"We need to make resonance with this audience."
The sentence is easy to understand. But the verb sounds wrong. Resonance does not pair with make in this use. A word's meaning is only part of the lesson. You also need to know which words often go with it. Resonate and resonance each have a useful set of common pairings.
At work, resonate often takes a subject such as a message, story, example, theme, idea, vision, finding, warning, concern, argument, campaign, proposal, or experience. A message, story, or finding often sounds more natural than a person's name. The message connects with the audience, so it resonates with them. This is a common pattern, not a strict rule. A person can be the subject. A voice, instrument, or room can also resonate in the word's sound-based sense. Those uses are valid, but they are less common in business writing.
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Resonance, the noun, has its own common verbs. You can have, carry, build, create, or lack resonance. In normal business use, avoid make, do, or take. The noun is also usually uncountable, so do not write "resonances" in most work settings. A postmortem finding about repeated deploy failures resonated powerfully with the support org, who had flagged the same root cause twice before shows a natural subject. We need to build/create resonance with this audience before the campaign launches shows a common noun and verb pair.
Watch for a common error: using resonance with make, do, or take. Use have, carry, build, create, or lack in most cases. The rule about subjects is less firm. An idea or message is often the best choice. Still, a person or object can be the subject when the meaning fits.
Practice scenarios
Practice using resonate in situations like:
- choosing a natural abstract subject — a message, a finding, a story — for a sentence using resonate
- picking the correct verb to pair with the noun resonance instead of 'make' or 'do'
- avoiding an unnatural plural of resonance in ordinary business writing
Useful practice phrases:
- "The finding resonated powerfully with the support org."
- "We need to build resonance with this audience before launch."
- "The idea lacked resonance with senior leadership."
Knowing a word's meaning is a good start. Knowing its common pairings helps you use it well.
Resonate and resonance each have a practical set of common partners. It is worth learning those patterns.
Lyra Practice helps advanced non-native English professionals learn the nuance of high-value workplace expressions and practice using them in realistic scenarios, so their English sounds natural, precise, and senior at work. Try Lyra Practice.