It's important to use the right words when you want to get your point across. Often, they're the only means of communication available to us.
But expressing nuanced thoughts and feelings through language can be difficult. So let's try to learn from the best!
There's a subreddit called r/OddlySpecific and as the name suggests, its 1.2 million members are dedicated to collecting distinct, precise phrases that strangely make perfect sense.
So continue scrolling to check the best ones they spotted and fire up our first publication on this awesome online community for more.
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Adult Books vs. Kids' Books
Kids books for the win!!!! Can I get some YA novel recommendations with decent plots and non-depressing endings???
Aita?
If you want your speeches to have a stronger impact, American author, columnist, keynote speaker, and former journalist and news anchor Carmine Gallo suggests replacing long words with short ones. "In his groundbreaking book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel economist Daniel Kahneman writes, 'If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do.' Effective leaders speak in simple language — and simple means short," Gallo explained.
He said this is especially true during a crisis, when attention spans are flagging and noise levels are high. "People are being bombarded by information, some of which is misleading or false. The clearer and more concise you are, the better your chances of getting your message across and persuading people to act on it."
Billionaires Are Boring
Exactly! I knew a very wealthy family with a 14,000 sq ft home and no roller skates to take advantage of it!
Yes
Quite A Lesson Indeed
"As you think about how to share your next message, remember that language influenced by the Anglo-Saxon period has been used by many great leaders," Gallo highlighted.
Winston Churchill once said, "The shorter words of a language are usually the more ancient. Their meaning is more ingrained in the national character and they appeal to greater force."
In a memo titled Brevity, Churchill urged government administrators to replace long "woolly phrases" with single conversational words, pointing out that brevity equals clarity and that directness makes things easier to understand.
Brad Bad
Oh Mom
Gay Rights!
Brain
Next, Gallo thinks you should search for analogies. "Neuroscientists have found that our brains process the world by associating the new or unknown with something familiar. When presented with a novel idea, our brains don't ask, 'What is it?' They ask, 'What is it like?'"
"Analogies answer that question. They serve as mental shortcuts that help us understand complex events. Leaders who are great communicators in a crisis are skilled at finding analogies, because they have to persuade people to act quickly."
This Reply
Rata2ie
Even Average Sounds Extraordinary During Victorian Times
I Can Feel The Hatred In His Words
The human brain is wired for storytelling. In his best-selling book Sapiens, historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that it was only through stories that our species was able to take over the world.
Our advanced language skills — specifically, our ability to connect with one another through narrative — allowed us to cooperate in ways other species simply could not.
It Took Me Longer Than 66 Years
Angry Avocado
Uuh... Fox Title?
Humble Living As A Gnome
I didn't know that this was what I wanted from life until I read it here.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health, is widely admired for his straight, persuasive talk. CNN has even called him “a public force” who translates complex medical information into everyday language.
"You don’t want to impress people and razzle-dazzle them with your knowledge," Fauci said. "You just want them to understand what you’re talking about."
The Jeans Discount Is The Cherry On Top
This Will Be A Reality One Day
An Interesting Title
When You Get Flashbacks Of Working Retail
Meanwhile in other countries someone gets praised as a „normal“ or a „peoples person“ for not being born into money/ power.
Because of that, Fauci often limits himself to just three key points. For instance, in an April 5 appearance on Face the Nation, he said the country would be able to relax social-distancing guidelines only when three things were in place: "the ability to test, isolate, and do contact tracing."
Fauci also pointed out that Americans must continue to “physically separate” from one another by doing three things: staying six feet apart, limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people, and avoiding mass interactions, such as in restaurants, bars, and theaters.
Words are powerful, and the more mindful you are with them, the more they can offer you.
Not A Squirrel!
Keith should try bringing $5 with him to buy lunch instead of bringing his lunch. That is sure to keep the squirrels away
Rbdbdjddn
Me too. I was an avid reader as a kid, but I misunderstood SO many names. Now when I see those names as an adult I still want to pronounce them the way my weird kid-brain thought they sounded. :) For example: Phoebe.
Load More Replies...I put it into a text to speech and see what it says, then just use that for the rest of the book. Or if I'm feeling lazy, I just replace it with "Bob", "Gary, "Mary", or my personal favourite "The untranslatable One"
I was having a similar problem while reading Gabriel Garcia Márquez. It seemed like each character had a string of the same dozen names but in different order.
It’s intentional in 100 Years of Solitude. The repetition of names is meant to show fluidity of time, and that history will inevitably repeat itself. (Not commenting to be a know it all, it’s genuinely one of my fav books and I think the symbolism is very well done). :)
Load More Replies...I love it when people get used to pronouncing something a certain way, and then the author does an interview and pronounces it differently. Example, Game of Thrones, everybody says "Dothraki" as "Dothrakee", but in interviews, JRRM says "Dothrakai".
I thought this about Handmaid's Tale, they kept saying Off-red but reveal she is Of-Fred
Load More Replies...Hermione. Before I saw the HP movies I couldn't imagine how this name was pronounced.
Apparently JKR noticed a lot of people having this problem, which is why Hermione teaches Victor Krum to pronounce her name in Goblet of Fire
Load More Replies...I read a lot of Russian literature & not only are the names difficult for me, they switch between last names, first name + patronymic, & diminuatives like I’m supposed to know they are all the same person. I need a scorecard to finish the story
Somebody told me they had less trouble with War and Peace after they started keeping a list of all the characters and their names in the back of the book.
