There is a useful 2026 book by Sarah L. Kaufman titled Verb Your Enthusiasm: How to master the art of the verb and transform your writing. Google Books has a preview through page 14. On pages 6 and 7 she explains:
“The best verbs define intention and action, even subtle thinking action, with elegant simplicity. Let’s take a quick look at various kinds of verbs now, because understanding the difference among verbs will help you choose what’s best for what you mean to say. Making deliberate verb choices can sharpen your work.
Think of three piles. The first contains ‘stative verbs,’ which are about a state of being rather than a dynamic action. They include to be and many other verbs – appear, believe, know, love, prefer, understand, and more – that describe a static situation such as existence, emotion, thought, or a condition.
The other piles comprise two different kinds of action verbs, which we’ll call ‘basic verbs’ and ‘verbs of manner.’ A basic verb is neutral, ordinary: The dog walks. Verbs of manner are the drama queens, descriptive and specific: The dog wiggles / waddles/ wanders. These verbs tell us the way in which an action happens, its speed, force, and feeling – its manner.
Verb-wise, if you write in English, guess what? It’s your birthday every day – with shopping sprees at FAO Schwarz – because English overflows with verbs of manner. It’s a special feature of the language. A secret superpower, in fact. Linguist Dan I. Slobin at the University of California, Berkeley, has studied the verbs of manner around the world, and he notes that, for example, French and Spanish each have a single verb for a jumping motion (bondir in French, saltar in Spanish). But English? It boasts at least half a dozen: jump as well as hop, leap, spring, bound, and bounce. You can probably think of more.
Slobin estimates that French, Spanish, Turkish, and Hebrew have just a few dozrn verbs of manner. English, however, has several hundred. (So do German, Dutch, Russian, and Hungarian.) Every language has unique features and advantages, and certainly English has its hitches (all those irregular verbs!). But with a great many verbs of manner at their fingertips, writers can express a specific action and energy with a single ford. For example, ‘The road zigzags up the mountain.’ Lively, efficient. You’d have to use a few more words in other languages: in Spanish, for instance: La carretera sube en zigz-zag por la montaña. (‘The road climbs in zigzags up the mountain.’)
Take advantage of this deep verb vocabulary to find the exact verb that is accurate and truthful for your purposes…”
And on page 89 she says to avoid ‘fancy’ verbs:
“STYLE TIP: Write to Shed Light in a Fresh, Direct Way
Do that by avoiding fancy verbs, unless you’re spoofing some pompous character or you plan a witty, ironic twist. Fancy verbs are easy to spot: they often stretch to several syllables. Replace them with clear, simple verbs. Examples of fancy verbs:
Ameliorate. Improve it with improve.
Conceptualize. This is a word turducken – a verb (conceive) stuffed in a noun (concept) further wedged into a bloated, boring verb. I railed against conceptualization in Chapter 2. Where will it all end – conceptualizationize? Better: imagine, picture, or see.
Elucidate. Explain says it all in half the syllables.
Emblazon. Blazon, without the em-, is wonderful on its own.
Entitle. As with blazon, adding an extra syllable – en – is unnecessary. Title suffices for the verb meaning to provide a title for, such as a book or movie. Use entitle to mean to give a legal right or claim to receive or do something.
Importune. Beg or implore – yes. Importune if you find yourself dining with Lord Byron and he’s pushing his preference for vinegar and water upon you.
Opine. No one does this. People say, or, if they must, they state, argue, insist…
Utilize. Three syllables and all their attendant oxygen and time, instead of the simple, direct use – why on earth?”
But some women get a free pass.If your name is Amelia, you can use ameliorate. If your name is Cate (or Kate) you can use communicate. If your name is Lucie you can use elucidate. And if your name is Sue you can certainly use litigate.
The word cloud used a selection of verbs ending in -ate from here at wordmom.
No comments:
Post a Comment