Question for non native English Authors, What do you do in this situation?

FreeKey · Monday at 2:20 AM

I know the problem too!
Except mostly I know a word but that word doesn't feel right.
Usually I just type "[word] synonym" or "[word] antonym" into the online search.
And when I really can't remember a word I use deepl.com to translate. I lake it better than google.

Daeron · Monday at 2:32 AM

Avarice_Of_The_Seven said:
English isn't my first language, so I face several challenges when writing in English. One of the most irritating and difficult part is that, while writing, I get stuck in a line because a certain word isn't coming to mind.

Sometimes, I just don't know the word that's supposed to go there, and sometimes, I know the word, but I just can't recall it at that moment.

It like: The line is supposed to be 'He ditched his friend and ran away.' But the word 'Ditched' isn't coming to mind at that moment.

I try to solve it with this method:
View attachment 47273

What do you guys do in these kinds of situations? What kind of problems do you face while writing?

It's better use Thesaurus instead of depend on AI, especially if you want the words sound more poetic and professional.
I always use Thesaurus from Cambridge version, it has vast choice of words and expressions you want to find.

Cambridge Thesaurus | Synonyms, antonyms and examples

Explore the NEW Cambridge English Thesaurus: Get thousands of synonyms and antonyms with clear explanations of usage and example sentences, in both British and American English.

dictionary.cambridge.org

empalgepuk · Monday at 4:02 AM

I still use Google with keywords "synonyms/antonyms of X"

tiaf · Monday at 4:14 AM

anything is better than AI, please do mother earth and your writing a favor and stop using AI for creative things

If you think thesaurus is too stuck up, then use https://www.wordhippo.com/ and https://www.onelook.com/thesaurus/
If you can't remember a word, put in your languages equivalent in there, in brackets or whatever to mark it and come back to edit it later

CharlesEBrown · Tuesday at 2:59 AM

Note that this even happens to us native speakers.
Most of the time, we borrow the correct word from another language, create a new word, or just GUESS.

LeslieLevendale · Tuesday at 7:45 PM

Avarice_Of_The_Seven said:
English isn't my first language, so I face several challenges when writing in English. One of the most irritating and difficult part is that, while writing, I get stuck in a line because a certain word isn't coming to mind.

Sometimes, I just don't know the word that's supposed to go there, and sometimes, I know the word, but I just can't recall it at that moment.

It like: The line is supposed to be 'He ditched his friend and ran away.' But the word 'Ditched' isn't coming to mind at that moment.

I try to solve it with this method:
View attachment 47273

What do you guys do in these kinds of situations? What kind of problems do you face while writing?

Many languages have a much larger vocabulary than English. If your mother tongue is one of those languages you'll struggle finding the right words time to time. Especially when you still think about your story in your own language and try to capture the atmosphere of a particular word in English. sometimes synonym thesaurus pages can help you chose the right word with the right feeling to it. Try for instance: Cambridge Thesaurus | Synonyms, antonyms and examples

DismaiNaim · 2026-03-11T03:42:30+0000

LeslieLevendale said:
Many languages have a much larger vocabulary than English.

Actually if you Google that ...

LeslieLevendale · 2026-03-11T11:19:08+0000

DismaiNaim said:
Actually if you Google that ...

Yes, you are absolutely right. If you google it, English is usually pretty much on the top of the league table when it comes to the headwords. This is partly due to the fact that English absorbs words from everywhere. However, if you look at the league table based on the total possible word forms the picture is very-very different. As a bilingual person, my experience is that when it comes to writing a novel it's not so much the headwords which count but more the total word forms.
It would be nice to hear from other bi-(multi)-lingual authors about their experiences.

Question for non native English Authors, What do you do in this situation?

FreeKey

New member

Daeron

Kin-Slayer

Cambridge Thesaurus | Synonyms, antonyms and examples

empalgepuk

Active member

tiaf

ゞ(シㅇ3ㅇ)っ•♥•Speak fishy, read BL.•♥•

CharlesEBrown

Well-known member

LeslieLevendale

New member

DismaiNaim

Well-known member

LeslieLevendale

New member