Understanding 19th Century Writing

19th century writing is usually quite formal, whereas modern writing is usually much more conversational in comparison.

​

c.19th language is usually much more verbose, too – meaning that the text is usually very wordy and overly-complicated. Think how elaborately they dressed back then – lots of fine lace, layers, hats, gloves etc. – so their language was just as ornate and over the top at their clothes!

​

The vocabulary tended to be more complex too; used more polysyllabic words in their writing (as in words with more than one syllable) and Latin Root Words, as in words based on latin.

​

For instance they might use “abbreviate” instead of “short” or “generate” instead of “start” or “elevate” instead of “lift”.

​

​