It’s one thing to ensure your writing has perfect grammar and spelling. It’s another skill altogether to ensure that your writing is compelling, captivating, and informative. That’s a much tougher task, because you need to capture your readers’ attention and retain that attention throughout what you want to say.
In the past, I’ve discussed such writing tools as including a portmanteau or experimenting with synecdoche and metonymy. Today, we approach a different tactic: integrating words and phrases from a foreign language. By doing so, you have the opportunity to add an air of worldly sophistication to your piece that may not be as easy to achieve otherwise.
As with so many other strategies to improve your writing, this one must also be used with extreme discretion. You also need to consider your audience, because using this tactic with the wrong group may make you appear pompous, arrogant, or elitist. Used with the right audience, however, it can add that certain je ne sais quoi we all desire.
I’m using French as an example here, because the French language is generally perceived as romantic and beautiful, but a similar tactic can be successfully employed with a different language too. In an case, here a few examples of French phrases that you may consider including in some of your future work.
- avant garde: cutting edge, new and unusual ideas
- bourgeoisie: middle class, often with perceived materialistic values
- chanteuse: a female singer
- creme de la creme: cream of the crop, best of the best
- faux pas: false step, a tactless action in a social setting
- joie de vivre: the joy of life
- laissez-faire: a philosophy of “let do” or non-interference
- mon Dieu!: my God!
- nouveau riche: newly rich (class of people)
- prix fixe: a fixed priced (set) menu
- raison d’etre: reason for being, purpose in life
- tete-a-tete: head to head, an intimate/private conversation
- tout de suite: right away
- vis-a-vis: face to face with, in comparison with or in relation to
And if you’re wondering about je ne sais quoi, it translates directly as “I don’t know what” and refers to the “certain something” that makes something desirable. It’s intangible and oftentimes indescribable.
Tabernac!
Long time no see. People mountain, people sea.
I don’t try to use 50 cent words in my writing very often. If I am writing a technical piece for my tech support or education blog that is where I would enhance the text with technical terms.
I was taught in college writing classes and especially in the workplace that you should write at an extremely low level of understanding so not to turn off any reader. Not everyone has a higher level of reading skills, as I can attest to being in K-12 education.
If you use fancy words, more often than not you will turn off a person after one post.
Just my thoughts…
That’s why I said you have to be very mindful of your audience. It isn’t suitable for all kinds of writing, to be sure.
True, it’s the audience of the blog or writing that makes the use of words or phrases suitable.
My thought process is that my from above comes from what my teachers always taught me, to always write to the lowest common denominator. They were always looking at whether we were writing to the masses or to the minority. Of course they didn’t express it like you have, they just hammered away at ease of reading, no matter the audience.
There are times when I write something even a post that needs to be technical in the most common words I can because inevitably there will be someone who doesn’t understand or thinks they know what a word means and misinterprets what the actual text means.
French is the really the language of love and romance which touch the heart of our loved one’s.