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Sometimes I've encountered some questions which ask me to state my opinion and give details or examples to support my opinion.

I am a little confused about using details and examples. For me, as long as I make my point more specific and add more information, I would consider the point has been developed.

But I've heard of others' responses to these questions and they added a linking word such as 'for example' and I didn't see any difference between detail and an example which has been used in my response and theirs.

For example, here is the question:

What is your favorite movie and explain why do you like it?

My answer might be:

I like action movies, to be honest. Because I like furious scenes and I think it would be so much intensive that would attract me during the film. For example, one day I watched Dragon and Tiger with my dude in my home, I didn't even go to the bathroom after drinking a bowl of water.

In this answer, what if I delete the linking word 'for example', would it be detail or example.

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  • Sherry Lee, with all due respect, is there no difference in your bilingual dictionary between the entry for detail and example in your language? [By the way, people drink glasses of water, usually. Women have boyfriends, not dudes. And furious refers to people's tempers, not scenes in action movies]
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 14:49
  • so much intensive is ungrammatical, but there's nothing wrong with "furious scenes". I believe you mean intensity. And you don't want to say "would attract" but "attracts".
    – TimR
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 17:44
  • Yes, I checked out the meaning of these two words in a dictionary. But sometimes I have to identify what information expressed is a detail and what is not. Thx for your suggestions and there is so much room for me to improve my English
    – Sherry Lee
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 7:18

2 Answers 2

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Detail and example mean different things. Suppose we are talking about horror movies. If I ask you to give me an example of a horror movie, your answer might be Halloween (2018). Now if I ask you about the details of a particular horror movie, your answer might be that the killer killed ten people altogether. As you can see here, an example gives a single instance of something, while details give further explanation of something.

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  • Thx for your answer
    – Sherry Lee
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 7:11
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I think that details is when you describe something with further explanation.

For example:

The cat is white. It has a brown collar and a long furry tail.

An example is something that explains the point you are making in real life.

In your sentence, if you took away for example it would still be an example.

You say: “Because I like furious scenes and I think it would be so much intensive that would attract me during the film.”

That is detail showing how much you like action movies.

Then you say: “For example, one day I watched Dragon and Tiger with my dude in my home, I didn't even go to the bathroom after drinking a bowl of water.”

That is an example of the detail you said in real life.

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  • Thx for your answer
    – Sherry Lee
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 7:18
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    No problem. If my answer helped feel free to press the tick next to my answer
    – user109564
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 7:23

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