shouted / shouted out in pain

Question

Can I say,As John and his friends were walking, John stepped on a nail. He shouted / shouted out in pain as his leg was bleeding.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Do you mean "as" = "while"   /      or "as" = "because"  ??

Yizhivika · Answer

Most native English-speakers would interpret the first 'as' here as 'while', and the second as 'because', but the way that the two sentences are worded does create some ambiguity. Moreover, if the second 'as' is intended to mean 'because', then the connection between 'pain', and 'bleeding', creates a problem for me; it implies a causal link between the two, when 'pain' and 'bleeding' are, in fact, both symptoms of some kind of physical trauma (in this case, the nail in his foot!).

As for the choice between 'shouted' and 'shouted out', the latter is preferable, but 'cried out in pain' would be even better in my opinion.

Without fully knowing the meaning that you were intending to convey here, may I suggest this as an alternative:

"While John and his friends were (out) walking, John stepped on a nail. He cried out in pain, and noticed [or saw] that his leg [or foot] was bleeding".

Be careful when using 'cry' and cry out' however; in English 'cry' is often a synonym for 'sob' or 'weep', and "He cried in [or with] pain" has a different meaning to "He cried out in pain".

Avangi · Answer

Hi, Yizhivika. This is what I was getting at. I should have been more explicit, but I usually write too much. - A.

Edit. Actually, I had overlooked the first "As."

Yizhivika · Answer

Hi Avangi. Yes, that first 'as' is easily overlooked, given the ambiguity of the second. I probably write too much sometimes in my responses as well, but I was feeling expansive and verbose last night... :-)

shouted / shouted out in pain

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