Difficulties of English words

Previously published as: Hart, G. 2019. Difficulties of English words. <https://www.worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun64/index.html>

One of the biggest problems writers encounter with the English language is its enormous vocabulary. English has evolved from many world languages and cultures, including Anglo Saxon, Celtic, French, Latin, and Greek. In addition to words that came from these origins, English has borrowed many words from other languages, thereby greatly enlarging its vocabulary. Sometimes, it borrows words from several languages to describe the same concept, leading to confusion over which word is the best choice. Making this choice is difficult, since the meanings of these words have evolved over time because each large population develops its own unique dialect (a regional variation) of a language. English has many dialects, including British, American, Indian, Australian, and Canadian. Word use and word meanings vary among these dialects. If that’s not sufficiently confusing, there are also blended dialects. For example, because Canada’s English comes from Britain, but is strongly influenced by American English, Canadians use a mixture of British, American, and Canadian usage. As a result, even editors like me sometimes have difficulty knowing the precise meaning of words for different audiences.

When you write for peer-reviewed journals, this can lead to problems with journal reviewers, particularly for reviewers who come from non-English cultures and have their own belief about what words mean. These beliefs are not always correct. In this article, I’ll discuss some problematic words that a reader asked me to clarify. (If you have your own questions about writing in English, please contact World Translation Services to suggest ideas for a future article and I will try to answer those questions.)

One problem that results from this linguistic history is that English has many synonyms. These are words with similar meanings, but that convey slightly different meanings. For example:

• Suggest means that a body of evidence points towards a specific hypothesis or conclusion. Imply means “has an implication”, which may be a consequence or clues that lead to a hypothesis. The difference is subtle, and in practice, the two words are used interchangeably.

• English uses many qualifiers, which are words that clarify the magnitude of something. The most common of these is very, which means “more than a little bit”. The problem with such words is that they are imprecise. For example, very can mean extremely (representing an extreme case such as the maximum or minimum); remarkably or notably (worth bringing to the reader’s attention); considerably, quite, fairly, or pretty (more than a little, but not really a large amount); and exceedingly, greatly, enormously, substantially, outstandingly, or markedly (more than normal). Because qualifiers are imprecise (e.g., very) or obvious (you would not describe something if it were not sufficiently notable to be worthwhile bringing to the reader’s attention), you can eliminate most of these words. Where you feel they might be necessary, try to quantify them. “X was twice the size of Y” is clearer than “X was much larger than Y”.

• Significantly can refer to statistical significance or to practical importance. Whenever you compare two numbers, use phrases such as “significantly greater than” only if you mean statistical significance. If you mean that the difference also has practical significance, use words such as “and this difference has practical significance” or “this difference is important”. If you only want to indicate that a difference is large, quantify the difference.

• Show, display, indicate, and illustrate all tell the reader what the object in question (usually a table or figure) explains, presents, exhibits, or depicts (usually some fact). The words in each of these groups have essentially the same meaning, and you can choose whichever word you prefer.

• Similarly, mean, denote, express, represent, describe, point out, indicate, and delineate all explain the meaning. Clarify, elucidate, demonstrate, and reveal support that meaning by making it clearer. Seem, are likely to, and appear to all mean that you are expressing your opinion, not a certainty, as do the corresponding phrases it seems that, it is likely that, and it appears that.

• Ascertain refers the action of a person who is attempting to learn the truth. That person may ascertain the truth to support (provide evidence for) an idea, to establish or prove the idea (provide enough evidence that the truth is clear), or validate and verify the idea (confirm the truth by a different method).

As these examples demonstrate, many choices between two words with similar meaning are subjective: different writers will make different choices, and both peer reviewers and journal editors often have personal preferences. If you’re not sure, use the same language as authors who have been published in the journal that will review your paper. (Previous articles provide examples of what the journal considers to be acceptable.) If the journal’s author guidelines specify a particular dictionary, let that dictionary guide your choice. Chapter 19 of my book Writing for Science Journals (available from WTS) provides more information about word meanings and other difficulties of English.

English also uses a group of words that linguists call “advanced organizers”. These words or phrases help readers to organize their thoughts in advance, thereby making it easier to understand the following text and integrate it with the text that came before. Common examples include:

• “For example” (e.g.) introduces an example that helps you understand the meaning of the previous sentence.

• “That is” (i.e.) introduces an explanation of the previous sentence. For example: “Advance organizers are a form of metacognition. That is, they provide clues about how we should think about the words we are about to read.”

• “In addition” tells you to expect knowledge that builds on (adds to) the previous knowledge.

• “In contrast” highlights a difference from the previous sentence or a contradiction. For example: “Plant cells possess both a cell wall and a cell membrane. In contrast, animal cells only have a cell membrane.”

• “However” and “but” introduce a constraint or warning about the limits of the information in the previous sentence. For example: “Newton’s laws of mechanics describe moving objects well. However, as velocities approach the speed of light, Einstein’s laws of relativistic motion work better.”

• “Nonetheless” clarifies that despite any limitations, a statement remains generally valid. For example: “Newton’s laws of motion work poorly near the speed of light. Nonetheless, they provide an excellent approximation for everyday situations.”

• “Whereas” and “while” indicate a contradiction or contrast. For example, “Cherry is a perennial plant, whereas rice is an annual.” Although while can replace whereas, many editors prefer to use while only for simultaneous events. For example: “I wrote this article while I was drinking coffee.”

 Word choice is important, but given the complexity of English and the many words that have nearly identical meanings, sometimes the best advice I can give you is to see how other authors have described something in their published research. Or ask your editor for advice!