All 3 Uses of
fluent
in
The Poisonwood Bible
- I am fluent in three languages.†
Chpt 5 *
- From talking with the patients I've gotten passably fluent in Lingala, which is spoken throughout northern Congo, in Léopoldville, and along most of the navigable rivers.†
Chpt 5
- For example, the way well-intentioned white people spoke to my trilingual children (they fluently interchange French, Lingala, and English, with a slight accent in each) by assaulting them with broad, loud baby talk.†
Chpt 5
Definitions:
-
(1)
(fluent) able to easily comprehend and express; or expressed smoothly -- especially in a foreign language
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely (seen in classic literature), fluent can mean smooth or flowing -- as in: "fluent as the flight of a swallow" or "the fluent lines on the yacht" or Shakespeare's "fluent as the sea".