the word, leading folks to look it up for interest’s sake.
Bigly: Here’s a fun one. Did you know that Trump never actually said “bigly?” That’s what linguists are saying. Apparently, they have done voice analyses and report that Trump actually said “big league.” Who cares? We heard “bigly!” We like it!
Irregardless: Merriam-Webster says that technically, “irregardless” is a word. However, it says that the word, which sparked a lexical storm after a commentator at the World Series final used it, is “non-standard.” It’s nice that we can still get excited over trivia!

What Will Be the Top Words for 2017?

I’m going to TRY to stay clear of the political minefield in my predictions. Am I cowardly? Yup! Some things are just not worth dying for, and feelings are running rather high at the moment. There’s just one political word prediction from me, and that’s “Nexit.”

What does Nexit mean? Whoever’s next to exit the EU, of course! It could be a Frexit, or a Grexit, or a Dexit, or we could segue into a Swexit, but unless the UK ends up having a really, really hard time as a result of its decision, someone’s going to follow suit. Any bets?

I can already see some words starting to trend, but I’m afraid they’re political too.

Fascism and all its permutations seems incredibly popular at the moment. I don’t think most people know what it really means, so I imagine there will be plenty of furtive googling so nobody has to actually ask. And no, this is not political commentary, merely an observation.
Apartheid is also doing the rounds once again. In case you didn’t know, this was the old South African policy of “separate development.” It didn’t work for anyone, but once again, I see it gaining new popularity on social media right now.
Trump is going to gain a whole new meaning in 2017. What will that be? Time will tell. I suspect it won’t have anything to do with a game of cards.

Then I suppose I should be a little creative too:

Phews is my own creation. It describes the phenomenon of fake news. It’s a hybrid between “fake” and “news” with the “ph” to make it trendy. It’s genius, really. Help me to make it go viral!
Twentysixteen could catch on as a word to describe something that you’d like to leave behind. Personally, I have no real problem with the year, but I think a slightly less exciting one would be nice for a change.
Post-politics will be way better than post-truth. I would suggest this word should mean getting on with one’s life while ignoring politicians as much as possible. After all, it only encourages them when they think we’re paying attention. The only problem with that is that one does have to watch them, if only out of the corner of your eye.

I’ll enjoy revisiting my list at the end of 2017 when we’re ready to enter into 2018. To be honest, I look back fondly to the time when “selfie” was the number one word of the year. At the time, I thought it a warning symptom of a culture of narcissism, but compared to 2016’s words, it was positively cheerful!