Loud
Exceptional Expressions For Everyday Events
Rarely are students told to be loud in a classroom. It is much more likely for students to hear that they are too loud. But there are times when students are asked to “think out loud” or “read out loud.”
Loud is an excellent word to discuss in class, particularly in comparison to its opposite—quiet. A word line with loud at one end and quiet at the other can be useful to make distinctions about relative noise levels.
Follow-Ups
- How can thinking out loud be helpful in group work?
- When is being loud distracting to others?
- Are there appropriate and inappropriate times to be loud?
- How is reading out loud beneficial to students?
The Spanish Connection
The word loud comes from a common West Germanic or Old English word hlud. The Spanish word for loud is not a cognate. But some of the synonyms for loud do have Spanish cognates. For example, the cognate of the word sonorous is sonoro(a).
Word Changes
- Loud is most common as an adjective, referring to a high volume of noise, whereas its opposite, quiet, may serve as a verb, noun, or adjective. When we want to describe the manner is which a sound occurs, we might use a morphological family member, the adverb loudly.
- The adjective loud can describe an object that is considered offensive or tasteless, such as clothing in bright colors that clash.
- The prefix a- typically changes the definition of a word to its opposite. For example, atypical means not typical. But in the case of aloud, the prefix a- changes the meaning to “with a voice” or “audibly.”
