Making a beeline for the canteen

My eyes caught sight of the sentence below 'Champion hawkers riding high' which reads
'Customers are making a beeline to the stalls of the newly crowned 'kings'.

The above captions appeared in a local newspaper which I read this morning.

In the second sentence, 'making a beeline to' is wrong usage. It should be 'making a beeline for'.

Let me construct a sentence to illustrate the correct usage:

As soon the bell for recess was rung, the pupils made a beeline for the canteen.

It means they headed straight to the canteen to satisfy their hunger.

I hope the newspaper will be more careful so as to avoid grammatical errors such as the one mentioned in this post.

The wrong usage of 'dari'

Last Sunday, I was travelling by bus to Balik Pulau. Inside the bus, I happened to catch sight of a notice bearing these words 'Kami mengalu-alukan sebarang cadangan / maklum balas dari anda untuk meningkatkan perkhidmatan RapidPenang.' [We welcome any suggestion / feedback from you to upgrade RapidPenang's service.]

The preposition 'dari' is wrongly used here. 'Dari' (from) can only be used for Arah (Direction), Tempat (Place) and Masa (Time). The following are sentences showing its correct usage.
1 Angin kencang bertirup dari timur ke barat. [Strong wind blew the east to the west.]
2 Lelaki itu datang dari Ipoh. [The man came from Ipoh.]
3 Pekerja itu bekerja dari hari Isnin hingga hari Jumaat. [The worker works from Monday to Friday.]

In the above notice, 'anda' (you) is a person. Hence, the correct preposition to be used is 'daripada' which can be used for persons.

The corrected notice should have been worded as follows:
'Kami mengalu-alukan sebarang cadangan / maklum balas daripada anda untuk meningkatkan perkhidmatan RapidPenang.]

For your child's safety purposes

I was in a local supermarket when I spotted this notice. It reads "For your child's safety purposes, avoid placing them on the trolley."

There are two obvious mistakes in the notice. First, the word 'purposes' need not be there. Secondly, the word 'child' is singular, but "them" after 'placing' does not agree with 'child' which is singular.

It will sound better if the notice is worded as "For your child's safety, do not place him or her on the trolley."

Inconsistency in sentence structures

I read with interest a letter to the editor about the poor standard of English in flyers to be distributed to the public. As I scrutinised what was written, it was really incomprehensible. This is partly due to inconsistency in the sentence structures and horrible grammatical errors.

When we construct sentences, we must follow certain rules. For example, if you write it in the active voice, you must not change to the passive in between. Let us take an example, 'I took out a novel and read by me straight away.' This is inconsistent. You should have written 'I took out a novel and read it straight away.'

The flyer in question has all the sentences and part sentences following one another without subjects. Here it goes:

Easy and comfortably reshape burstline win confident and no more embarassing moments. Natural comfort fabric, accommodate for local climate. Ventilation power, help breast to breath. Absorb sweat easily, feel cooling comfort. Odour free, maintain healthy. Anti-bacteria, angainst itchiness.

If my student wrote such a poor piece of prose, I would have corrected his work as follows.

The bra has comfortable bust-line after being reshaped. Wearing such a bra will win you confidence and there will be no more embarrassing moments. Made of natural fabric, it can adapt to local climate. Ventilation is good and it can absorb sweat easily so that you will feel cool and comfortable wearing it. Besides, it is odour free and hygienic with anti-bacteria and anti-itchiness properties.

You see, you must have a subject in each sentence. In the first sentence, the subject is 'The bra'. 'Wearing such a bra' forms the first subject of the first half of the second sentence and 'there' forms the subject for the second half of the sentence. The subject for the third sentence is 'it'. As for the fourth sentence, the subject is 'Ventilation' for the first half and 'it' for the 2nd half. The last sentence has 'it' as the subject.

How do you say ‘What does he suggest?’ in Malay?

I was watching my favourite soap opera when an advertisement about a brand of toothpaste for sensitive teeth. Then the following question flashed across the screen:

Apakah yang beliau syorkan? [What does he suggest?]

