Anyone who’s looked at thousands of personal ads can’t help but notice the way men and women write is different. Each gender has its favorite cliches and there’s a similarity in attitude which is ever-present but hard to pin down.

In an effort to get a sense of those gender differences I analyzed hundreds of personals left by men and women, and then ran them through Wordle to determine the frequency of word use. The results are below. If you want to test your divination skills, try and work out which word-cloud comes from the men-seeking-women, and which the women-seeking-men, without looking at the answers below.

The first cloud comes from the women’s personals, the second from mens.

The most striking difference is the use of the words ‘like’ and ‘love’. Men are less keen on the most important l-word than women, who use it more frequently than any other. There are other differences too, ’serious’ doesn’t make the women’s cloud and ‘gym’ doesn’t make the men’s. Women mention ‘conversation’ often, men are all about ‘now’.

I’ve been looking at these all day and am still finding it interesting. If it prompts you to consider making a change to your profile – fantastic.

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