![]() Let’s move onto machines and the onomatopoeias that they create.Ĭlang, bang and rev are all common onomatopoeias that represent the complex sounds that various machines will make.Ī “clang” could be made by the hammer of a blacksmith hitting the anvil but the sound I heard when I was walking past one a few months ago sounded more like a “ching” sound.ĭoes a gun go “bang”? Some guns do, but a lot of them don’t! Some have a very high pitch that can be better represented as “pfft” while an artillery shot has a very deep boom that could be written as “bwoom”. Maybe you can try something else? Catfish often come to the surface to eat and make a sucking sound when they do – “slurp”? “Gargle”? The word gulp is a little plain, but it’s often the only word that fits!įish that live in shallow waters also love to splash which can be more accurately be written as swish which could be written like this: “The fish strove to eat the bread on the surface, making splashes with a swish from their tails.” Mechanical Sounds Probably the best sound to imitate a whale is to write it as “phwargh”. In the 1600 years that English has been alive, nobody has yet to introduce satisfactory onomatopoeic words for fish or whales John Belushi made a joke about this in the film Animal House when he squirted some water from his mouth in order to imitate a whale! Perhaps the toughest onomatopoeic words to write are those associated with water. Noticed how I’ve tried to present the tone and intonation more accurately compared to the the sound that we’re told roosters make – originality makes you memorable! Water Noises Roosters could also be presented as making this sound: “cock a cock a doo”. Likewise we can present sheep as making a sound that can be written as “bargh” or “baaaaa” because there is a deeper, guttural tone to their sound than is commonly perceived.Ī good tip for animal onomatopoeias is to think about every letter that you write rather than going for the childhood cliches that you were presented with. Not all dogs make the ‘’woof’’ sound so let’s look into this a bit more – perhaps some of them make a sound more like this when they bark: “ruff” That is, they have a deeper tone to their bark than the word woof makes it out to be “woof” is a bit too friendly, “ruff” denotes aggression and menace. ![]() All three of these are highly conventional and truth be told, a little bit on the boring side. Sheep make the “baa” sound and roosters make the “cockle a doodle doo” sound. Dogs are normally presented as making the “woof” sound to represent the barking sound that they make. Let’s start with the onomatopoeias that animals make. These words can improve your writing by giving a dramatic effect that brings to life the subject matter that you’re presenting to the reader – and here are 25 onomatopoeic words that will improve your writing and turn you into a writer that writes with an audible impact! Animal Sounds Think about how the word “crunch” sounds like the actual sound produced when you “crunch”, for instance. An onomatopoeic word is a word that sounds like the article, verb or adjective it is describing.
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