English for Students

shivers

Is it OK to say The whole building shivers when a train goes past?

There is nothing wrong with the sentence from the point of view of grammar. It is possible to have such a sentence in children's stories.

But the fact remains that the word shiver is normally used with living things: animals and people. Buildings do not shiver, they merely shake, or rattle - unless of course in the story that you are writing, the building is a living thing!

So, if you are merely writing a story for the newspaper, you would be better off saying the building shakes, rather than shivers.



COURTESY : The Hindu (The National News-Paper) - India

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