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Today I was confused about the word, 'via' I have seen this word in many texts, but I have not heard in oral communication. I tried to search the word 'via' is used in spoken language, but I am not sure yet.

Is there any good way to distinguish the words are for the spoken language or written language? such as if I put a word on a website, the website shows me that the word is used in spoken or written language.

Thank you in advance.

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  • Hello. It is not clear to me what you are asking. Do you mean that there are some words or phrases that are in general not used in written language? Even those words are written when expressing dialogue or writing in an informal style. The term for such works is “colloquial” or “slang.” A dictionary will indicate that. Words that express utterances that are not really words, for example “Eek!” Or “Oops!” may also count. FWIW, “via” is a legitimate word that can be used in formal writing.
    – Damila
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 1:49
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    I've heard "via" spoken numerous times when someone was describing a travel route. Though "by way of" is probably the more common spoken term.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 1:54
  • (And not sure how you'd search for a word in "spoken language" on the Internet.)
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 1:54
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    @Damila Well, traditionally, the abbreviations i.e. and e.g. are not spoken; when reading a text out loud, i.e. is replaced with "that is" and e.g. is replaced with "for example."
    – Sophie Swett
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 2:25
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    Good point, @TannerSwett though those are not really words. Nor are they abbreviations for English words. I think I have heard people say ”eye-ee,” but maybe they were being intentionally affected. Good point nevertheless.
    – Damila
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 2:45

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Is there any good way to distinguish the words are for the spoken language or written language?

For the most part, every word that's used in written English is used in spoken English, and vice versa. If you see it in writing, then you can use it in speech, too, and vice versa.

The only exceptions I can think of are certain pieces of Internet slang which were created as abbreviations or emoticons rather than as words. Examples of this are "rofl" (an abbreviation of "rolling on the floor laughing") and "owo" (an emoticon; the "o"s are eyes and the "w" is a cat-like mouth). Although "rofl" and "owo" are common in colloquial Internet writing, they are extremely rare in speech.

Also, certain written words are used mostly for representing speech. For example, consider the following two written questions:

  • What do you want to do?
  • Whaddya wanna do?

The first version is the normal, common way to write this question. The second version is a special, unusual way of writing the question which indicates a fluent, relaxed way of pronouncing the question out loud.

The pronunciation indicated by writing "Whaddya wanna do?" is very common, but actually writing it that way is much less common.

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  • Although you said all words except abbreviations in written language could be used in spoken language, the words such as 'therefore', 'nonetheless' are not common in spoken language, aren't they?
    – Philip LEE
    Commented Jan 22, 2020 at 17:29
  • @PhilipLEE Well, that's true. The words "therefore" and "nonetheless" sound somewhat literary; they're more common in writing than in speech, I think. But they're still reasonably common in speech.
    – Sophie Swett
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 4:10

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