: Re: How do you write dialog for a character with malapropism without it seeming forced? I have a character who has a tendency towards malapropism but I find that in every sentence she speaks I

@Bryan361

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If you think it sounds forced, it's probably forced. Try reading your writing out loud to yourself - it can really help you find knots in the flow of dialogue.

Thoughts on how to fix this:

The words you're replacing them with don't seem similar enough.

I.e, milk into built is a really far stretch to me. Inquisition to inquiry, too - since the syllables don't match. (As best I can tell, all the examples of malapropism I've seen had words of similar lengths.)

Too many per a sentence.

I'm saying this because - without the translations - I can't make heads or tails of what the sentences are supposed to mean. Most examples of real malapropism seem so close to being right that it often takes me a moment to spot the wrong word.

Smaller, common words shouldn't be swapped.

Again, looking at real-world examples, it usually seems like everything else in the sentence is fine other than one or two 'trouble' words - words that are either complicated, or harder to pronounce.

So in the sentence:

"If you persist i'll have the sane as our dandy, with less built" - if
you insist i'll have the same as our lady, with less milk

I feel like same wouldn't be a word she'd replace, as those aren't the words one usually has to 'think' over.

But again, after writing her sentences I'd keeping reading them over to yourself and editing and reading again until you think it sounds natural - in fact, saying the sentence normally and seeing if there are any words you trip or hesitate over might help you find words to replace that you previously hadn't thought of.

Fun fact: as a child I always said Jurassic instead of drastic because I thought it was supposed to be pronounced dur-astic.

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