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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

(8) Facebook rants to make you think about bad English vs good English (31-35)

Rant No. 31: Why don't we know how to distinguish a declarative sentence from an interrogative one? DNA published a story today with this headline: "Why keeping New Year resolutions is difficult?" That question mark at the end reduced the headline to "babu" English and ruined the story for me. 
January 5 at 3:25pm

    • Tania Sarkar sir, could you please elaborate on this? i didn't quite get it! :(
      January 5 at 8:47pm 
    •  
      Asif Ullah Khan ramesh, my son arsalan says there is no such thing as two persons. it is either one person or two people. can you help me

      January 5 at 8:48pm 

    • Aravind Baliga Ramesh, good one. Without the question mark at the end, it would be a statement, hopefully followed up by the article explaining exactly why this is difficult. On the other hand, the header "Why IS keeping New Year resolutions difficult? " (note uppercase IS) would be grammatically correct as well, followed by an article explaining why its difficult.
      January 6 at 6:52am
       

    • Ramesh Prabhu Tania: Read Aravind's comment. Got it now? Let me know.
      January 6 at 10:48am


    • Tania Sarkar Thanks, sir... got it now... :)
      January 6 at 10:51am


    • Ramesh Prabhu Asif: It is correct, but perhaps rare, to write "two persons". Ask Arsalan to just Google the phrase "two persons" -- there are plenty of entries. (Though I must add that there are one or two websites that say "two persons" is wrong.) Read the second para here: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/him.html.
      January 6 at 2:19pm


    • Menka Sony Thanks a ton
      January 6 at 3:52pm
      ***
      Rant No. 32: A "dais" is a raised platform, as at the front of a room, for a lectern, throne, seats of honour, etc. Why do so many of us say or write "dias" when we mean "dais"?


    • Vibha Ghai Another prospective rant ... if you have not listed it already ... why 'momento' instead of 'memento' ? The Italian connection somewhere? :-)
      January 6 at 1:48pm
       

    • Sudhir Prabhu Blame all the Dias' from Mangalore such as Priscilla Dias and Edwin Dias :)
      January 6 at 2:31pm
       

    • Tania Sarkar this one we did in class, sir! :) thanks... i miss your phrase of the day! :( couldn't it be on fb?
      January 7 at 1:18pm
    •  *** 
      Rant No. 33: Why is it necessary to use the word "dusty" to describe libraries or encyclopaedias?
      Unacceptable: "Wikipedia [has] replaced libraries stocked with heavy, dusty encyclopaedias." -- Mint, Dec. 31, 2010

      For one, it is a cliché. Second, I have never seen a dusty library or encyclopaedia. Have you?
      January 7 at 3:43pm

    • Padmini Nandy Mazumder Uh... Yes I have! The District Library at Guwahati is full of dust! :P
      January 7 at 3:51pm


    • Padmini Nandy Mazumder And full of dusty volumes of encyclopaedias!
      January 7 at 3:52pm


    • Ramesh Prabhu Clearly, I have to go to Guwahati and give the librarian a piece of my mind.
      January 7 at 3:55pm


    • Tania Sarkar well, sir... but so have I! :(
      January 7 at 4:13pm
       

    • Debmalya Pablo Dutta Me too... The famous National Library in Calcutta... The old periodicals department... Besides having the choicest collection of magazines and dailies,it has some of the oldest dust in the country... :P
      January 7 at 6:54pm
       

    • Tania Sarkar i belong to the same place!
      January 7 at 7:27pm
       

    • Ramesh Prabhu Calcutta, Guwahati: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust?
      January 8 at 10:49am


    • Debmalya Pablo Dutta Ha ha ha ha ha...
      January 8 at 10:50am


    • Ramesh Prabhu Do our other cities have dusty libraries and encyclopaedias? I haven't seen any in Mumbai or Bangalore.
      January 8 at 10:50am

    • Saffana Michael I dont know about libraries but my bookshelf at home often collects dust.... maybe books just naturally collect dust?
      Sunday at 9:02am


    • Patrick Michael
      You have dust mites, dust storms, dusty roads and dusty libraries. Try the public library in Panjim, or the Asiatic, or the the one that used to be opposite the Jehangir Art Gallery in amchi Mumbai. If you sneezed, you'd trigger a dust storm! Sorry Ramesh, guess you've not been to places I have!!!!

