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Today I’m going to explain the difference between two easily confused words - “Tremble” and “Shake”. If you are talking about your body then shaking and trembling are very similar. Trembling normally means a smaller motion than shaking but you can use both to describe what your body does when you are scared. During an earthquake both can also be used to talk about the way the ground moves.

The words become different when used for different reasons. You can shake up a bottle of coke, shake somebody’s hand and shake your head. You can’t ‘tremble’ something though.

If you are sick or hurt you can try to ‘shake it off’ to be strong again. If a new product is released it can really ‘shake up the market’.

Tremble is a rarer word, it appears about 14 times less often than ‘shake’ in English. It does have some flexibility though. When thinking about something bad you can ‘tremble at the thought’. If very sad, or feeling something strongly, you might speak with a ‘tremble in your voice’. If you are very angry you could ‘tremble with indignation’.

I hope that helps explain the difference - more tricky words soon...