If you are anything like me, you are probably doing a lot of self-editing as part of your writing process. If so, you may have often wondered how many people would use one expression instead of another during a certain historical period; which version of a word was in use at the era of your book, or even when a word first appeared in the English language.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to ask?
An unlikely tool to help you with all this does exist–and is completely free: Google Ngram. This little-known part of Google books can be a life-saver not only when you strive for historical accuracy but also if you wish to see which word form to prefer when writing. It checks millions of books (in more than one languages, too, if you so wish) to determine in helpful graphs how often a word is used in literature. It also lets you compare different versions of a word to see which one is more popular. If said popularity has fluctuated with time, Ngram will also tell you that.
Many thanks to my editor friend, Lorelei Logsdon, for this gem of a tip. I hope you find it as useful in your writing as I have!
Sounds DELICIOUS, Nick… a feast for data nerds, whether for writing or not!
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Enjoy to your analytic heart’s content, my dear!
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Reblogged this on Bridgitte Lesley and commented:
Very handy! Thanks for this post Nicholas and Lorelei! Bridgitte
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Curious little gem there. 🙂
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I know, right? It looks like a solution searching for problems 🙂
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Is that better or worse than the other way around?
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Better. Always better. Soooo much more fun.
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Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Great tip. Thank you!
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So glad you found it useful, Val 🙂
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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It’s a useful tip indeed. Thanks to you both and Chris.
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Thank you, Cynthia! I’m so glad you found it useful 🙂
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Thanks! Looks useful.
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Glad you think so, Darlene! Thank you 🙂
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This will be handy, thanks!
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Yay! Glad you found it useful 🙂
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This is a brilliant tool, Nicholas. It will be invaluable to me.
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Yay! So glad to hear it 😀
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Reblogged this on Where Genres Collide.
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Great tip, Nicholas! Thank you very much. Never heared before about his. Michael
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I know, it’s one of those little things that can be really useful but no one’s ever heard of them!
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So true Nicholas! Many thanks for your tip. Have a great week ahead. Michael
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