Questions

Question

I stepped out of my car and looked at the house. It was located just out of town next to a forest. Complete stillness except for the faint sound of highway traffic.

Questions:

Is it grammatically correct and natural English? Please comment.

Is stillness natural here? Does it only refer to sound?

Is 'complete' more natural than 'absolute'?

Is 'faint' more natural than 'distant'?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

anonymousIs it grammatically correct and natural English? Please comment.

Yes. The third "sentence" is not a sentence, as I guess you already know, but such liberties are often taken in fiction. The sequence of thought is a bit out of kilter, though. For example, you just got done driving there, but you had to look at the house to determine that it was just out of town. Also, the sentence fragment jars, sitting as it does among such plain declarative sentences.

anonymousIs stillness natural here? Does it only refer to sound?

"Stillness" is good. I took it to be referring to silence without a second thought. The word can also refer to absence of motion, but not this time.

anonymousIs 'complete' more natural than 'absolute'?

"Absolute" is stronger, more definite. That makes "complete" better here because you have bigger fish to fry right now.

anonymousIs 'faint' more natural than 'distant'?

"Faint" is right. If you used "distant", it would read "Complete stillness except for the distant sound of highway traffic." It is not the sound that is distant but the traffic. There is nothing technically wrong with that slight hypallage, but it is not called for here and is distracting.

Questions

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions