We continue our voyage on the ocean of synonyms in the English language and today we are exploring new synonymous groups, among which are useful for use in describing the human person. And, in order not to be mistaken in this delicate matter, it is important to understand all the synonymous tricks and subtleties.
Let's start with the synonymic series of
exact - precise - accurate . Being a synonymous dominant, the value
“exact” (“exact”) unites the whole group. For example, we can say
“I didn’t have an exact date” or
“I said I would find the exact address” (“
She said she would find the exact address ”).
In general, we can use
“exact” and
“precise” as interchangeable synonyms, since
“precise” also implies accuracy:
“That's why he had so many precise numbers” or
“He was precise in his usage of words” .
“Accurate” means rather “true”, but not “exact” (like the two above-mentioned synonyms). In other words,
“accurate” can be understood as something truthful, but it will not always be accurate: the statement “I have $ 79,381 on my bank account” can really be described as very accurate (
“precise” ), but it is not necessarily true (
"Accurate" ). It should also be noted that this word is more often used to describe facts or events. For example:
"The journalist gave an accurate account of the incident" (or "A journalist very accurately described what happened") or
"An accurate description of symptoms" ("Close to accurate / plausible description of symptoms").
Consider the synonymous group
to hide - to conceal - to disguise . In this case, the verb
“to hide” will be the synonymous dominant: its meaning “to hide” maximally generalizes the other two verbs. For example,
“He tried to hide his family” (“He tried to hide his family”) or
“Why did you hide that?” (“Why did you hide it?”).
If we talk about the features of the use of the verb
“to conceal” , then it is
necessary to mention that it is used mainly when we are talking about something that we hide, as a rule, from someone as reliably as possible (in most cases it is not accessible to prying eyes: for example, by covering the object with something or by hiding it completely, in a way that it could not be found:
“ “ Now it makes no sense to try to hide the truth ”) or
"The box was concealed beneath the rocks for centuries" ("For centuries, the box was hidden under the stones"). The last sentence is especially interesting for us: if we use the verb
“to conceal” in it , it will be understood that the box was really specially hidden, and with special care, and, most likely, the stones completely hid it. If we use
“to hide” in this example, it turns out that the casket could not necessarily be hidden on purpose: it could well have happened for some natural reasons (for example, it was filled up with stones), and, quite likely, it did not was completely hidden (for example, it could end up hanging out).
The verb
“to disguise” also has its own important features: it translates more as “mask”, i.e. Do not hide something, but as a rule, just disguise it, change the familiar look so that it is impossible to know: for example,
“He disguised himself with the pair of sunglasses” (“He disguised himself, wearing a pair of sunglasses”) or
“How well you disguised it, thought the Wizard ” (“ How well you disguised it, the Wizard thought).
Let us examine the features of the
savage - uncultured - barbarous synonymous series.
“Uncultured” is a synonymous dominant and has the most neutral meaning of all three synonyms. Sounding in translation as “uncivilized”, “uncultured”, it implies an uncultured person:
“He was so uncultured” (“He was very uncultured”) or
“All members of this society were rude and uncultured” (“All members of this society were rude and uncultured ").
The adjective
“savage” (“wild”) is used, as a rule, when we talk about a person in a strong negative way, actually comparing it with an animal:
“In war, they were savage and cruel, war always makes men so” (“In war they were wild and fierce, because war always makes men so ") or
" You know, I was always more so " (" You know, I have always been wild, and now even more ").
“Barbarous” is still used in most cases when it comes to, for example, some tribes that live according to their almost primitive laws:
“Many of these tribes are barbarous” (“Most of these tribes are wild \ barbarians”) or
“Despite his adoption of these barbarous Byzantine methods, Coloman was a good king and a wise ruler” (“Despite his attachment to these barbarous Byzantine methods, Solomon was a good king and wise ruler”).
Look at the synonymous group
ignorant - uneducated - misinformed . The synonymous dominant here will be
“uneducated” (“uneducated”), implying a very low level of human development in terms of education. As a rule, this adjective describes a person with a lack of education, scholarship and broad outlook:
“He is such an uneducated person” (“What an uneducated person he is”) or
“These are only the tales of uneducated mass” uneducated rabble ").
“Ignorant” is more translated as “ignorant” and is used when describing someone with a very small cultural background (or lack thereof) and a person who does not know basic things that any intelligent person has knowledge of:
“Soon I'll be away from the ocean ” (“ Soon I will be far from the ocean and this crowd of ignorant tourists ”),
“ You are very ignorant ” (“ You are simply ignorant ”).
“Misinformed” means by itself rather than an uneducated person, but a misinformed person, without indicating any of his ignorance:
“She was just misinformed” (“She was just misinformed”) or
“I think he disinformed you” ( "I think he somewhat misinformed you").
Thus, we have dealt with a few more synonymous rows - and are heading for new synonymous territories!
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