[Vocabulary] Difference between clutter with, cram with, and pack with

[mazurowski93]

Hello everyone,

I'd be appreciated if any of you could provide me with an answer if 'cram with', 'clutter with', and 'pack with' mean the same. I am studying prepositions and prepositional phrases and some of them are confusing to me. My native language is Polish, and in translation every of them mean the same, but still I have some doubts.

Anyway, thanks for any help.

 

[emsr2d2]

Please write full sentences containing each one and we can comment. Also note that your opening should be "I would appreciate it if ...".

 

[mazurowski93]

First of all, thank you for your note.
In the book where I found these collocations, there is only examplary sentence with 'clutter with', and it is:
"The room was cluttered with boxes."
And these are examples of two more (I found them in the net):
- "He crammed his drawer with his socks."
- "This book is packed with useful information."

After some research, it seems that 'clutter with' refers to the slob activity, without taking care of order. Am I right?
But still I don't know if I can use them interchangeably, especially 'cram with', and 'pack with'.

Once again, thanks for help.

 

[bubbha]

In these examples, "crammed" and "packed" are very similar, though "crammed" may give a greater sense of force being used to stuff the items into place.

"cluttered" gives more of a sense of disorder (like "strewn").

 

[Tarheel]

In your example sentence "cluttered" is not a verb. You could argue that "cluttered" describes the room.

 

[GoesStation]

In the book where I found these collocations, there is only one sample (not "exemplary") [STRIKE]examplary[/STRIKE] sentence....

Note the correct spelling of "exemplary" above. However, that was not the word you wanted. Exemplary​ means "first-rate", not "an example of".

 

[mazurowski93]

In your example sentence "cluttered" is not a verb. You could argue that "cluttered" describes the room.

Chapter in the book is devoted to verbs followed by prepositions, so I think it is a verb, and sentence is in passive voice. But of course, you are also right, that "cluttered" can be understood as a word used for description of the room.

Thank you for your notes and help.

 

[engee30]

Although the meaning of that passive sentence is purely stative, clutter is still a verb in there, a transitive one. The agent is realised as the prepositional phrase with boxes.
Changed to the active, the sentence reads as follows:
Boxes cluttered the room.
Obviously, it would have taken somebody to clutter the room with boxes, in which case the verb would be dynamic.

 

[Raymott]

'Clutter' is used when there is too much useless junk filling up a space that people could otherwise use. A room or house is an obvious object of cluttering. A woman's handbag can be cluttered with so many things, she can't find her lipstick, for example. 'Clutter' is the more marked verb (the most different one). Clutter is a negative term.

'Packed' and 'crammed' often mean the same. There are positive uses. "This food is packed with vitamins". 'Packed' is actually a neutral word. You can pack something neatly, and it's neither cluttered nor crammed. 'Crammed' means packed too densely.

Naturally there are other nuances that can't all be summarized.