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).
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Can we “prepone” a meeting?
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3 comments:
Oh! I never thought prepone is wrong. It is so common for people to use. Interesting.
Why can't you think of prepone as a whole word that has been invented like "Googled". There are new words being added to the English language. when you say prepone, even if people haven't heard word before, it totaly make sense.
I myself was just doing some research on the word prepone and came across your blog after I "GOOGLED" the "prepone".
Quite funny. I dont find a single alternative for "googled" and there is surely a reason to create one. But I am amused why people would invent a word "prepone" which they believe is opposite of postpone, when you have the correct word "advance". Ask 100 people "is not prepone the antonym of postpone?". I am sure at least 99 would say 'yes'. Remember, the hundredth one is you.
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