The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Education Correspondent
I received several aha reactions from a number of avid followers of this column. Thank you. Quite a number were pleasantly surprised that there are two words ‘temper’ and ‘tamper’ in English. Many of them confessed they did not even know about ‘tamper’.
They used ‘temper’ to mean both a person’s state of the mind regarding anger and calmness and meddling or interfering with something without authority.
This week I am worried about people who carry ‘bottle-drinks’ everywhere, by the way it’s a fashion statement today, but a good one I must add, because it is a health-fashion. Drinking water is healthy. Water is the best God-given drink available to mankind.
Some say it is medicine and I believe them. But think about this. Is the bottle we carry around with us a bottle-drink or drink-bottle? Both cannot be correct, can they? The more common one is ‘give me my bottle-drink’.
I have never heard anyone call it ‘drink-bottle’. That is what is correct if we are referring to the bottle. If you are referring to the drink, yes you can call it bottle-drink, meaning the drink in or stored in the bottle. Get this straight today. The bottle-drink refers to the drink inside. The bottle that contains the drink is the drink-bottle, not bottle-drink.
Have you ever heard people say, “He did his level best in the examination,” Or in whatever? If one does his or her best, what is the level best? What level are we talking about better than the best?
‘Level best’ is not an English Language expression. Always say, ‘He or she tried or did her best.’ That is enough. Delete the ‘level’. It does not add value or meaning to your statement.
We do not say, “My father is late’, meaning he is dead. That too is a common expression but is not an English expression. A dead man or woman is referred to as ‘The late Mr So-and-So’, ‘The late Mrs Winnie Mandela; The late Mr Mandela; The late Mr Chakuti-chakuti’. We do not say these people are late. Why? Because they are not late! Late for what? The name always, listen, always follows ‘The late’.
I am sure you remember we do not talk about ‘a paper’ unless we are referring to a newspaper. A paper is a newspaper…all the time! Any other are pieces of paper. This refers to material. ‘Pieces’ does not only refer to torn pieces. Even neat, whole ones are called pieces of paper.
Also consider ‘chalk’. We do not talk about ‘a chalk’ referring to the stick used to write on the board. This is called ‘a piece of chalk’— no matter how long or short it is. Even an unused whole is called ‘a piece of chalk.’ Chalk, like paper refers to material…the dust used to manufacture the pieces. So we cannot say, “Give me a chalk or He used a chalk to write on the board”.
Listen to this! We always say “a dozen of eggs.” Eggs do not have a dozen. English talks about ‘one dozen eggs’ not ‘of eggs.’ If you make it a habit to omit the ‘of’ you will soon be used to the correct structure.
And talking about ‘structure’! People do not have a structure. We cannot say ‘My wife has a beautiful structure.’ Only buildings are referred to as structures. People have figures. “My wife has a beautiful figure.” (Correct). I know in our common and of course wrong language we refer to a woman’s hind baggage as ‘figure.’ That is not English Language.
I have often heard, ‘we ate a delicious menu at the hotel.’ We do not eat a menu at all. A menu is a card or piece of paper on which the types of food or dishes and how much they cost are listed.
So if you talk about eating menu in public, they look at you and quietly think something is wrong with you or your previous teachers.
Once you have used ‘although’ in a sentence, you do not use ‘but’ to express or describe the result. ‘Although she studied hard but she failed her examinations.’ (Wrong). ‘Although she studied hard she failed her examinations (Correct). Omit ‘but’. You can also say. “She studied hard but failed her examinations.” Never use the two, ‘although’ and ‘but’ in the same statement or sentence.
What do we apply for in an application letter? Do we apply for a vacancy or a job? Of course we apply for a job to fill a vacancy. Vacancy is a noun which means an empty space. Surely that is not what we are applying for. What we want is a job and that is what we apply for.
Of course you will remember there is no word like ‘irregardless’ in the English language. The word is ‘regardless’. ‘She came to the wedding irregardless of the court order that barred her.’ (Wrong). ‘She came to the wedding regardless of the court order that barred her”. (Correct). Of course irreversible, irrefutable, irresponsible, irretrievable, irreparable, irregular, irreducible, irrelevant are all correct, but not ‘irregardless.’
The whole essence of these lessons is to help us avoid the common errors we make every day in English and master correct structures and grammar. This will raise the standard of our English for examinations (students) and everyday use. It will save us from moments of embarrassment in our writing and public speaking.
There are many confident speakers who confidently make too many of these common errors and lose rather than win compliments from listeners.
Candidates obviously lose marks in examinations. Some people think nothing strips off someone of his or her dignity and image more than an English language that breaches acknowledged rules of grammar.
Of course that may be nonsensical colonial mentality, but that is the first thing people use to judge others after their attire. Dress and language both make the man or woman one is, they say. Let us be careful with our English language. But let us enjoy ourselves as we learn!