The above question is grammatically wrong. Let me explain why it is incorrect.

The question ‘Apakah yang beliau syorkan?’ is in fact a ‘ayat pasif songsang ‘ (inverted sentence in the passive voice)

The sentence in the active voice is ‘Yang beliau syorkan itu apa?’ This sentence is wrong too. It should be ‘Yang disyorkan oleh beliau apa?’ Hence to convert this correct sentence to the inverted passive voice is ‘Apakah yang disyorkan oleh beliau?’

What should be flashed on the screen should be:

Apakah yang disyorkan oleh beliau?

When the word 'clothe' is wrongly used

When I was in Hat Yai, it was raining most of the time. Hence I walked along the corridor of shops along Trok Sukomthalang looking at things sold there. Suddenly, I caught sight of a tailor shop with the following words written outside the shop:

'We deliver clothe in 24 hour.'

I hope that I remembered this line correctly.
Anyway two glaring errors stayed in my mind until now.

The first mistake is the word 'clothe' which should have been 'clothes' because 'clothe' means to put clothes on whereas 'clothes' means 'garments'. For example, a salesgirl is asked by his boss to clothe the mannequin (a dummy model).

The second error is 'hour' which must be replaced with 'hours'. To make this sentence grammatically correct, it should be worded as 'We deliver clothes in (within) 24 hours.'

You come rushing, then you go flushing

During my trip to China, we often had to go the washrooms or toilets to ease ourselves. Usually, the washrooms in restaurants are all right but at Sinopec (equivalent to Malaysia's Petronas) petrol stations, the washrooms have no doors. Hence women tourists have to take turns to stand on guard while their friends are answering nature's call. There are occasions when umbrellas will have to be used when there are no toilets around at certain remote places in China. These will form a barricade or shield for the one who needs to pee.

In one of the washrooms I went to, I saw the following poster pinned on the wall.

It reads 'Lai ye cong cong, qu ye chong chong." The word for word translation is 'Come also in a hurry, go also flushing.' However, I will translate the line as 'you come rushing, then you go flushing' for the pun of it but the Chinese translated it as 'Have to hurry, was also chong chong to.' It is horrible English. For one thing, it is grammatically wrong to say 'have to hurry' - a sentence without a subject. 'was also chong chong to' carries no meaning at all because English people will not understand what 'chong chong' means. Worse still it is written in the past tense 'was' and cannot go with 'have to hurry' which has a finite verb 'have' already assuming that the subject is understood to be 'You'. The last word 'to' must be a mistake for 'too'.

To improve on the above, it can be rendered as 'You have to hurry no doubt, but you need to flush too before you leave.'

Reduce the use of plastic bags

In English, if you want to refer to things in general, use the plural form of the nouns. Usually, examples are given in plural form. Recently, Penang people have been asked to use less plastic bags.

In one supermarket, the notice reads, 'Help to conserve nature, reduce the use of plastic bag.' In this case, since plastic bags are things in general, the notice should read, "Help to conserve nature, reduce the use of plastic bags"

With effect from July 2009

I went to a physiotherapy centre today to have my 'trigger finger' (inability to flex my forefinger) treated this morning. As I did not have an appointment, I had to wait for my turn. While waiting I noticed two notices on the wall. Both contain grammatical errors.

The first one is:

Please be inform that our new mobile phone number is 017-xxxxxxx.

In this sentence, 'inform' should be 'informed' (past participle)

The second notice reads:

Changing of operating hours

effectively from July 2009

Mon & Wed - 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
Tue & Thur - 11.30 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.

'Changing of operating hours' should have been 'Change in treatment hours' to be correct.

As for effectively from July 2009, it should be reworded as 'With effect from July 2009'.

So much for today's boob watch.

'Chase' needs no prepositon after it

Starting today, police personnel on beat duty will take on a new look with uniforms made of flame-resistant cloth.

