Tuesday 4 December 2012

ENGLISH -- a language

English is a language like any other. Learn to speak it as you would any other language. Don't get bogged down by paying undue attention to the complexities of grammar and usage. It doesn't mean that you should speak non-standard English but only that you should not be side-tracked by attention to details. Don't expect yourself to know every difficult word in the dictionary or get all the rules of grammar by heart. Just use the language and enjoy it.

The purpose of any communication is to express yourself, not to impress people.


Saturday 3 November 2012

Unscrambling the letters

Find the Bollywood actor hidden in these phrases by unscrambling the letters.

Hah Shark Hunk

Sharia Airway

Shaman Lank

Aha Mark Yuks

Papaya Rick Horn


Answers  Shah Rukh Khan; Aishwarya Rai; Salman Khan; Akshay Kumar; Priyanka Chopra

Thursday 25 October 2012

Do you use your right brain?

Do you use your right brain? If so, solve this puzzle. Between the two words given here, you can use a word that will suit both the words in forming a compound word.

Example:

Cross ----Place
Cross FIRE place: crossfire; fireplace

You do it now.

Break ----- Hall

Water -----Rope

Film ----Cut

Chair ---Room

Power ------- Master


Answers: break-dance-hall; water-tight-rope; film-crew-cut; chair-leg-room; power-station-master.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Where in the world is this?

Given below are some phrases. The letters of the phrase can be unscrambled to make the name of a country.  Can you find the countries hidden in the phrases?

Hand tail.
Main oar.
Neat grain.
Igloo man
.

Answers  Thailand, Romania, Argentina and Mongolia.

Monday 24 September 2012

Wow, that’s new to me!


What’s the meaning of –ly in words such as smartly, quickly, wisely or exclusively?

      An interesting question, but very difficult to answer for not many grammar books or dictionaries go into the origins. However, some do, and here is an interesting explanation from one such book. The only in smartly or quickly means like. Quick like is quickly, smart like is smartly, and now, don’t ask me what does likely mean? It is a word by itself.

Monday 10 September 2012

What is the meaning of the expression come with flying colors?

What is the meaning of the expression come with flying colors?

If you do something successfully such as pass an exam or graduate from a college, you do it with flying colors.

He passed with flying colors.
She graduated from Harvard with flying colors.

Now what has colors to do with doing something successfully?

A good question, if you have asked that.

The word colors has got something  to do with flags. If you look at the word carefully, you will note that it is in plural. The word means the colors that are used to represent a team, a group, a club or a country. In British English, it means a flag or a shirt or something that shows to which group or team or country a person supports or belongs to.

When a team or a country is successful at a game or an activity, it has set its flag flying.  It has done the activity with flying colors. It has done it successfully.

Flying colors is a nautical term. Ships, victorious in a battle field, would return home with its flag flying on the masthead. On the other hand, ships that had lost in a battle, and if they did not sink,  they would go back home with their colors struck. Thus the expression strike the colors.

If the ships fought bravely and went down fighting, it went down with flying colors or went down with colors flying.

It should not be difficult now to guess the meaning of sail under false colors. This has reference to pirates using false flags and seizing an unsuspecting ship.

Thursday 30 August 2012

What should I say?

What should I say? He is superior than me or he is superior to me?

Words such as superior, inferior, junior, senior, taller, shorter or smarter are adjectives in comparative form. By the way, adjectives are words that tell us more about somebody or something. They are describing words. If you look at the word superior, you will note that it ends in –or and not –er. When you use an adjective with –or, do not use than; use to.

He is superior to me.
She was junior to Sita.

Compare:

She was taller than me.
Mumbai is bigger than Hyderabad.

Friday 17 August 2012

unscrambling the letters

Find the Bollywood actor hidden in these phrases by unscrambling the letters.

Hah Shark Hunk

Sharia Airway

Shaman Lank

Aha Mark Yuks

Papaya Rick Horn

Answers  Shah Rukh Khan; Aishwarya Rai; Salman Khan; Akshay Kumar; Priyanka Chopra

Monday 6 August 2012

Solve This Puzzle

Do you use your right brain? If so, solve this puzzle. Between the two words given here, you can use a word that will suit both the words in forming a compound word.

