Know your English…

Once in a while, The Hindu publishes a special column on Know your English, many of the queries answered by S.Upendran.

Most of the topics in this column are very useful, simple english grammar that we think is correct which is infact, are not so correct. Some will be surprisingly funny too !

Here are few good topics from this column. Hope you all like these.

Does the word ‘breakfasted’ exist?

Yes, it does. The word ‘breakfast’ can be used as a verb, and when used in this manner, it means ‘to eat breakfast’. For example, Ananya prefers to breakfast alone. The children breakfasted on idlis and puris. The words ‘lunch’ and ‘snack’ can also be used as verbs. My wife lunched with her clients in a five star hotel. While watching the movie, I snacked on potato chips. Strangely enough, the word ‘dinner’ is not used as a verb. We don’t hear people saying they ‘dinnered’ with their friends.

What is the opposite of ‘comedian’?

A person who performs tragic roles on stage is usually referred to as a ‘tragedian’. The first ‘a’ is like the ‘a’ in ‘china’, and the following ‘e’ is like the ‘ee’ in ‘fees’, ‘bees’, and ‘sees’. The word is pronounced ‘tre-JEE-dien’ with the stress on the second syllable. Dilip Kumar, Sivaji Ganesan, and Sanjeev Kumar are some of our well-known tragedians. The two words ‘comedian’ and ‘tragedian’ are usually used to refer to male actors. An actress who specialises in comic/tragic roles is sometimes called ‘comedienne’/‘tragedienne’. In the case of these two words, the main stress is on the final syllable ‘enne’. The words are pronounced ‘ke-mee-di-EN’ and ‘tre-jee-di-EN’ respectively.

Is it okay to say ‘I met her yesterday night’?

No, it isn’t. English allows you to say ‘yesterday morning’, ‘yesterday afternoon’, and ‘yesterday evening’, but not ‘yesterday night’. When it comes to ‘night’, it is always ‘last night’. Why? Well, some scholars argue that we cannot say ‘yesterday night’ because ‘the night is also part of today’!

Is it okay to say ‘His resignation has been be sanctioned’?

No, it isn’t. Sanction is not a word that one associates with resignation. One can sanction someone’s leave, budget, project, etc. Resignations are either accepted or rejected.

When you are writing a cheque, which of the following is correct ‘Two hundred and fifty five’ or ‘Two hundred fifty five?’

Both are correct. It depends on which side of the Atlantic you are from. If you are British, then you would use ‘and’. Americans, I understand, tend to write the amount without the ‘and’. Most Indians tend to follow the British.

When do we say ‘Yours faithfully’ and ‘Yours sincerely’ in a letter?

What do you normally do when you are writing a letter of complaint to a company and don’t know the name of the person to whom the letter should be addressed? You invariably begin the correspondence with the salutation ‘Dear Sir’. If you are not sure whether you are writing to a man or a woman, you cover your bases by writing ‘Dear Sir/Madam’. When you begin a letter in this fashion, the standard complimentary ending is ‘Yours faithfully’.

‘Yours sincerely’, like ‘Yours faithfully’, is mostly used in formal letters. If you know the name of the person you are writing to, then the standard ending is ‘Yours sincerely’. If you begin a letter in the following manner, ‘Dear Dr. Raman’ or ‘Dear Mr. Gupta’, the usual formal ending is ‘Yours sincerely’. The standard ending in American English is ‘Sincerely yours’. Sometimes, they shorten it to ‘Sincerely’.

When ‘leave’ is used to mean vacation, is it okay to say ‘number of leave/leaves taken’?

No, it isn’t. When ‘leave’ is used to mean ‘vacation’, it is used as an uncountable noun; you cannot say ‘leaves’. The expression ‘a number of’ is always followed by a countable noun. For example, “A number of students were present at the meeting”, and “A number of children took ill after eating the ice cream.” You cannot say, “a number of leaves/leave”. If you wish to use “number of” with “leave”, then you’ll have to say, “Number of days taken as leave”.

*I plan to be on leave all of next week.

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