Guys, do you also do sound effects instead of using words? I do this quite a lot: brrrrm brrrrrmmmmm went the truck, and pkccwwoowwwww it blew up. The plane went nyyyeeeeeowwwwwmmmmmbuddabuddabuddabuddabuddabuddatake that you razzinfrazzinbuddabuddabuddabuddapkowww.
In my experience, it’s mostly guys who go chk chk chk chk gbbbmmmm to describe things. Not many women I know do sound effects like oowwwwoooooooooo and gwarf, gwarf! and reawrrrrrrhcckckkckkkfffftfffft and so on.
I mean, I have a pretty good vocabulary and all, but sometimes I just gotta make sound effects. Anyone else?
I do the same thing, and I have a pretty extensive vocabulary when it comes to descriptive words. However, sometimes only sound effects will do to truly capture whatever you’re describing.
A good friend of mine and I will have whole conversations consisting of mostly sound effects, that sound completely meaningless to those listening, but we can understand each other perfectly
I forget the statistics exactly, but I recall hearing about some research done on the sounds made by children at play. For girls, something like 90% of the noises made were dialogue. Boys had something like 45% speech and the rest onomatapaeia.
Compare, “PPththttththbrrrrrrmmmmmm, brmmmmm…” with
" ‘How are you Mr truck?’
‘I’m fine thank you Mr car. Shall we go and do some shopping?’ "
My favorite is my imitation of rubbing something off a piece of glass with your finger. It’s done in the back of the throat and is dead on, if I do say so. Well, at least people laugh at it. Or at me. Either way.
In lots of households (and schools) when little girls do the onomatopoeia thing they get corrected for acting out, drawing attention to themselves, being indecorous, etc.