If a word exists it’s because there’s a reasonable, targeted use for it someplace (like there). But often, we writers fall into a habit of overusing it and its various forms. Sometimes this is due to the word’s prevalence in informal speech, which has fewer rules—and is lazier—than writing. At that point, our word starts to become diluted, having very little meaning. And certainly, we all want to avoid watered-down vocabulary. At least, some of us do.
Something Vague This Way Comes
The word I’m thinking of is some. I’ll bet you guessed that just from its overuse in the first paragraph. But it wouldn’t be easy to replace any of those examples except, perhaps, the last one, would it? Because some and its spin-offs do have a meaning. Webster defines some as “being an unknown, undetermined, or unspecified thing or unit.” By its very nature, it’s vague and ill-defined. A word to avoid when possible in a profession that prides itself on the choice of precise and colorful verbiage.
Some Ideas for Reducing Some
Here’s the easiest place to start—uses of some that really only require an a. Because our good ol’ mother tongue provides us with an article that is itself “a function word used before singular nouns when the referent is unspecified.”
If your urge is to say
“Some passer-by must have left the chair on the sidewalk”
why not just make it
“A passer-by must have left the chair on the sidewalk”?
Barbara Pym fans like me are probably thinking rebelliously, “Yeah, but what about Some Tame Gazelle?” The title of that beautiful book is taken from a poem by Thomas Haynes Bayly:
Some tame gazelle, some gentle dove,
Something to love, oh, something to love.
Clearly, a tame gazelle would have meant the same thing. But the multiple somes play out well here. All I can say in my defense is that poetry has its own rules, and they’re not exactly the same as those of prose. Patterning is great in a poem, but it doesn’t often succeed that well in prose. Just be conscious of that when you choose your words.
Some Other Examples
Adverbial daughters of some can be trickier to replace, but sometimes (oops! Not always!) it can be done.
“Sometimes toward the end of the morning, there came a knock at the door”
could just as easily read
“Toward the end of the morning, there came a knock at the door”
because the whole prepositional phrase indicates an unspecified time. To add anything becomes redundant.
Likewise,
“Somewhere, in one of those cradles, lies the Einstein of the next generation”
could just as easily read
“In one of those cradles lies the Einstein of the next generation.”
To Sum Up
In other words… when possible, use other words. Don’t rely too hard on the bland fallback of some and her children. There will be unavoidable occasions to take the easy way out, but vary your choices. You’ll be rewarded in an unspecified place over the rainbow.
