forum Another Way to Say...

Started October 27, 2018 by Sophie Herbert

tune

Anyone know some other ways to say "suddenly" "all of a sudden" or things that make the next actions seem abrupt or urgent?

Also please use this discussion to ask about ways to say other things too :)

"Suddenly"
~*~
abruptly
quickly
swiftly
all at once
asudden
forthwith
on spur of moment
unanticipatedly
unaware
unawares
without warning

One piece of advice I've heard was to just remove the word "Suddenly" all together. I don't 100% agree with this all the time, but it can work. For example:

Sally was watching her favourite tv show on a peaceful Saturday afternoon when suddenly three ninjas came crashing through the through the living room window.

vs.

Sally was watching her favourite tv show on a peaceful Saturday afternoon when three ninjas came crashing through the living room window.

By having the word "Suddenly" your sort of telling the reader that something unexpected is about to happen. When you remove it, you get that sense of surprise that your character would be feeling and it tends to be more compelling. Having three ninjas come crashing through a window was still an unexpected thing to happen, even when the word suddenly was removed from the sentence.

I hope that makes sense but if not, I recommend reading this https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/most-common-mistakes-series-why/#
It just explains things a little better.

Thank you guys so much! This is really good advice!

aww

i'm too late…

Does anyone else need my vocabulary?

Is there any other way to say something frustratedly?

Please elaborate :)

Is there another way to say 'but'? And yes, I also use 'however.' I'm trying to restrict my 'but' limit to one per page.

BUT

~*~
nevertheless
yet
however
though
although
still
all the same
be that as it may
but still
despite that
even so
for all that
in spite of that
nonetheless
howbeit
just the same
regardless
still and all
withal

ELABORATE

~*~

Adjective

baroque
convoluted
decorative
intricate
involved
rich
sumptuous
busy
complicated
decorated
detailed
embellished
exact
fancy
garnished
imposing
laboured-UK
labored-US
ornamented
overdone
overworked
perfected
refined
sophisticated
studied
careful
complex
elegant
extensive
extravagant
fussy
highly wrought
high tech
knotty
labyrinthine
luxurious
many-faceted
minute
ornate
ostentatious
painstaking
plush
posh
precise
prodigious
showy
skilful-UK
skillful-US
thorough
with all the extras
with all the options
with bells and whistles

Verb

build on
detail
expand
go on
work up
amplify
bedeck
clarify
comment
complicate
deck
decorate
develop
devise
discuss
embellish
enhance
enlarge
evolve
expatiate
explain
expound
garnish
go into detail
improve
interpret
ornament
particularise-UK
particularize-US
polish
produce
refine
specify
unfold
flesh out
work out

FRUSTRATEDLY

~*~

angrily
disappointedly
exasperatedly
irritatedly
crabbedly
crampedly
defeatedly
discontentedly
discouragedly
disheartenedly
resentfully

( Link to were you can find more Synonyms, Antonyms, Definitions, ext for words - https://www.wordhippo.com/ )

Is there any other way to say something frustratedly?

Well, you could use swear words or words of frustration.

Angrily
in a rage
annoyedly

… howbeit's a word?

frick

we found a new vocab lord

leaves and dies

There's nothing wrong with using common words often in your writing. :) Words like 'said', 'but' or 'the' are pretty much invisible to the reader - no one's going to think, "Wow, the word 'the' appears ten times on this page, what a lazy writer!" What they will notice, however, is a less common word used incorrectly.

For example, the word 'but' is a coordinate conjunction. It joins two halves of a sentence together, like so:

I went shopping but I forgot my wallet.

The word 'however', however, doesn't join two halves of a sentence. It is used to introduce the contrasting information in a new sentence:

I went shopping this morning. However, I forgot my wallet.

If you simply swap 'but' for 'however', you'll get an ungrammatical sentence:

I went shopping however I forgot my wallet.

Swapping out words you understand for fancy thesaurus ones you don’t is not usually a good idea. Keep in mind that English has very few true synonyms (words that have exactly the same meaning and usage as other words). The good thing about this can be that in searching for a replacement word, you find one whose meaning fits your context even better than the first one! And learning new words and how to use them is still a great thing, whether you end up using them in your writing or not.