Example:
--------
Cross ---- Place
Cross FIRE place: crossfire; fireplace

You do it now.
--------------
Break ----- Hall

Water -----Rope

Film ----Cut

Chair ---Room

Power ------- Master

Answers:  break-dance-hall; water-tight-rope; film-crew-cut; chair-leg-room; power-station-master.

Friday 20 July 2012

Where in the world is this?


Given below are some phrases. The letters of the phrase can be unscrambled to make the name of a country.  Can you find the countries hidden in the phrases?

Hand tail.
Main oar.
Neat grain.
Igloo man.

Wednesday 11 July 2012

What is the difference between BE and B Tech?

BE and B Tech are degrees offered in engineering and technology by Indian universities. Though there is no difference in terms of value, there are certain differences in the way they are perceived.

Universities that offer degrees in sciences, arts, education and engineering call their courses on engineering BE while bodies (most called institutes) that offer only engineering degrees call their degrees B Tech.

Nowadays, under AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) approval, many universities have begun calling their engineering courses B Tech. though the syllabi are no different from BE.

Friday 29 June 2012

What is the difference between meet and contact?

Contact means to write or telephone somebody. 

Do not  hesitate to contact us if you have problem with the product.
Contact the front office for more details?

In everyday English people use get in touch with rather than contact

Can I have your mobile number so that I get in touch with you when you are not at work.

Meet means to see somebody in person.

I will meet you tomorrow to discuss this.

Monday 11 June 2012

What is the meaning of the word would?


We use would, and not will, when we report what someone said.

She said she would not act in the film.
The manager said he would inform the client about the meeting next week.
The doctor told the nurse that he would leave the report at the front office.

We use would  to talk about what regularly happened in the past. If the simple present is used for speaking about what happens every time, would is used for speaking about what happened every time in the past.

When upset or angry, Ajay would lock himself in a room and refuse to eat.
Our teacher would give us a chocolate every time we answered the questions correctly.
 
We use would to make a polite request.

Would you please wait for a sec?

We use would when speak about imaginary or unreal situations.

What would you ask of God if he granted you a boon?
I would ask for his address.

We use would when we offer something to someone or invite someone to something.

Would you like to have some coffee?
Would you like to join us for dinner?

We use would with like to with the meaning want to.

I would like to speak to Col.  Kumar, please.
Would you like to come with us to a movie?

We use would with rather to show what we prefer.

What would you like to have? Coffee or tea?
I would rather have some coffee.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

'Re-learning' English

CALL IT A SORT OF COMPLEX or call it a crisis or call it an awakening. Whatever. I am unlearning English. I am no longer the confident speaker or writer that I used to be. Today I know that confidence can spring out of ignorance or knowledge.

Unlearning English? Yes. It is looking at your English again to find out what is standard, what is not standard, and what is Indian.

I was surprised to know that major dictionaries did not list the word decoction. In South India decoction is black coffee.

A medico in Delhi is a medical shop, and I smiled at the way the word has been used to communicate with the people of the city. I thought that a medico was a medical student, which indeed is correct, but there was another surprise in store; a medical practitioner can also be a medico.

My mother is an employee. He is an employee. I realized that this is an awkward way of talking about someone’s profession. The word employee is used in a general sense meaning people who work in an organization or a company. Here is an example from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:

The company also offers substantial bonuses to senior employees.  
Common words that we take for granted can cause problems. For instance, the word take in the sentence 

What do you take in the morning? I take coffee.
The right word is have and not take.

What do you have in the morning for breakfast?
Do you have coffee?
I have coffee in the mornings.

How many more such words, expressions, phrases or idioms that have escaped our attention?

What kind of English do we use? And with whom do we use English? Surely a great deal of things have got to be considered before we begin to use English suitable to contexts.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

RHYMING SLANG


Reddy, pull an I declare to the Charlie Horner there, and keep your heart and lung under control lest the dime a pop should barge in, and  take you  to ginger ale for creating nuisance.  And, if you don’t stop, I will switch and bone the dime a pop myself!

I am sure that you would have had difficulty making sense of what you have read, and unless you are familiar with what is called Rhyming Slang, you would not understand certain expressions used in the passage above.

Rhyming slang used by people of East London, is  today, used in America, Australia and Britain. It is not common in educated speech, and therefore, be careful when you use them in your everyday speech in a hurried enthusiasm.

