Descriptive Words

​VIVID VERBS & DESCRIPTIVE WORDS

BENTALONE GRANDE-GASCO​

A descriptive word describes or gives us more information about things. A descriptive word can be a color, size, shape, texture, or number, to name a few! Descriptive words help you understand more when you're reading. We can start with using descriptive words of things we can see.

​Descriptive words

Vivid verbs show (vividly) rather than tell. These verbs help show what's happening mentally or physically to a character. They paint a picture in your reader's mind.

​Vivid verbs

​WHAT ARE THEY?

​Difference Between The Two

If both vivid verbs and descriptive words are used to describe things then what is the big difference? Well, vivid verbs are used to describe an act with more showing than telling while descriptive words basically changes words that aren't verbs to paint a picture in our minds.

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For example: Harry ran down the raceway as his happy mother cheered him on.​ ​

ran is a verb and a happy is a not a verb so a common word. You can also refer to it as an emotion.

We can replace ran with raced as racing shows that he was competing with others to pass the finish line first. Running shows that he was moving fast with his legs but it doesn't show that he was determined. He could have been running slowly but by using a vivid verb like racing shows that he had a goal to win.

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​We can replace happy with ecstatic because happy is another commonly used word. When someone is happy, they could be satisfied about something that makes them happy for a while. Happy could also mean something else like to be grateful, grateful doesn't really connect with the mother's feelings here. So imagine you are the mother watching your son at the race, describe your emotion.

​Descriptive Words

I Think That...

​You would be excited or even thrilled. This is the type of happy we are looking for because it shows that you were really happy. Words have different stages of "stress". What I mean is that there could be some words that mean happy that could signify that you were a little bit happy whereas other words that mean happy could signify that you were so happy.

​Descriptive Words

So we can ultimately replace happy with ecstatic which means feeling or expressing overwhelming happiness or joyful excitement.​ This shows that she was extremely happy.

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​NEW SENTENCE:

​Harry raced down the raceways as his ecstatic mother cheered him on.

Open Ended

Write your own way of saying this sentence descriptively. Only change the words in italics.

Harry ran down the raceways as his happy mother cheered him on.

Extra Words

Sometimes you need to add an extra word when changing a word from weak to vivid or descriptive. For instance,

My brother entered the bus and looked out the window. You can change entered to darted. Yet you cannot say my brother darted the bus... so you need to add a word somewhere to make the sentence understandable.

You need to say My brother darted into the bus...​

Subject | Subject

Open Ended

In your own words, what is the difference between vivid verbs and descriptive words?

Complete homework on printed page before next week Sunday.​ (15th)

Thanks For Your Time!