Some Examples of Manglish

If Singaporeans are familiar with Singlish such as 'don’t play play' which comes from Hokkien “mai chit tor chit tor” thanks to Phuah Chu Kang, so are Malaysians with Manglish. The following conversation is in Malaysian English or Manglish:

Gopal: Have you passed up the assignment to Sir?

Ah Seng: Sure. I passed up my one yesterday.

Fauzi: You are kidding, isn't it?

Ah Seng: I passed up my assignment what.

Gopal: Don't bluff me lah. How come you were earlier compared to us this time?

Fauzi: Although I'm usually lazy but this time I discussed about it with Joel and two of us did the assignment together.

Let me explain the use of Manglish as used in the conversation above.

1. "passed up" should be "handed in" in standard English which is English that can be understood internationally. You can also use "submitted" in place of "handed in".

2. We use the word "sir" when we address our male teacher directly. It is the equivalent of 'cikgu' in Malay. However, when we refer to him in conversation, 'sir' should be replaced with 'the teacher' or 'Mr Lim' if his surname is Lim.

3 "mine" should be used as opposed to "my one" if the English used is to be correct.

4 The question tag "isn't it" only follows a sentence that has 'It is' in it. An example is "It is your pen, isn't it?" In the sentence "You are kidding, isn't it?", the question tag "isn't it" is wrongly used and should be substituted with "aren't you".

5 The word 'lah' is a Malay particle that has crept into Manglish. It should be left out altogether in standard English.

6 "what" sounds confusing and is redundant in the sentence "I passed up my assignment what." The correct English structure is "I did hand in my assignment."

7 "How come" is not correct English. Use "why" instead.

8 Why use "earlier compared to us" when you should write "earlier than us" in correct English?

9 The sentence "How come you were earlier compared to us?" can be rendered as "Why were you earlier than us this time?" in good English.

10 The use of the conjunction "although" followed by "but" is most probably influenced by Malay, that is, "walaupun ... tetapi". However, in standard English, "but" is not needed when "although" is used.

11 The verb "discuss" means "talk about", so it should not be followed by "about" anymore. Hence the sentence "Although I'm usually lazy but this time I discussed about it with Joel and two of us did the assignment together." should have been "Although I'm usually lazy this time I discussed it with Joel and two of us did the assignment together."

12 In passing I would like to point out that "sure" is American English as used in the above conversation. British will use "certainly". So is "kidding" which can be replaced with "joking".