A short piece I'm trying my hand at.
"Don't you attempt to strangle me!" he screamed as her hands closed around his throat "I'll sue you for grievous bodily harm". The scream had its effect — the hands around his throat wavered, then withdrew. One hand went to cover her own mouth as she burst into laughter —the peals ringing throughout the caravan for the first time in weeks, dissipating the built-up tension — the other hand holding onto a nearby rack, keeping her upright. Amid tears of mirth streaming down her eyes, as she almost bent double from laughing, came her gasping rejoinder: "How do you propose to sue me after you've been strangled?"
Here's my confusion –
Do I use strangle/strangled, or strangulate/strangulated? How are the two different?
Best Answer
Strangulate is more often (but not exclusively) [citation needed] used in a medical context that strangle lacks:
Independently, the term strangle is about 50-100 times more common.
I would use strangle.