ESL Blogs

Shush! Zoom! ‘Beep, beep’. Meow! Buzz. Hum… Before you think I’m writing like crazy, kindly read on my blog. Are you familiar what a dog’s bark can sound like? How about the sound of an airplane hovering around the port or perhaps the rustle of the wind and trees? Have you guessed the topic already?

Tweet, tweet! Any idea? Swoosh… That’s fine. Those highlighted words above are sounds (and other examples such as screech, ‘woof, woof’, ‘honk’ and ‘oink, oink’) are called onomatopoeia. Ono what? It sounds like food! Oh no, not at all… In fact, Onomatopoeia is a Greek word which means ‘to make words using sounds’.

The BBC Learning English defines it as ‘the word that sounds like the thing it means’. It’s quite easy, isn’t it? There are always different sounds wherever we go and they are part of our lives whether we like them or not. Some are amusing to our ears whilst others are annoying. The next paragraphs are about some onomatopoeic words and their meanings which I gathered online as well as from what I heard in my surroundings.

When we’re stuck in traffic, we usually hear lots of ‘honks’ from different sides of the road. ‘Honk, honk’ are the sounds that cars, trucks and other vehicles make; whereas they ‘zoom’ to move so quickly or with a high speed. Vehicles also ‘rumble’ - a long deep sound. A ‘buzz’, on the other hand is a short sound that insects make particularly the flying ones such as bees and wasps. Then there’s ‘rustle’ of the wind and trees. When you’re in a forest or in a park full of plants and trees, you would easily hear those sounds. It’s quite relaxing!

In addition, ‘swoosh’ means to move quickly through air or water with a smooth or gentle sound (McMillan Dictionary). A ‘hum’ is a low continuous sound that appliances make like a fridge or an AC unit. Meanwhile, music can be blaring. A ‘blare’ is a loud unpleasant sound. Some youngsters listen or play the music very loud that radio component could almost explode he he.

Please take note that onomatopoeic words and its sounds vary depending on the language. They could have very different sounds since every country has its own distinct ways of interpreting them.

Grammar Note

Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech which words imitate the sounds they describe (English Literature Hub). Don’t get confused it with interjections. An interjection is a part of speech which means an expression of sudden surprise or emotion and it can stand alone as a sentence. Common interjections are ‘Ouch!’, ‘Hooray’ and ‘Yippy’.

Some onomatopoeic words could be used as interjections though. For example, ‘Boom! That was an outstanding performance.’ The interjection ‘Boom’ is used here for added compliment when someone is feeling surprised. Well technically, a boom is a sound when something explodes, right? But interjections could not be onomatopoeic. For example, ‘Ouch!’ means a sudden pain and there’s no sound it refers to other than an expression of being hurt. I hope you have understood the topic easily!

To further learn this lesson, here’s a short, funny video about onomatopoeia. Try not to dance with it! LOL…

What other onomatopoeic words can you add to this blog? Share them in the comment section below. Anyway, I’m still curious what does the fox say! Boom! Thank you for reading this blog.