(2) Facebook rants to make you think about bad English vs good English (6-8)

Ramesh Prabhu Rant No. 6: Why do we write "miniscule" when the correct word is "minuscule"? (Strangely, the best-edited magazine in town, Time Out Bengaluru, used "miniscule" in its Nov. 12-25 issue, Page 25 — "The number of Indians checking into geo-social networks is currently miniscule...".)
Friday at 11:39am

• Samarpita Samaddar likes this.

Sudhir Prabhu I am liking all these rants. But what about the silly typos in TOI these days? How can they be so ignorant and careless? Which news paper do you think is better? Though I read everything online news paper is a must for me. :)

Friday at 12:05pm 

Ramesh Prabhu Sudhir: In Bangalore, DNA is the best, in my opinion. But every newspaper has its share of typos, its share of Indlish. Here's why: http://goo.gl/rjl0g.

Friday at 12:09pm · · 1 person 

Sudhir Prabhu Nice blog and interesting book. Ordered through flipkart. :)

Friday at 12:33pm · · 1 person 

Sharon George i never knew dat...been using it all my life.

Friday at 1:18pm · 

Samarpita Samaddar Sharon: Are you serious??? 

Sharon George seriously man...in fact its even defined in the online dictionary... http://www.thefreedictionary.com/miniscule check it out

Friday at 3:03pm · 

Samarpita Samaddar OMG! "miniscule - very small; "a minuscule kitchen" -- What is this?!
hahaha Jeez!

Friday at 3:05pm 

Sharon George i know...evry1's confused

Friday at 3:08pm

Ramesh Prabhu

Sharona, Sam: I can't find "miniscule" in standard dictionaries, though it's in the FreeDictionary and also in Dictionary.com as a variant of minuscule. Here's an enlightening usage note from Dictionary.com:

—Usage note
Minuscule, from Latin ......minus meaning “less,” has frequently come to be spelled miniscule, perhaps under the influence of the prefix mini- in the sense “of a small size.” Although this newer spelling is criticized by many, it occurs with such frequency in edited writing that some consider it a variant spelling rather than a misspelling.

Friday at 3:27pm 

Sunil John Valentine Sonawane So Ramesh, shall we use your own argument against you and close this rant with an agreement that it is a variant, especially in India where we tend to spell as it sounds rather than as it was written ages ago by southern (as in Southern England) accented Englishmen?

Friday at 3:57pm 

Samarpita Samaddar Sir: It will be minuscule for me. Always.

Friday at 4:00pm  

Ramesh Prabhu

Sunil: Minuscule comes from "minus" meaning "less", and it has nothing do with "mini", and nothing whatsoever to do with "as it was written ages ago by southern (as in Southern England) accented Englishmen". Accents have nothing to with it,either. So how can we be okay with a misspelling? I am not.

Also, FYI: The "antonym" of "minuscule" is "majuscule".

Friday at 4:16pm 

Ranjini Narayanan Sir, I noticed this in today's (Friday) Bangalore Mirror too. Page 2 last paragraph.

***

Ramesh Prabhu Rant No. 7: Sandeep Mishra (Sunday ToI) interviews a sexagenarian slum-dweller in Bhubaneswar and quotes her as saying, "They (her daughter and family) occasionally visit me and extend some pecuniary help." Extend some pecuniary help? Who talks like this? Not me and certainly not a sexagenarian slum-dweller in Bhubaneswar.... I stopped reading the interview at that point. Mr Mishra: Please read Indlish, by Jyoti Sanyal.
 Top of Form

23 hours ago

Sanaa A'esha, Sheela Bhat and Pooja Garg Singh like this.

Suthan Kokila pecuniary? how quaint. btw who is sandeep mishra... sorry for being so ignorant. been out for too long :-)

13 hours ago 

Ramesh Prabhu Kokila: All I know about Sandeep Mishra is that he is the author of the interview published in ToI. I don't know if he is on the staff, though. I blame the subs, too, in this case — the Desk should have changed that line to read: "They help me out by giving me money." Even "They help me financially" would have been better than "They ... extend some pecuniary help."

7 minutes ago

Bala Murali Krishna Ramesh, journalism practice in India doesn't demand that what you put inside quotation marks be the exact same words used. I see it as a larger problem. Coming to pecuniary, it's sure peculiar to use such a word but I suspect we see a lot of it in the Indian press.

2 hours ago 

Ramesh Prabhu

I know, Bala. I used the quote marks here only to indicate how I would have changed the quote.

As for "Coming to pecuniary, it's sure peculiar to use such a word but I suspect we see a lot of it in the Indian press", Jyoti Sanyal explains in "Indlish" our unfortunate fondness for abstruse words when simple ones will do.

2 hours ago · Like 1 person

***

Ramesh Prabhu Rant No. 8: Santosh Kumar RB writes in DNA (Nov. 15, Page 5): "The police SAID that Gowda REPORTEDLY told them that she was suffering from depression and was getting treated FOR THE SAME" (EMPHASIS mine to highlight the BAD ENGLISH). Mr Santosh Kumar: Please read Indlish, by Jyoti Sanyal. 

about an hour ago 

Praneetha Shylendra likes this.

Kirti Bhotika OMG! This takes the cake!

about an hour ago 

Sunil John Valentine Sonawane Good English would be "Gowda apparently told the police that she was suffering from depression and was being treated for it"...okay?

about an hour ago

Ramesh Prabhu Better: "The police said that Gowda told them she was suffering from depression and was being treated for it."

about an hour ago 

Ramesh Prabhu Attribution is important here.

about an hour ago

Sunil John Valentine Sonawane I thought "apparently" covers "The police said that Gowda told them"

about an hour ago

Ramesh Prabhu ‎"Apparently" also implies doubt.

about an hour ago

Sunil John Valentine Sonawane Oh yes, I see...also appreciate the voice of journalistic experience!! Hope to see you also talk about the content aspect of journalism besides the form?

about an hour ago

Ramesh Prabhu

Oh, there's plenty about the "content aspect" on my blog, The Reading Room. For example:

1. http://goo.gl/mdisF

2. http://goo.gl/DUeIF

3. http://goo.gl/wNvwg

4. http://goo.gl/Gf3ti

5. http://goo.gl/wCRQ9

Bottom of Form

Plain English may not be on its deathbed yet, going by this email from Commitscion Dipankar Paul (Class of 2009), who is a copy editor with India Syndicate, which produces all of MSN India's content:

There's still hope that 'Indlish' isn't permanent.

I just overheard this in office:

    50-year-old Business Editor: There's this great book, Elements of Style by William Strunk, that I read every day. It's the perfect guide to good journalistic English.

    23-year-old Sports Editor: Can I borrow it?

    BE: No, I gave my copy once to a junior. I never got it back. I had to buy another copy.

    SE: Oh, OK. I'll search for it online.

    Ten minutes later...

    SE: Yup, got it. I just ordered one copy.

    BE: Bravo!