Jabaan Sambhalke

They say English is a funny language. Maybe, but it is the language of business and common communication today. And the purpose of communication is to convey our thoughts to others. This can happen only if we use simple, correct and clear English language. In my dealings with persons in various organisations including our own, I found that sometimes some of us tend to use some words and phrases in the wrong context. Let me share some of those with you.

By now, all of us are aware that except means excluding, accept means to receive or to agree to and expect means to wait for or to anticipate. But let us look at some other words.

Many of us have a habit of using the verb ‘to improvise’ or the noun ‘improvisation’ to mean to improve or the process of improvement. The real meaning of the verb ‘to improvise’ is to creatively craft from available tools or to cobble together or to make it up as you go along. The correct usage will be to say, “The classical singer used many improvisations in singing Raag Malhar” or, “The villagers used an improvised dish antenna for their TV made from aluminium pots and pans”. Or, “Amitabh Bachchan forgot his dialogues so he improvised on the spot”. It is not correct to say, “Please improvise on your price”. Why not just say, “Please improve on your price”? In short, improvisation is a Jugaad and to improve is to make it better.

Another misused word is ‘to lose’. There are two words ‘lose’ and ‘loose’, which have totally different meanings. When something is lost or misplaced, you will say, “I was sad to lose my gold wrist watch” (Can’t be anyone from RCT!). Or as Mandar told Aditi “It is good you did not lose the customer even though our prices were higher than (those of) our competitors’”. As against this, when something is not tight, it is loose. If someone loses his mental balance, you say his screw is loose! If your trouser belt is loose, you may lose the trousers! Or as the production manager told the technician the other day, “Please tighten the loose bolts on the high-pressure flange otherwise we may have to shut down the plant and lose production”. 

I used to get confused how to spell words which have “ie” or “ei” in them till I heard the rule “i before e except after c”. This means, the spelling is always ‘ie’ except if the combination occurs after a ‘c’ in a word. To give an example, “After achieving the TRF targets in time, RCT received an award”.

One more common mistake is the usage of has & have. Though in Marathi and Hindi we use plural for showing our respect i.e. आप or त्यांचा सत्कार करुया, English does not work that way. It is never he “have” even if you are referring to Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It’s always, he conquered many forts to establish Swarajya. Have is used only for you, they and I. (Looks like the English speakers only have respect or pride in themselves and those present in person!). Never say the DG have done this. It’s always the DG has done this.

By the way did you know that it is wrong to say “sponsorer”? The correct word is a sponsor. TJSB sponsored the event or TJSB is our sponsor (not sponserer). There is no such word in English as sponserer/

By the way, did you know that there is a nifty tool available to us right under our nose, which can tell us the correct meaning of a word? On your PC, when you are using MS Word, in the search box on top, put ‘Thesaurus’ and type the word whose meaning you want to find out in the ‘Search for’ box. Click on the arrow and bingo you will get various meanings of the word. 

In the end, I have a question for you. Whoever is the first to give a complete and correct answer will get a gift from me. So have a try. What is plural of the word ‘genius’? Send your answers to me. No Google please! Remember the 4-way test.

-Rajeev Karnik