student asking question

If I say "dirty animal" instead of "filthy animal", would it change the general nuance of the sentence?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Not at all! They mean the same thing and using either of them in this context would still get the meaning of the sentence across. It's just a little bit funny here because "filthy" isn't as commonly used as the word "dirty," so it's a little bit more fresh and interesting to hear this word being used instead. "Filthy" also has a slightly stronger feeling than the word "dirty." Ex: The dog is filthy. Did she splash around in mud puddles again? Ex: I got splashed by a car and my shoes got dirty.

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