Load More Replies...If I ever become an author (not likely to happen but just go with me), I would add a page at the start that informed the read how to pronounce all the names of or, something like 'just call that guy Bob as I was drunk when I chose the name'.
Books need to have a list of all the characters in it along with how to pronounce their names. They bring up a person in chapter 2 and bring them back in chapter 6. Now I have to go back to remind myself who they are.
Like an organization chart in the back of the book so you can see how/why characters are related. Or, like television shows, do a quick recap of a character that has not been used for a few episodes.
Load More Replies...Worst part of those names is that every time you read them it takes you out of the story while you try to figure out how to say it.
In first grade trying to figure out how to read a person's name can totally mess up their whole understanding of what they are reading. This has been especially true since textbook writers have begun using ethic names instead of easy ones like Bob or Beth. There definitely SHOULD be inclusion in our children's reading material! However to help my students to actually get past the name they cannot pronounce I teach them to just say N - Person or R - person or - G- boy, or S- Girl etc. They feel so much more success in their reading ability if they don't become discouraged by someone's name.
Too true when reading Russian lit, plus each character has MULTIPLE unpronounceable names. My mom used to make a chart for books like this.
I Google it if I really don't know how to pronounce it, that's a rare one but it happens.
Xochitl. Pronounced (SO - CHEE) but i always see it as (ITCH-ICH-OL)
I read a book with the name Leigh teabing and I always read it as Leigh teabag 😂
This is me everyday and my most notable one was reading The Count of Monte Cristo as a child...that was a book filled with "jfdjdd" lol
I just switch it to whatever name pops in my head and read that name until I'm done reading.
or reading it one way and near the end of the book finding out it's actually pronounced this slightly different way.
Like the name Siobhan, an Irish name that get absolutely butchered!
My friend was the fifth volume of Harry Potter before she realised Hermione wasn't pronounced Hermeyowney
Y’all know that you can Google a pronunciation for almost any word - even names, right? Even the online dictionaries now include audio files. (Yeah, sometimes the made-up pronunciation is more fun than the real one. I get it. I’ve some pet mis-pronunciations of my own.)
My mother was named Sharelle because my grandmother read the name in a book. But she didn't know the correct pronunciation so while we all called her Cheryl... everyone else called her Sha-relle
Lol happens all the time to me..I’m Deaf, so I’ve never been able to figure out the sound of a lot of names… **;
Or, if a movie is made of the book, and you hear the name pronounced and think “wow, I was WAY off”.
I generally just pronounce them as if they were in my own language. Spent years thinking Maeve was pronounced Ma-eh-ve, then one day found out, it's actually Maif.
Haymitch became Hyacinth for the entirety of the series, and I kinda missed that switch when I reread the series.
So you decide to make up a name... then there's six more names that are just as unpronounceable, but 90% the same.
R Person, V Person, G Person, GR Person Works for me.
Load More Replies...When you read a book, decide a character's is pronounced a certain way, then reread the book and realize you're an idiot. I called Jerboa from WoF Jeroba for months.
I just read that name in your comment. I see what we did there..
Load More Replies...I read a book where there was a character called ameila (am-ee-la) but I read it as amelia (am-ee-lee-ah) the whole time
Road Trips Are So Nostalgic
Pemmaphobia (Cake Phobia)
Smoke
My pointed this out to my dad and he said my grandad (RIP) pointed that out to his (Christian) teacher and got detention for saying that lol
20-20-20 Noted
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Sheeranphobia, An Interesting Disease
Oh Cool
Just last month I saw a bird in the garden and thought...you know, I should get one of those books that bird watchers use.
Whale Sounds
Found On Meirl
Eminems More Positive Cousin
Help Wanted
Wanted, small child. Or possibly a few in case this goes wrong.
I Have Never Made A Doctor's Appointment By Myself
Weird Way To Describe It But I Get The Idea
Driver Carries Only
Sushi No Like Tiktok
The Fact That This Is Not An Exaggeration Makes It Even Better. British Football Chants Are Fun
Same in Greece. And it varies from remarks for opponents' moms to seggsual insults to the team
Living His Best Life
I Can't Say As Though I Disagree
Ok, Josh
As teens my friends and I would steal a few carved pumpkins off porches late Halloween night each year. We would write the address of the house they came from and put it in a Ziploc bag inside the pumpkins then put the pumpkins in a deep freezer. On the night before Thanksgiving we would then take them back to their porches and leave them. We would hear kids talking about it at school wondering about it. Good times!
Connor
That is an insult to Honda Accords. At least a Honda Accord will usually get you there.
No Time To Bleed!
He Got A Real Good Point Tho
Interesting Quiz Options
Exactly! And you know which answer is for which, it's so obvious. Plus, only a small minority of people actually act like a stereotypical introvert/extrovert.
Vegas Ain't Ready For Them
I Also Feel This Way A Bit
I Dont *look* Like A R*pist Or Serial Killer
I live at night, I unfortunately cannot tell you the number of women I’ve seen looking scared to even be out or on public transports. I feel sorry and angry at the world at the same time.
Don’t Steel My Food?
Note: this post originally had 116 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Thought I'd start the discussion...but I really don't know what to say! Mind blown slightly by all these weirdo things. BP gets odder by the day.....
I have a very important question, how many times did Keith lose his lunch to a squirrel before it was decided that a hungry librarian is bad?
Thought I'd start the discussion...but I really don't know what to say! Mind blown slightly by all these weirdo things. BP gets odder by the day.....
I have a very important question, how many times did Keith lose his lunch to a squirrel before it was decided that a hungry librarian is bad?