"To be sure..." or "...to be sure" - Various characters in Emma
"My one weakness" or "It's my one weakness" - Dorcas Lane in Lark Rise to Candleford)
"My sister, Mrs. Suckling in Maple Grove" - Mrs. Elton in Emma (she has plenty of common phrases)
"Fiddle-dee-dee!" - Scarlett O'hara in Gone with the Wind
"It's *proper name here*, madam!" - Deborah Jenkyns in Cranford
"...Lady Catherine de Bourgh..." (variations) - Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice
"...Lady Catherine de Bourgh..." (variations) - Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice
Interjections are a great source of commonly used words or phrases. Like I've shown above, Scarlett O'hara from Gone with the Wind says "Fiddle-dee-dee!" quite a bit. While reviewing a period drama or book, try to pin-point the different interjections that you spot: they can be quite useful.
How helpful was this tip? I am requesting some help for this tip: are there any interjections or common sayings that you can think of that would be a good example for writing responding letters?
Other than that, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I'll try my best to help out.
God Bless,
Isabella Thorpe says, "my dearest creature!" all the time. :)
ReplyDeleteThis was quite helpful and I'm really looking forward to the event.
I was going to mention Isabella - I wrote as her for a past advice column competition and after have a quick flick through Northanger Abbey, I found plenty of phrases that she uses often :) e.g 'Not that I care for such things...' '...for all the world!' I found most were quite easy to adapt to fit with the situation.
ReplyDeleteA bit of advice just in general: picking characters that use lots of idioms and have a very recognisable manner of speech makes it much easier, as then it's less difficult to imitate their voice :) Jane Austen's comic characters, like Mrs Elton, are ideal.
~Abby