"I love studying English!" the student said satirically - Teacher Stumpers |
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Recently, I was teaching class and I encountered the always difficult to explain and understand “ironically.” I have often times messed this up in my head trying to explain it, but then my student asked me what “satirically” means and what the difference was. I was not able to come up with a quick answer. So I decided to do some research.
First, let's start with ironically. It is the adverb of “ironic” which means “the opposite of what you expected to happen.” For example,
He bought 20 lilies for his girlfriend, hoping to surprise her. Ironically, she was allergic to lilies. She started sneezing and almost went to the hospital.
In the above example, he wanted his girlfriend to be happy with the flowers. However, she is allergic, so she is very not happy with the flowers. He expected her to be happy, but she wasn't. This is ironic.
Satirically is a little different. Satirically is the adverb of “satire” which means “using sarcasm, irony, or ridicule to describe human weaknesses.” For example,
“I only drink the finest wine.” he said satirically as he drank from his $4 a bottle wine.
In the above example, he is ridiculing the higher class of wine drinkers, but he is in fact drinking a cheap bottle of wine. Satirically can often be replaced by sarcastically. Sarcastically is in fact more often used in daily speech and in writing.
There is yet another word that is a little similar, “paradoxically.” It is the adverb of the noun “paradox” which means “a statement that seems to prove the opposite of itself.” i.e. a statement that seems untrue but is really true. For example,
Paradoxically, global warming can actually cause some parts of the world to cool down.
This is a paradox because it seems global warming should warm the whole world up, but it does not.
What do you think? Can you make sentences using paradoxically, satirically, or ironically? Give it a try in the comments below.
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| Last Updated on Friday, 24 April 2009 15:46 |
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Comments
Or am I being satirical?!
Paradoxically, the company attended the job fair to hire more new workers just after the big downsizing.
Hanako got 95% on her test; nevertheless her teacher advised her to work more to get 100% satirically.
I was afraid to be late for the meeting, so I hurried to the station to catch the earlier train. Ironically, the meeting started 2 hours late.
Although I\'m an English teacher, it\'s hard to distinguish those words. Isn\'t it ironic, don\'t you think?
All of these are good sentences. For paradoxically, you might say \"Paradoxically, the company did a lot of downsizing because they were doing well. They became so efficient they didn\'t need all of the employees.\"
The other day, I corrected 'satorial' with satirical. And was told, not all together ironically, that no, he meant satorial.
Okay, cheating -I'm a teacher not a student
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