The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi
All those sitting for examinations this year . . . (wrong) / All those sitting examinations this year . . . (correct). No one sits FOR anything. Have you forgotten ‘‘For’’ means ‘‘on behalf of.’’
So who is writing on behalf of the examinations? Nobody! So:
The candidate is sitting the examinations this year (correct).
I will sit my final examinations in three years.(correct) We sit examinations. We do not sit for examinations, please note.
It has been interesting every time I have used ‘‘sitting examinations’’ correctly I have been ‘‘corrected’’ by those who have the error in their blood and they have added ‘‘for’’ to ‘‘perfect’’ the language.
Those who want to learn this one notorious error please do now, once and for all time! That errors do often sound correct does not make them correct.
‘‘Durawall’’ does not go away too. The walls around our houses are not durawalls. This word does not exist in the dictionary, please check it out! They are called pre-cast walls. Durawall is the name of the company that first constructed these blocks they would then arrange and secure to build a wall. They left their company name labelled on their finished wall and when we saw it we thought it referred to the wall. No! It referred to the company. The same way we continue to call travel bags and suitcases Monarchs. Monarch is the name of the company which manufactures these bags and suitcases. Toothpaste is toothpaste. Never call it Colgate. That too is the name of a company . . . once upon a time called Colgate-Palmolive, a division of Lever Brothers (Ltd).
Buying ‘‘your’’ something . . . your dress, your car, your house, your suit . . . the list goes on forever. How and why do you buy something that is yours . . . that belongs to you? Have you ever thought about this? You cannot say or write, “I bought my dress in that shop. / I bought my house last year. / He bought his suit . . . her dress, my shirt . . .” etc. What you bought was a suit . . . for whom? Indeed for yourself! So you can say, “I bought a suit for myself / a dress for myself / a car for myself / a house for myself”, if you want the listener to know ‘‘for whom?’’ I want you to carefully and intelligently note that with a car and a house, the listener obviously understands without you pointing out ‘‘for whom?’’ That you bought it for yourself.
Some errors that refuse to go away are:
‘‘I am missing my dictionary’’, instead of ‘‘my dictionary is missing’’.
I cannot ‘‘cope up’’ with the work, instead of ‘‘I cannot cope with the work.’’
Calling the person who cooks ‘‘a cooker’’ instead of ‘‘a cook.’’
Eating rice with chicken, instead of ‘‘rice and chicken’’.
Wearing an overall, instead of wearing overalls/ ‘‘a short’’ instead of ‘‘shorts’’ / ‘‘A trousers’’ instead of simply ‘‘a trouser’’ or ‘‘trousers.’’
‘‘Go for swimming’’, instead of simply ‘‘go swimming.’’
‘‘Go for shopping’’, instead of ‘‘go shopping.’’
‘‘Go for hunting’’ instead of simply ‘‘go hunting.’’ The last one is — ‘‘Go for fishing’’ instead of ‘‘go fishing’’.
Serious learners of English, whether they are studying to sit examinations or to improve personal communication in English, will take these common errors seriously.
Never-do-wells will sneer and say, ‘‘Tibvireipo, kuzongoita vaRungu vacho here?’’ Sour Grapes! Listen!
We have learnt this language and mastered it even better than some of the VaRungus. A white skin does not translate into mastery of the English language.
Many of the Europeans, you will be surprised do not speak the best English in the world . . . they do not have to.
These lessons are specially designed and meant for African children in our schools to raise their command of English for examinations . . . and for adults out of school, to improve their daily English for other purposes.
