Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The antenna of cockroach is longer than silk moth

Today let us examine the error of comparison.
Someone who knows English well or a native English speaking student will never say “The antenna of cockroach is longer than silk moth.”
Don’t you find anything funny in this? There is a big error in this sentence. The error is due to wrong comparison. The speaker wanted to compare the antenna of cockroach with the antenna of silk moth but compared the antenna of the cockroach with the silk moth.
I see a lot of similar comparisons in research papers and essays.
The sentence needs a correction. “The antenna of cockroach is longer than that of silk moth.”
The idea is clear, the meaning is clear and the sentence is grammatically correct.
When we try comparisons, we must bear the following in mind:
1. The comparison must sound right.
2. We can compare only things that are logically correct.
3. We can compare only things that are grammatically correct.

Look at the following sentences:
"The population of Tokyo is more than Seoul."
This may look alright. Read and reread, you can spot the error.
The population of Tokyo is more than that of Seoul. The comparison is between the populations of two cities.
The roads of new Delhi is better than Bangalore – incorrect.
In this sentence the roads of New Delhi is compared with Bangalore and not with the roads of Bangalore.
It must be rewritten as “The roads of new Delhi is better than that of Bangalore”
“William’s story is much better than Stuart”
must be corrected as “William’s story is much better than Stuart’s”

Next time, when you venture a comparison, check whether you did it right.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I request you kindly to look into …

An officer enters the Director’s room.
Before the officer could wish the director,
The Director: How do you do
The officer: I am fine, thank you sir.
Dir: Have you finished the weighment?
Off: Yes sir. Sir, I request you kindly to look into my leave application.
Dir: Sure, in a day or two.

This is a brief but funny dialogue.
We can spot three most common and ubiquitous errors in this dialogue.
1. When someone look at us and say “hello, how do you do”, the spontaneous answer is “I am fine, how about you?” as done by the officer to the Director.
This is really a pity.
How do you do” is not a sentence equivalent to “How are you?”
This is only a greeting just like “good morning”.
So, when somebody says “how do you do” we must reciprocate by saying “how do you donot I am fine”.
2.Have you finished the weighment?
What is this weighment? You don’t see this word anywhere but still people use it.
Have you finished taking weight?” would be a better usage.
3.I request you kindly to look into
What a big difference a misplaced to can make. The officer needs to understand who he expects to be kind.
If the Director needs to be kind he should say/write, “I request you to kindly” Otherwise, the officer will become kind to the Director.
God’s grace, the dialogue ended quickly.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

An unique user and a honest boy

A American gave an unique pen and a umbrella to an European who was studying in an University.
A hour later, he gave it to a honest friend.
Are you not feeling uncomfortable? You are bound to but many do not.
It is natural to feel uncomfortable because the articles a and an are mindlessly placed.
Some of us are not sure where to use or not to use a and an.
A and an are indefinite articles and they signal that the noun modified is indefinite, referring to any member of a group.
I will discuss the use of articles in detail in one of the future posts.
Here, the intention is only the removal of doubts on using a and an.
The title of a book I recently saw was “An useful compendium……..”
This resulted from a blind learning that the article used must be an when the next noun/adjective begins with a vowel.
It is wrong to follow this blindly.
This following guideline will be a more reliable one to follow.
1.a + singular noun beginning with a consonant:
Examples:
a boy; a car; a bike; a zoo; a dog
2.an + singular noun beginning with a vowel:
Examples
: an elephant; an egg; an apple; an idiot; an orphan
3.a + singular noun beginning with a vowel but consonant sound:
Examples:
a user (sounds like 'yoo-zer,' i.e. begins with a consonant 'y' sound although started with a vowel u, so 'a' is used); a university; a unique idea, a European player.
4.an + singular noun beginning with a consonant but vowel sound:
Examples:
an honest boy (sounds like onest,' i.e. begins with a vowel 'o' sound although started with a consonant h, so 'an' is used), an hour.
So, the choice of articles a or an is decided by the sound of the succeeding noun/adjective rather than based on whether the first alphabet is a vowel or a consonant.
Let us rewrite the introductory sentences now.
An American gave a unique pen and an umbrella to a European who was studying in a University.
An hour later, he gave it to an honest friend.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

On the eve of Independence day……

“Our office will remain closed on 15th August 2007 on the eve of Independence day”
This holiday notice appeared in the local English newspaper on 14th August 2007 prompted me to discuss it here.
It has become a style for quite a few to use ‘on the eve of’ but wrongly with a different meaning attached to it.
It looks as if ‘on the eve of’ also means ‘on account of’, but it doesn’t.
'On the eve of' is an idiomatic expression and any idiom carries a meaning.
It is dangerous to use such expression if we are not sure about the meaning.
'On the eve of' any special/specific day or event means the evening before, the night before, the day before, the period before the special day or event
Generally speaking 'the eve of' means just prior to and never refers to the special day itself.
On the eve of the conference the main speaker backed out means the speaker backed out the night before the conference.
We usually refer to New Year eve and Christmas Eve as the day/night before New Year and Christmas, respectively.
On the contrary, when eve is written alone in general it means the evening.
A summer eve can thus mean a summer evening and a pleasant eve, a pleasant evening.
Now, imagine what impression the holiday notice would have created in many a mind.

Monday, August 13, 2007

H for Hetch, Honour and Hour

A for apple, b for ball…..
What do we place for H in this sequence?
H for hat or h for honey?
Well, to me that sounds quite normal.
Can I teach my child h for honour (with a ho in the beginning instead of o )?
If hearing is believing I believe I can.
Why do some of us pronounce H as hetch, honour as honor instead of onour and hour as hour instead of our?
Does H contain ‘he’ in it?
English says 'No'.
H, the eighth letter in English alphabet is pronounced worldwide as āch or aitch or eitch.
But I hear a geographical twist in the pronunciation and people belonging to certain areas pronouncing it as hetch. This may probably be to pack H with a punch and show the world “this is how our H is”. Wikipedia describes the pronunciation Haitch as typical Irish and Indian.

