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Saying that this car is "Gorgeous" and "Extraordinarily beautiful" would be using emotive language

Emotive Language

Harness emotive language for GCSE English. Learn how words, tone, and sentence choices stir feelings, strengthen arguments, and guide a reader’s response.

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Fascinating Fact:

Sentence length carries emotion, a short blast like This must stop adds urgency after a longer explanation.

In GCSE English, emotive language is used to influence readers’ feelings and judgments. Writers combine charged vocabulary, connotations, imagery, and sentence variety to create urgency, sympathy, anger, or hope in a text.

Key Terms

Emotive language: Words and phrases chosen to provoke a specific emotional response in the reader.
Connotation: The ideas and feelings a word suggests beyond its literal dictionary meaning.
Pathos: A persuasive appeal that targets the audience’s emotions, often used alongside logic and credibility.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What is emotive language in GCSE English?

Emotive language is vocabulary and phrasing that aims to make the reader feel something, such as sympathy, anger, or excitement, to strengthen the writer’s viewpoint.

How do I spot emotive language in a text?

Look for charged adjectives and verbs, value-laden nouns, rhetorical questions, and sentences placed to heighten sympathy or urgency. Ask, “What emotion is this sentence trying to trigger?”

Is emotive language the same as persuasive language?

No. Persuasive writing uses many tools (logic, evidence, structure). Emotive language is one tool within persuasion that targets feelings to support an argument.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

'Gorgeous-looking model in immaculate condition - test drive today!' - Which are the emotive words in this car advert?

Gorgeous-looking, model

Gorgeous, immaculate

model, condition, test

immaculate, test, today

2 .

'Doctor escapes jail for botched surgery' - Which are the emotive words in this headline?

Doctor, jail

Doctor, botched

escapes, jail

escapes, botched

Using the word 'escapes' implies that the judgement is faulty and that the doctor should be in jail

3 .

'Devious employee fleeces nursing home owner' - Which are the emotive words in this headline?

Devious, employee, owner

Devious, employee, home

Devious, fleeces

Employee, Employer

4 .

'Weasels will live anywhere smelly / Inside a maggoty sheep carcase / Or a rotted tree-stump, / A crumbled wall crevice or a fish hole / In the riverbank. Their innocent babies / Nest tight at the back of the holes.' - Which are the emotive words used by John Tripp in these lines from his poem, 'Weasels'?

Weasels, live, inside, crumbled, crevice, hole

live, anywhere, fish, nest, holes

smelly, maggoty, rotted, carcase, innocent, babies, nest, tight

innocent, babies, nest, tight

This poem presents a beautiful contrast between our unpleasant emotions associated with weasels and with the reality of weasels as animals which nurture their young

5 .

'Can you really abandon these puppies to life in such filthy kennels?' - Which are the emotive words in this appeal?

Can, abandon, kennels

you, really, abandon

really, puppies, filthy

abandon, puppies, filthy

Further emotive elements include the use of the rhetorical question and intensifiers such as 'really' and 'such'. 'Puppies' is emotive here, because the word has a stronger emotional pull than 'dog'

6 .

'Make your wardrobe sparkle with our desirable new winter collection!' - Which are the emotive words in this advert?

Make, wardrobe, winter

wardrobe, desirable, collection

sparkle, winter, collection

sparkle, desirable, new

The implication is that your clothing is dull and out-of-date. This is one of the key purposes of advertisements and is more subtle than the purely emotive words

7 .

'Our obesity-conquering cookbook is bursting with easy, fun recipes to try!' - Which are the emotive words in this blurb?

obesity, bursting, try

obesity-conquering, bursting, easy, fun

obesity-conquering, easy, recipes, try

bursting, recipes, try

8 .

'How else dispose of an immortal force / No longer needed? / Staunch it at its source / With cinder loads dumped down? / The brook was thrown / Deep in a sewer dungeon under stone / In fetid darkness still to live and run' - Which are the emotive words used by Robert Frost in these lines from his poem, 'A Brook in the City'?

immortal, force, source, cinder, down, thrown, stone, live, run

dispose, immortal, staunch, dumped, thrown, sewer, dungeon, fetid

dispose, needed, cinder, down, dungeon, still, live, run

All of the words in these lines are examples of emotive language

9 .

'Thugs taunt victim after brutal mugging' - Which are the emotive words in this headline?

Thugs, victim

Thugs, mugging

Thugs, taunt, brutal

Thugs, taunt, victim, brutal, mugging

This is an extremely emotive headline - each of the words could be replaced with a neutral term

10 .

'If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs / Bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues' - Which are the emotive words used by Wilfred Owen in these lines from 'Dulce et Decorum Est'?

jolt, blood, lungs, cud, sores

gargling, froth-corrupted, lungs

hear, gargling, bitter, tongues

jolt, gargling, froth-corrupted, bitter, vile, incurable sores, innocent

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)