Vary Your Word Choice Using Synonyms

In a piece of text, there are a variety of different ways to describe how somebody speaks, walks or behaves.

If you want to describe how a character speaks, you could choose from synonyms such as: replied, snapped, laughed, answered, murmured, yelled, giggled, gasped, whispered, shrieked, screamed, asked, exclaimed, shouted, hollered, sneered, muttered, grumbled, wailed, groaned, whimpered, protested, confessed.

Synonyms are words or phrases that have the same meaning or almost the same meaning as one another.

Rather than writing:

"I'm going to the funfair today!" Alice said.

You could write:

"I'm going to the funfair today!" Alice giggled excitedly.

"I'm going to the funfair today!" Alice chuckled excitedly.

Adding either of these synonyms makes the narrator's description of Alice more vivid and reveals additional information.

Now, let's put your understanding of synonyms to the test!

Over to you.