For some reason, I’ve always had it in for ‘especially’. I almost always take it out and either work around it or replace it with ‘particularly’. I’ll leave it in if it would otherwise make an awkward sentence or if the context suggests that it is indeed referring to something that has some special characteristic.
This, however, is probably me being idiosyncratic. The Web is full of nebulous distinctions, and there’s no one I trust more than Dopers. So am I in any way justified in yanking ‘especially’ out of sentences? If not, is it completely synonymous with ‘particularly’? If not and it’s not synonymous, how do they differ and when do I use each?
Context is formal, institutional writing. Style is an amalgamation of British and American English.
Sample sentences (please only look at the especially/particularly distinction—I haven’t touched the text otherwise):[ul][li] This tendency has been especially/particularly problematic for small firms, which account for over two-thirds of employment in the Eurozone.[/li][li]The most common argument against such floors is that most governments simply cannot afford them, especially/particularly governments caught in the throes of fiscal crisis or those in poor countries.[/li][li]The crisis was associated with declining revenues in many countries, especially/particularly in the developing world. [/li][li]This has been especially/particularly evident in the three Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.[/li][li]The five countries that were especially/particularly affected by financial crisis had all been characterized by rapid export growth.[/ul][/li]
I am especially grateful for your insight.
To me the slight connotative difference is that ‘especially’ indicates that the situation described is widespread but greater in magnitude in some areas. ‘Particularly’ indicates that the situation described is somewhat widespread but is rather unique to specific areas.
Or, put another way, use ‘particularly’ when you want to highlight the area being differentiated (perhaps to indicate something unique about it) and use ‘especially’ when you want to highlight the magnitude of the differential impact.
Just my .02.
I would use ‘particularly’ for your 2nd and 4th examples. The others seem better served by emphasizing the outsized impact not the particular nature of the subset.
[ul][li] This tendency has been especially/particularly problematic for small firms, which account for over two-thirds of employment in the Eurozone.[/li][li]The most common argument against such floors is that most governments simply cannot afford them, especially/particularly governments caught in the throes of fiscal crisis or those in poor countries.[/li][li]The crisis was associated with declining revenues in many countries, especially/particularly in the developing world. [/li][li]This has been especially/particularly evident in the three Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.[/li][li]The five countries that were especially/particularly affected by financial crisis had all been characterized by rapid export growth.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
For these cases, all options sound fine. If I were to choose, my choices would be:
particularly
especially
particularly
especially
particularly
Looking at my list, I’m trying to rationalize it. Sentence #1 is the one that works best with either. The best I can come up with is that I’m happier with “particularly” where the modified phrase is short, and “especially” where it is long, and perhaps a slight preference for alliteration where possible. Educated native speaker here; my language sense is pretty good for English, though I’m afraid I can’t analyze this one well.
So if they’re relatively interchangeable, I’m okay taking ‘especially’ out whenever I feel like it.
I think what drives my prejudice is that in general, ‘especially’ just doesn’t feel professional or formal. Or maybe it doesn’t feel dignified. Or maybe all those years riding the short bus has given me an irrational disdain for 'special. I don’t know.
But I’m particularly grateful that I can both continue to excise it when I want and leave it in without any worry of changing meaning.
Oh, if it makes a difference original usage was:
especially
especially
especially
particularly
particularly
There was no intent behind the examples; I simply searched on the words and found the first few instances in the current document.
Especially: In an especial manner; principally, chiefly.
In particular: As one distinguished from others of a number; especially, particularly.
Given that one of them is defined by the other, I’d say they are near perfect synonyms. To the extent that there is a difference, it would seem that especially refers to aspects of things and in particular refers to the things themselves. In my writing, I use whichever of the two sounds best, but I’m not really be sure why I believe one sounds better than the other. Is it a question of euphony or meaning? I don’t know.
Interchangeable in most contexts - and thus it’s useful to have both, so you can write things like “I shall be especially grateful if you would send me some widgets, particularly blue ones” (or some such).
There’s a fine distinction between the two. As a francophone I would use the French equivalents spécialement and particulièrement exactly like Dr. Drake suggests.
For me the difference is that “especially” intensifies an adjective, whereas “particularly” intensifies a noun. In the first example, I would say “especially problematic for small firms” if I were emphasizing the “problematic” part, but I would say “problematic particularly for small firms” if I were emphasizing the class of firms.
This is my opinion too. I can’t explain why, but particularly strikes me as a better word in formal documents. I write a lot of reports & submissions (in a formal corporate environment) and I don’t like using especially.
Yeah, to my ear ‘particularly’ certainly sounds better as a word - nice hard consonants and a formal cadence. While ‘especially’ is a long mushy sound with sibilant consonants, almost like talking with a lisp.
I don’t recall where or when but somewhere through the years I’ve gotten the notion that it is not ‘a real word’. My first thought was that it may have been a Strunk & White thing but they actually use the word several times in The Elements of Style.
To me, these words are more or less synonymous and so both would work in all of the examples. However, I feel like there’s a bit of a connotative difference so in a case where that is important it might be worth saying. To me, “especially” is more of an emphasis on the conditions, where as “particularly” is more of an emphasis on the example. I’ll try to ellaborate how I’d use them in the examples.
Especially. You’re talking more about the tendency and not the small firms. Really, the focus seems to be on the employment, so this is probably the most generic case of the examples.
Especially. You’re not providing any examples, you’re emphasizing conditions. Moreso, the context is about the floors not the generic examples.
Especially. Again, you’re focusing on declining revenues and “developing world” very imprecise.
Particularly. This is the strongest example for particularly because you’re focusing on and giving explicit, particular, examples.
Particularly. Not as strong as the last one, since the list isn’t in the sentence, but we know it’s a limited exact set of examples.