The lightweight fabric gives police personnel more flexibility – enabling them to chase after criminals or engage in hand-to-hand combat. Accessories include a gadget belt, baton, pepper spray, a set of handcuffs, walkie-talkie and semi-automatic gun. To complete the look are a beret and boots. Unlike the old uniforms, where badges are pinned, the insignias form part of the outfit.

The above two paragraphs about the new look of the uniform of the police force in Malaysia which I quoted from a local newspaper contains a common mistake – the use of ‘after’ after the verb ‘chase’. It is wrong usage because ‘chase’ means ‘run after’. Hence the preposition ‘after’ would be redundant after the word ‘chase’.

Look at the following sentences to know the correct usage of 'chase' visually:

1 The policeman chased after the snatch-thief. [wrong]

2 The policeman chased the snatch-thief. [correct]

3 The policeman ran after the snatch-thief. [correct]

Another Example of Wrong Usage in English

I was browsing some shoes in a hypermarket when I noticed a paper box with the following label.

The phrase ‘at cheapest prices’ is wrong usage here. It should have been ‘at lowest prices’.

Some of my students make mistakes similar to the above example.

e.g. The price of the shirt that I bought was cheap. (Wrong)

There are two ways to correct the above sentence.

a) The price of the shirt that I bought was low.

b) The shirt that I bought was cheap.

Another adjective that is often wrongly used is ‘fast’.

e.g. The car is traveling at a fast speed.

The above sentence is wrong and can be rectified as follows:

a) The car is travelling at a high speed.

b) The car is traveling very fast.

Wrong pronunciation of 'their'

Malaysian students will usually pronounce the pronoun 'their' as 'di ar'. When I had not delved deeper into English, I also pronounced it the same way.

However, my exposure to BBC audio files and my reference to the correct pronunciation in the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries show that the word 'their' should be pronounced exactly like the word 'there'.

The next time you see the sentence 'It's all their own doing.', you should pronounce it as if it is written 'It's all there own doing.'

Happy studying English.

The "Very Enjoy" Show

I do not watch television very often. The other day, I tuned in to a local television station and watched an entertaining show. It was quite interesting as some senior citizens were showing off their talent in singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. Then it was interval for commercial ads. Before that the male and the female comperes said, "Very Enjoy" in unison. This could be the tagline of the show. I was shocked at the blatant violation of English grammar when they uttered these two words.

According to English grammar, the words that can be placed after 'very' is an adjective or an adverb except for specific phrases such as 'at this very moment' . Hence the following sentences are wrong:

1 It was a very enjoy show.

2 It was very enjoy watching the show.

3 This is a very excite game.

4 I very love you.

5 She very hates maths.

The above sentences can be corrected as follows:

1 It was a very enjoyable show.[enjoy is a verb whereas enjoyable is an adjective]

2 It was very enjoyable watching the show.[enjoy is a verb but enjoyable is an adjective]

3 This is a very exciting game. [excite is a verb and exciting is an adjective.]

4 I love you very much.[love is a verb while very much functions as an adverb.]

5 She hates maths very much. [hates is a verb and very much acts as an adverb.]

Students learn through imitation and they may not realise that it is wrong to say "very enjoy". In fact, mass media such as television and radio do have great influence on the public including students. As such, television stations should be more careful in the use of English. The wrong use of the language will impress upon the mind of students making them do the same mistake or mistakes in their essays.

I hope this post will alert those responsible for the show so that such a mistake will not occur again.

Happy studying English along with me.

Everyday or Every day?

The photo below which was taken with my Sony Cybershot T20 camera sends a wrong message to students of English. They may think that ‘everyday’ is spelt this way every time. On the contrary, there is a difference between ‘everyday’ and ‘every day’.

When it is used as an adjective, the spelling is ‘everyday’. If an adverb is intended, then 'every day' should be used.

The following examples should serve to illustrate the above point:

1. Going to market is an everyday affair for Mrs Tan. [‘everyday’ functions as an adjective.]

2 He jogs in the park every day. [‘every day’ is an adverb here]

So much for boob watch today. By the way, ‘boob’ here means ‘error’ and not ‘breast’ as is used as a slang in other context.