The older folks learned it that way. It may be hard for them to abruptly change. Let the younger lots go for the global one.

Please click on the link below and hear the standard pronunciation of H.

http://www.answers.com/topic/h-1

Your comment is my inspiration. Please click on comments to leave yours.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

With reference to the subject cited above……

Many of us are adequately experienced officials. We have been working for years. We changed according to time. Nobody would have thought a few years ago that you would be today’s you.
But we have not changed a bit in the way we write. Official letters are materials of concern.
A colonial shade is seen although.
Please look at the way we write.
Respected sir,
Written by a select few to show that they are filled with respect and the respect would earn them a big fortune. 'Sir' is more than enough in an official letter.
Sub: Purchase of fertilizer -regarding
I never understood the relevance of 'regarding' in the subject ilne . We write only regarding the purchase in the text. "Purchase of fertilizer" on its own forms a decent subject.
With reference to the subject cited above………
Ninety-nine per cent is obsessed with this nauseating jargon which means nothing. We don’t write anything in the text of the letter which has no reference or relevance to the subject. We need to find a creative way to start our letter.
Kindly find enclosed herewith
Where else can we enclose?
"Please find enclosed" appears much better.

Have you not observed these tiny wonders?
Come on, please don’t turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to your surroundings.

The above views are purely personal.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

I will be grateful if you would give me an early reply -What do you feel?

One of my most ardent and frequent readers, Dr. A.M Babu posted a query in the comment box. Which of the following usages is correct?
a) I will be grateful if you would give me an early reply.
b) I will be grateful if you will give me an early reply.
I am afraid, both these usages are incorrect. Let’s discuss it:
Sometimes we talk about things which are not facts, situations which are true in certain circumstances or under certain conditions. Usually these sentences contain if or a similar word. There are likely conditions, unlikely conditions, impossible conditions and general conditions.
1. Likely conditions: Things which are very likely to happen fall into this category. In this, two portions of the sentences are connected by if. While the tense of the first half is simple future the second half needs to be in present simple.
Examples:
a) The doctor will see you if you come at nine
b) We will miss the bus if we don’t hurry
c) They won’t come if the weather is bad.
So, Dr. Babu’s sentence must be “I willl be grateful if you give me an early reply” since this is a likely condition.
2. Unlikely condition: Things might happen, but probably not. Here the first half of the sentence will have would and the send half, past simple.
Examples:
a) She would pass if she worked harder
b) He wouldn’t be happy if he lived on his own
3. Impossible condition:
Things might not happen at all. The first half of the sentence is formed with a conditional clause and the second half with past perfect.
Examples:
a) I would have told you if I had known myself.
b) We would have been there on time if we had caught the earlier bus.
4. General conditions:
Both the half with present simple tense.
Examples:
a) Sara never apologizes if she is late
b) He gets angry if you argue with him
c) How long does milk keep if you don’t have a refrigerator?
(Courtesy: Blisset and Halgarten. UBSPD, London)

What do you feel about this post? Please post your comment by clicking on comments.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Welcome all the dignitaries on the dais……………….

If you attended any high or low profile formal meetings or functions recently you would have heard this from the mouth of the master of ceremony (MC) or the anchor or the compere.
Be it the MC or the president or any other speakers, majority of them pronounce dais as dayaas (da as cu in cup and yaa as ca in car). It is indeed a peculiar pronunciation and difficult to show here, but I am sure the readers would recognize it fairly easily. If someone who hears the word for the first time needs to scribble it down, he may spell it either dayas or at the most dias.
I often wonder how the word dais transformed to dayaas or dias by mispronunciation.
When I pointed out this to a few speakers this is the way they responded.
The pronunciation may not be correct. But if I change, others my feel that I do not know how to pronounce it
This is because, the mispronunciation of dais as dayaas has become so infamous that it would misguide people to believe that the original pronunciation is wrong.
This is how the phonetic symbol of the dais is shown:
da·is - dā'ĭs, dī'-
The pronunciation may most closely be written as dayes.
Dais is raised a platform, as in a lecture hall, for speakers or honored guests
Please hear the correct pronunciation of dais by clicking on the link below: http://www.answers.com/topic/dais

Saturday, August 04, 2007

One of my friend or friends?

Many people with whom I converse with are in a dilemma.
Have we not heard people saying “One of my friend come to office by train”?
We have.
Is it correct to use “one of my friend come”?
Mmm, no. We may use “One of my friends comes to office by train.”
One of my friends because, the friend in question is one among many of my friends.
Comes because, one of my friends is singular.
Examples:
One of the buses has got very stylish seating arrangements.
One of the rooms has more ventilation than the others.
One of those gentlemen goes straight to the café from the office.
One of you can join me for the lunch.
One of our family members is flying to the USA today.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Alas! Could you able to?

Is it proper to ask/say,

"Could you able to get the information?"

"We could not able to get similar results."

To me, the above interrogation and the statement are absurd.

"I cannot able to help you in this mission."

"Ram can able to come with you."

These two sentences are absurd as well.

“Could” and “able to” cannot stand together.
Can and able to can also not stand together.

“Could you get the information?”
Or
“Were you able to get the information?” are fine.

Can you come with me?
Or
Are you able to come with me? are fine too.

Could equals was able to/were able to
Can equals am able/is able to/are able to.

So, when could/can is used, no more able to.

Please leave your comments after going through this.