      Sunday at 7:00pm


    • Ramesh Prabhu
      Pat: The situations you describe may have existed 20-30 years ago. Do you think the scene will be different today? Also, these libraries are all public libraries -- does anyone still visit public libraries? I am curious.

      I am a member of the Just Books chain of libraries -- the branch I visit is air-conditioned; I use radio frequency ID, or RFID, technology to return and issue books at a touch-screen kiosk, and I have access to some 4,000 new books every month. I just can't imagine "dusty" being used to describe any Just Books branch or the books on their shelves.

      Monday at 10:22am
    •  ***
      Rant No. 34: India Today (Jan. 10) has no problems with the F-word, spelling it out in full in one article. But in another piece in the same issue it uses asterisks to camouflage a Hindi obscenity (ch*****). What gives?
      Monday at 11:09am

       ***

      Rant No. 35: What is this "ya" one finds so often in Facebook status updates? Here's one: "He's a friend ya...." And here's another: "i ll come tomo ya... m ok hw u?" I understand all the shorthand used on FB but for "ya". Is it supposed to be "yeah"? Or "yaar"? Or is it just another crutch word like "basically"?
      Yesterday at 10:48am 

    • Sudhir Prabhu ya i 2 need 2 know
      Yesterday at 10:52am
       

    • Samarpita Samaddar I use it as a shorthand of "yaar" :)
      Yesterday at 10:52am
       

    • Kirti Bhotika Garg it's a shorthand for "yaar" Sir... :D lol, I could imagine you speaking out your rant :P
      Yesterday at 10:54am


    • Sharon George mostly short for yaar i imagine
      Yesterday at 10:57am
       

    • Nandini Hegde sirji txt language ko baksh do!! nahi to Rant No. 555 tak pohach jaaoge! :P
      Yesterday at 11:05am 

    • Vibha Ghai I think once you reach 100, it will be time to look for a publisher ... The Rants You Always Wanted To Air But Could Not !
      Yesterday at 11:09am


    • Tania Sarkar sir, although I never use it... but normally people use it as a short form of "yaar"... and this is not just a form of shorthand but they also use it in spoken language too!
      Yesterday at 11:24am


    • Ramesh Prabhu Tania: In spoken language, it's ALWAYS "yaar", isn't it?
      Yesterday at 11:30am
       

    • Ramesh Prabhu Nandini: My "Bambaiya" Hindi vocabulary does not include the word "baksh". Please translate your comment for me. :-)
      Yesterday at 11:46am 

    • Preeti Suman hmmm...point to be noted My Lord !!
      Yesterday at 12:02pm

    • Koyel Mitra HE HE.. SIR, IT'S JST TYM FR U TO GET USED TO OUR TEXT LANGUAGE..
      Yesterday at 12:10pm
       

    • Tania Sarkar Sir, that's what I said... that in spoken language too people have started using this word! :(
      Yesterday at 1:03pm


    • Ramesh Prabhu Koyel and other young people: You will notice that in the examples quoted in my status message there's an ellipsis after each "ya". That's three presses of a key, right? Why not press "a" and "r" instead and complete the word in the same amount of time taken to key in the ellipsis? (Assuming that "ya" stands for "yaar", of course.)
      Yesterday at 2:13pm
       

    • Nandini Hegde sir ji baksh do means spare it!
      Yesterday at 3:12pm
       

    • Ramesh Prabhu Ah, I get it now. No, Nandu, I am not going to be taking on our texters but I was really curious abut this "ya" business. I have my answer now. Thanks.
      Yesterday at 3:26pm


    • Harshada Neem i salute thee for all the rants u can think of !!!!! sirjee tussi great ho !!!
      20 hours ago


    • Mini Kolluri
      Growing up in Bangalore, it was a part of the slang. Almost like "da" in Tamil or "o" in Kannada. Not sure what the origins are, but "ya" would translate to "man". So, "What ya?" or "Tell me ya". "Ya" by the way is gender neutral.

      Before you get mad at me, I haven't used it since childhood when we'd jokingly use "poriki" English.

      16 hours ago

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