Can we “prepone” a meeting?

Look at the confusion below:

The meeting was originally scheduled for Saturday but Saturday happens to be the birthday of the grand daughter of the President. The president has to leave for the World tour starting on Sunday. What could be done?

The meeting cannot be postponed at any cost.
Can it be preponed?
Many say it can be.
But I say it cannot be preponed, because there is no such word in English yet.
Many speakers and news readers prepone things on a regular basis.
Why can’t we prepone a program(me)?

All right, Let us examine a few such words which automatically form by adding the prefix, pre and the suffix, post.

Test: pretest, posttest
Mortem: premortem, postmortem
Paid : prepaid, post paid

Can we use similarly

Pone: prepone, postpone ?

We cannot. There is no verb by the word pone and so it is not correct to use prepone. Postpone is a single word and it is not derived by adding post to the preexisting verb pone.


So, we better advance the meeting instead of preponing it.

Please avoid using the word prepone.

Advance your program(me).

How do we pronounce Dengue?

I was literally baffled hearing people pronouncing dengue fever the different ways they liked it.
There were reasons why I heard it many a time in the last few days.
I came across people cutting across doctors, nurses, scientists, news readers, friends et al.
Dengue was heard as Dengoo, dingo, deng, dengu but very few pronounced it correctly. The correct one seemed dengi. Almost all english news channels pronouced it correctly over the past 2 years. Try the link and hear it.
www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/pron/D0130900.wav

Is there a Universal tag question?

For Indian English speakers, there seems to be one.
The following are striking erroneous examples.

He is very weak, isn’t it?
I have to attend to today’s work at any cost, isn’t it?
She may come here today, isn’t it?

Speakers tend to use ‘isn’t it’ for anything and everything making it a faulty universal tag question.

In fact, tag questions are wonderful tools to support the sentences, be it affirmative or negative. The tag questions don’t exist on their own but exist as a part of the sentences.


When using tag questions, watch for 4 points:

What tense is the verb?
What kind of verb is it? (to be/other verbs)
Is the sentence affirmative or negative?
Does the pronoun need to be changed?

Affirmative becomes Negative in the tag question

Jack's happy, isn't he? (he is -> isn't he?)
Susan's tired, isn't she? (she is -> isn't she?)
It's warm today, isn't it? (it is -> isn't it?)
They're busy, aren't they? (they are -> aren't they?)
You and I are fun people, aren't we? (we are -> aren't we?)
You're quiet, aren't you? (you are -> aren't you?)
I'm intelligent, aren't I? (I am -> aren't I?)

am I not ? (I am -> am I not?)

Choose the correct tag to finish the sentence.

1. Teresa is an accountant,___? aren't she?/ doesn't she? /isn't she?/ She isn't?

2. I am a good worker,___? I am?/ do I?/ amn't I? /aren't I?

3. Peirre is a grandfather,___? he isn't? /isn't he? /he is? /doesn't he?
4. Kate is a doctor, ___? she is? /she? /doesn't she? /isn't she?

5. Jacq and Ali are students, ___? aren't they?/ are they?/ isn't he? /isn't they?

6. Mario is at work right now, ___? aren't they?/ isn't he? /is he? /isn't she?

7. I'm here, ___? am I not? /am not I?/ amn't I? /aren't you?
8. You and I are busy now, ___? aren't I? /aren't we? /we aren't? /aren't you?
9. It's windy today, ___? am I? /aren't they?/ isn't it? /isn't he?

10. I am ready for the exercise, __?

isn't it?/don't I?/aren't you?/aren't I?

What do you feel about this? Please post your comments for interaction and further improvement.

Let's see the previous one

Sorry for not attending to the blog in time as promised. Nonetheless, we do make a discussion here on the previous post.

As mentioned, the tense in “This has been happening since last six months with greater frequency” is present perfect continuous tense.


In this sentence, the word ‘since’ should have been replaced with ‘for’. If ‘since’ is a must, then the sentence should read as “This has been happening since February this year with greater frequency” or so. Whenever we use ‘since’ in present perfect continuous tense, the time should represent the starting point and not the duration. If it is representing the duration then we can’t use since and in its place should ‘for’ should be used.

Let me quote three examples from Wren and Martin:

He has been sleeping for five hours.
They have been building the bridge for several months.
They have been playing since four O’ clock.

Any standard English grammar would clarify this.

Trivial errors of age

In my place, we have an overwhelmingly popular evening daily. This daily at times makes trivial language errors. In the group of people with whom I work, I often encounter the same errors and I realize that these are in fact geographical linguistic errors. These errors are not mountainous and it never paints the speaker ignorant. But a correction would surely make them much better. Look at the following sentence as appeared in the daily recently:

“This has been happening since last six months with greater frequency”.

As you are aware, the tense used is present perfect continuous. Don’t you find any error in this usage? A humble letter by the yours truly was duely acknowledged by the editor of the daily promising not to repeat the error. I would like to get the readers’ response first. I would post my explanations and corrections on 18th of July.

Hope to meet a lot of people in this page in a few days’ time.

SHARING ENGLISH TIPS

Dear friends, colleagues and students,

We are aware that Indians are not borne English speakers or writers. Many of us would like to excel in the English usage but many do not. Is there anything wrong if we try to improve our language? Not at all. Grammar and rich vocabulary alone don't make people good in English. Continuous usage and conversation ofcourse can make a sea change. This is a humble beginning. I invite all my friends to contribute to this blog. It could be anything in English language. The questions asked may be answered by someone. Let us try to be rich together.

I sometimes try to make catchy phrases that attract people. One such expression was "Let us fight amongst us but grow together". Let us hope this would work here.

In a group of people who work for the same cause, "collective growing is better than selective growing"

Though the colonial shadow haunts us even today, we can try to make a difference on our own.

Come on, Join me.

Pink Horizon