Shashi Tharoor and Indian English

Brut India

What are Shashi Tharoor's pet peeves? Find out here...  : The English Nut

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00:00The thing about the English language is, if you use a word wrongly widely enough, that'll become an accepted usage.

00:05What about A-S-T-H-M-A?

00:08Asthma.

00:09I just say, you know, people should lighten up a bit.

00:11Too many people get intimidated by the language, start mugging up dictionaries.

00:19Which are the pronunciation and grammar errors that Indians typically make?

00:24Do you have certain ones which are your pet peeve and you'd like to correct the nation

00:28because you are the English teacher to the nation, unofficially?

00:32No, well, the pet peeves are really pedantic ones, which I ought to outgrow.

00:38But I keep correcting my staff on two very common mistakes.

00:41One is the habit of using the word presently.

00:44This is not an Indian problem, it's a global problem.

00:46Presently to mean now, whereas presently means soon.

00:50So I'll be there presently is correct English.

00:52But I'm doing this presently makes no sense because presently does not mean I'm doing it now.

00:57It does not mean in the present or at the present or at present.

01:00So that's one thing that I sometimes get irritated about.

01:04However, the thing about the English language is if you use a word wrongly widely enough,

01:09that will become an accepted usage.

01:10The Americans, by the way, have a similar problem with momentarily.

01:14Because momentarily means for a moment.

01:17But the Americans use it to mean in a moment.

01:20And so you can actually sort of talk about a pilot announcing in an airline

01:24that we will be airborne momentarily and the English passenger has a heart attack

01:28because he thinks that means a plane is going to crash.

01:30He's only going to be in the air for a moment.

01:33And the other one is importantly.

01:36I don't think important needs a leave because important is already an adverb.

01:40Yeah, so it's perfectly all right to say most important.

01:44I believe certain such or there's this and this and that and more important.

01:48This importantly is a superfluous, you know, and it's an unnecessary addition.

01:57Again, as I told him being a bit pedantic, so you don't have to worry about.

02:01What about the words like revert?

02:04Yeah, revert. And what is the other one?

02:06Yes, I shall revert to you. And the other one is.

02:11Yes, please intimate me of your of your of your intentions or whatever.

02:17These are all Victorian English, which stuck with us,

02:20but which the English stopped using in the same way.

02:23Yeah, but I mean, my understanding of revert is to turn back into a former state,

02:27like ice reverts to water when it melts.

02:30So when people write to me that I will revert to you, I tell them you can't turn into me.

02:36God, you are as much of a pedant as I am.

02:38Another very common one, again, not just India,

02:40but everywhere is confusing reluctant and reticent.

02:44Reticent only means reluctant to speak.

02:46It can't be used to mean generally reluctant.

02:49You know, when I asked him this question, he was reticent means he was reluctant to speak it.

02:53But to say that he was reticent to take 10 steps forward or whatever is wrong,

02:58because reticent is only about speaking and reluctant is what people mean,

03:02but they confuse the two a lot. That's a global problem, not just an Indian problem.

03:06There are a few words that I'm going to spell out and because everybody gets it wrong

03:10and I want them to hear the correct. So the first, so this is about pronunciation.

03:13So the first word is pronunciation.

03:16What is the right and the wrong way of saying this word?

03:18Pronunciation is correct.

03:20And not pronounciation. Not pronunciation.

03:23Yeah, pronunciation. And it's actually linked to enunciation.

03:28Right. Which is to speak clearly.

03:30And it's not linked to pronoun, which is where the confusion comes from.

03:35Yes. And what about A-S-T-H-M-A? Asthma.

03:39Yeah. So asthma and not asthma.

03:42No, exactly. And E-P-I-T-O-M-E. Epitome.

03:48Epitome and not epitome. That's right. Not hyperbole, but hyperbole.

03:53Yes. And just one more, P-L-U-M-B-E-R. Plumber. Plumber and not plumber.

04:01Though these are trivial mistakes, my dear English listeners.

04:05What about the V-W confusion? What is your take on it?

04:08That's actually partly because in most Indian languages there isn't a difference.

04:13Right. And therefore people who are comfortable in Indian languages

04:17often find themselves eliding one or the other.

04:21So it's actually so common a mistake that, you know, it's almost embarrassing to point it out.

04:27But in India, yeah, you might say adverb. No, instead of saying adverb, you might say adverb, etc.

04:33I had a teacher who said bite your V's and kiss your W's.

04:37Oh, that's an interesting way of putting it.

04:39So, you know, use your upper teeth on your lower lip and say very.

04:42That's right. And then make the duck face, which is one of the millennial words.

04:46Wolf. Wolf. Yeah. So that's it.

04:49Okay, now I would have... Very good. I like that. Bite your V's and kiss your W's.

04:53Good. A lesson to teach my grandson one day.

04:56Is there something that you would like to say about the English language

05:00or the way Indians speak English or anything else relating to English

05:06or English in India?

05:08No, I just see, you know, people should lighten up a bit.

05:10I mean, unfortunately, too many people get intimidated by the language,

05:16start mugging up dictionaries. Honestly, that's utterly pointless to my mind.

05:21To my mind, what happens with the language is you use it to communicate,

05:25use it to express ideas, use it to give and gain pleasure.

05:30If all of that is not happening, then you don't need it.

05:32So to my mind, if you're coming across words in books that you don't know,

05:36read more books, you'll find out what they mean. Don't mug up dictionary.

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