: Avoid repeating specific words with no synonyms For a short essay assignment (650 word limit), I'm writing about how my experiences with learning Norwegian shaped me as an individual with the

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A word repeated too many times in close confines can sound trite, but look at the would-be repetition as an opportunity to exercise your creativity. Instead of looking for a synonym, consider the places where you would repeat Norwegian as opportunities to provide more information about the subject.

To learn more about Norwegian, I meet with Dr Bångun Ølufsėn, a
professor of his country's language at the national
university. "Ya, sure," the Oslo native says, "sure looks like
snow. But you gonna be ready if you have the blood of our people
in your veins. This country's landscape is blanketed in snow more
often than it is not. You have to be ready, and our traditions
make virtues of preparedness for this part of the world's
weather."

In this short example I've marked in bold several instances that I might have used the word Norwegian but used some other construct instead.

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Yes, there's a general rule against repeating a word, but like many rules, it must be applied reasonably. If you're writing about Norway and the Norwegian language, it's likely you'll have to repeat "Norway" and "Norwegian" a fair number of times. While common words can often be replaced with synonyms, proper nouns usually cannot.

I would definitely NOT look for poetic phrases to replace "Norway". I've read things where the writer comes up with alternate phrases like "that snowy land", "the far-northern nation", and so on, and usually that is more distracting than repeating "Norway". As @what notes, referring to Norway as Viking this or that is likely to introduce technical inaccuracies that would be distracting to the more knowledgeable reader.

If the only country you're talking about is Norway, then you could often replace "Norway" with simple words like "it", "there", "that country", and so on. In some cases any reference to the place might be left out as assumed. Similarly for references to the people and the language. Like to take a deliberately extreme example, if my first draft of a sentence said, "When I arrived in Norway I found that Norway is a beautiful country and that Norway has many forests and a long coastline", I'd probably rewrite that to something like, "When I arrived in Norway I fount that it is a beautiful country with many forests and a long coastline."

Without seeing your text it's hard to say how awkward or natural it sounds. 19 uses of "Norway" or "Norwegian" in 618 words means about once per 30 words, or maybe once every 2 sentences or so? That seems high, but not ridiculous. It's not like you're writing "Norway" 3 times per sentence.

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