Quote:
Originally Posted by John Carroll
If a character in my book addresses someone as 'son' even though the person isn't related as in: "Say, what’s your name, son?” Will this confuse readers whose first language is not English?
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No. It's quite common in several languages, actually. Besides the context is fairly obvious, what kind of father would not know the name of his own son?
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Carroll
I try to make my writing as understandable as possible.
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Stop that. Just write English in whatever way pleases your native understanding of the language. That's what makes it as understandable as possible. If you try to mutilate language in hopes of making it easier to understand for foreigners, you'll just end up confusing everybody instead.