Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[ClarissaMach]

I've just read this sentence:

"To find a beached and stranded dolphin is a rarity;".

And I tryied to figure out what would be the difference between these two words; but I couldn't! Could anybody explain me the difference and tell me why the author of the text decided to use both words?

[MrPedantic]

Hello Clarissa

Though "beached" and "stranded" both mean "thrown up onto the shore", "beached" is rarely used metaphorically, whereas "stranded" is almost always used metaphorically.

If I miss the last train home from work, for example, I'm "stranded" at the terminus in London. It means I can't get home.

Thus "stranded" has acquired the additional sense of "unable to return".

I would say that in your sentence, the writer wants to emphasise the fact that the dolphin is not only on the beach, but unable to return to the water. (For instance, if a dolphin is beached only a few yards from the sea, and the tide is coming in, the water will eventually reach it. But if the dolphin is thrown very high up the beach, beyond the reach of the incoming waves, it's both "beached" and "stranded".)

MrP

[ClarissaMach]

Thanks a lot!

You don't seem too be pedantic at all....

[MrPedantic]

Thank you!

(Perhaps I was adopted...)

MrP