Grammar Girl

Everyone who knows me well knows that I've always been in a habit of correcting other people's English. It was my favorite subject as a student and I did ponder for quite some time on the question of pursuing English Honors. But, then decided on getting enrolled in B. Mass Comm. Another story! J  

I'm writing this post only to help readers speak good English. No offences.  I hope you don't mind.

The title "Grammar Girl" was selected after lot of thinking and rethinking. I gave this title because many people use inappropriate words and I keep correcting wherever I’m able to judge it’s incorrect. (It also sounded somewhat like Glamour girl :p) The incorrect English speaking people often defend themselves by saying that it’s not their mother tongue or it’s not their first language or the one they speak is Indian English. So the title which I thought at the beginning was ‘Indian English’ later I thought the title to be degrading the image of my beloved nation so I gave another thought to it and thought of personalizing the write up.

One of my friends even presented me a book titled "Indian versus British English". I refused to accept his gift, because I was offended. (Big time) The reason behind my habit of correcting other people's English is not my profession. I use to do this even when I was a student. 

I squirm whenever I hear poor English, not only in day-to-day life even on radio, TV, billboards... I mean media channels.

So, now let me recall the common mistakes…

Less is used when comparing quantities that can not be counted but measured. 'Milk' 

Most irritating one being:  ‘Anyways’. Dear style freak, it’s ANYWAY and not anyways!!! To be explanatory ANY means koi bhi and WAY means rasta. So, be logical and think how you can say koi bhi raste. Similarly 'NO WAY', how it can be 'no ways'.

Then, people also use some words twice, like, different-different. The reason behind this wrong usage is: people translate Hindi or Punjabi to English. Different means alag alag…so when you say different different it will mean alag alag alag alag. Sounds funny!

Another funny usage is of the word ‘they’ for single person if he or she is elder or as a sign of respect for him or her. True Story! I would have been very glad to disclose the name but then…it will hurt her and maybe someone I love won’t like me in such an ugly avatar!

Talking of respect…sometimes people tend use salutation and title together! E.g. Ms. Sonam Ma’am!!! By god, I could not resist the giggle.

Often I receive mails says ‘revert back’ revert means to turn so it’s understood that turn will be in opposite direction, why waste a word telling the direction. Many a time people say ‘repeat again’ ignoring the fact that repeat itself means to say or do something again, so by saying repeat again you are again wasting a word.

There is no word 'proudly' in English, but it commonly used by people. The word ultimate is used a lot by some people (everything is ultimate for them, the chilled beer or barbecued chicken) only if they knew that it means something which last in the list or greatest extreme.

Then there’s different two used for single meaning like disinterested (without interest) and uninterested (Not interested). I hope the difference in meaning of without and no is known!!!

A simple way to prevent these errors is to think in English whatever you plan to speak or write in English. Even simpler is to read good books with an open eye. Unfortunately our generation mostly picks up English from people in media specially the idiot box, which is no longer educating!