One of the biggest fears for many non-native speakers is not knowing what something means, or having native speakers wonder what you are talking about. A big reason for that is because you speak in a way that makes your meaning ambiguous, or unclear. Follow some of these tips to make your speaking and writing more clear and avoid confusion!
Use specific vocabulary
One of the reasons people may get confused is that you use a roundabout way to describe something. If you use specific nouns (“the blue pencil” instead of saying “that”, “my mother” instead of saying “she”) is a great way to start.
For example, saying “It can jump” can be improved by saying “The frog can jump”. That way, even if there are a group of animals that can jump, the listener or reader knows what you are talking about. This is especially true with pronouns.
When you are talking about a group of boys or a group of women, use their names rather than saying he, him, she, or her all the time.
You can also use specific verbs. The classic example is with the verb said. Instead of always saying that he said and she said, replace those words with better descriptors of their behavior.
For example, saying whispered, shouted, responded, questioned, or another verb makes it more clear what the person is feeling. This is also true for actions. If someone is eating very fast, they can wolf down a meal, inhale the food, or devour something.
If they are running very fast, you can say they are sprinting to the park, racing to be the first person, or dashing to get home on time. As a general rule, try to avoid using the adverb “very”; there is always a word to describe what you mean. If you try to use more descriptive words, it will also force you to improve your vocabulary!
Make sure adverbs and adjectives directly proceed or follow what they describe
Often, confusion comes from not understanding what an adverb or adjective is describing. A common example of this is called the misplaced modifier. If you have a misplaced modifier, you have a phrase that is placed in a sentence. This phrase could describe at least two things in the sentence. In other words, what it is supposed to describe is unclear. Take the following example:
- The dog was eating his favorite snack resting on the floor mat.
When you look at this sentence, do you imagine that the dog is on the floor mat? Or is it his favorite snack that is on the floor mat? This is the misplaced modifier at work. While you probably imagined that the dog was the one resting on the floor mat, it is unclear. People could interpret this sentence either way. To make the sentence more clear, you could rewrite it like this:
- The dog was resting on the floor mat and eating his favorite snack.
- The dog, resting on the floor mat, was eating his favorite snack.
- The dog was eating his favorite snack that was resting on the floor mat.
The first two mean that the dog was on the floor mat. The third example means that it was the snack on the floor mat.
Be aware of commonly confused words
If you make a mistake with these words, it usually is not a big deal. The meanings of words that sound the same are usually different enough to still understand your meaning. However, typos, bad pronunciation, and other mistakes can confuse people. Some commonly confused words include:
- They’re, their, and there
- Affect and effect
- Boring and bored; entertaining and entertained
- Borrow and lend
- Then and than
- Quiet and quite
Use the correct prepositions, phrasal verbs, and idioms
With certain verbs, the preposition that you use (or don’t use) makes a big difference! It is much better if you memorize these, and always remember to use the correct preposition with those verbs. For listen, for example, we always say listen to. For some other verbs, such as give, for instance, the meaning varies! For example:
- Give to: What you can do with a birthday present; I give the present to you.
- Give in: To concede something, or to admit that you do not want to fight anymore; I will give in and just try sweet potato, but don’t be mad if I honestly don’t like it!
- Give up: To stop trying something because it is not going well; I really love to draw but I think I have to give up trying to become a professional artist.
Use shorter sentences
When in doubt, use shorter sentences. Conjunctions, or words that connect sentences like and, or, but, because, and so are usually great! They clarify the relationship between ideas. However, you can definitely overuse them.
The longer the sentence is, the more the person has to keep track of if they are reading something. If you can break down complex ideas into short chunks, people are more likely to be interested, and more likely to understand!
Remember, the best explanations are not the ones that are the longest. They are the ones that people actually can learn from, because they are understandable!
As a rule of thumb (a general rule), sentences should not be longer than 2.5-3 lines. If you can keep about 80% of them under 25 words, that is ideal!
