student asking question

What's the difference between "stick in" and "shove in"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

This is a great question. These two have similar meanings but give off a slightly different meaning. "Stick in x" is a casual way of saying to put something in x, whereas "shove in x" implies more force or roughness when completing the action. Ex. My dog doesn't like medicine so I had to stick it in his mouth when he wasn't paying attention. Ex. The police shoved the suspect into the car.

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