In the passage above, I declare is a chair, Charlie Horner, corner. Heart and lung is your tongue, and dime a pop is cop. Ginger ale stands for jail while switch and bone is telephone as verb.

What is uncles and aunts then? It is your pants. To amuse you here are some expression from rhyming slang:
Bacons and eggs: legs
Bonny fair: hair
Brothers and sisters: whiskers
Fine and dandy: brandy
Pot of jelly: belly
Kiss the cross: boss
Nancy prance: dance
Johnnie Rump: pump
Leg rope: hope
Ruby rose: nose
Three or four: door
Smear and smudge: judge


Tuesday 3 April 2012

Want to write better?

WRITING indeed is a difficult task when you compare it with speech. In speech you can use voice modulation, facial expression, body language and other non-verbal signals to express your ideas. In writing, you use only words arranged in an order called the sentence.

If you want to write better, follow the rules given here:

·         Decide what you want to say.
·         Illustrate or give examples.
·         Focus on one idea in each paragraph.
·         Focus on one theme throughout the piece you are writing.
·         Use punctuation marks correctly so that the reader knows whether you are making a pause or enumerating things.
·         Confirm to register. If you begin on a formal note, maintain that note through the piece.
·         Choose the right word to say what you mean.
·         Write what you mean and do not make the words mean something just because you have nothing to say.
·         Take care of grammatical correctness and make sure that you spell the words correctly.

Above all, when you write or speak, bear in mind, that the purpose must be to express yourself, and not to impress someone.

Monday 26 March 2012

Ten tips to improve your English


1.      When you love something, you think about it. When you think about it you know more about it. Love the language.

2.      Be attentive to the sound, the rhythm, the cadence, the beat—the music of the language.

3.      Listento good speakers of the language. Find out in what ways they impress you.

4.      Have a mind that questions: what do you call this in English? How do you say this in English?

5.      Read books. Read books on a variety of topics. Humour, fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, biographies, auto-biographies and books on popular science.

6.      Language and knowledge are connected. When you know more, you also have the language that enables you to think about what you know.

7.      English revolves around a fixed group of words that do not change. Words such as do, does, has, have, keep, make, fall, go, get, turn, in, on, as, as if, and so on. Learn these words by listening and analyzing, and putting them to use. There are hardly around 180 such words.

8.      A good dictionary is of immense help. Do you know that you can learn a great deal by looking up a dictionary. You come to know about pronunciation, grammar, usage, and why, even the history of the word.

9.      Have a set of friends with whom you are comfortable speaking in English. Don't bother if you make mistakes. You can put your language skill on an ‘auto correct’ mode.

10.  If you have questions in English ask us:  or call us on 9444323000 or visit us at www.vetaglobal.in

 

Monday 19 March 2012

Know Your English


“Good morning, sir.”
“Good morning, Lalith. Who dropped you?”

“My papa, sir. I thought I should come here by time. Time—that reminds me of the point that I wanted to discuss. What is the difference between have time and find time?”

“An interesting question, Lalith. The time available to you is have time. I will visit you when I have time. Well, that means I will visit you when time is available to me.”
“Hm.”

Make or find time means to plan in such a way that you have time available to do something that you wanted to do. I always find time to listen to old Hindi songs. Busy with school sports, she couldn’t find time for study.”

“It is interesting, sir, to know how a word can make the difference in the way we use language, particularly English. You used the phrase for study—busy with school sports, she couldn’t find time for study—should study be in singular or plural?”

“You ask very thoughtful questions.  When you use the word with the meaning learning at home, the word is used in singular. The word studies means the work you do in college or school to learn about a particular subject or subjects. How are your studies coming along?

“Oh. Then the word sport, sir—what is the difference between sport and sports?”
“In British English it is singular—sport, and in American English, it is sports—plural. Are you interested in sport? I am interested in sports.”
“Oh.”

“The word sport is an uncountable noun…”
“You mean it cannot be counted…”

“Yeah. When you use the word as a countable noun, it means a particular form of sport. What is your favourite sport? Swimming is my favourite sport. I like water sports.”

“Sir, what is the meaning of to make sport of somebody or something?”
“It means to make fun of someone or something.  He was just making a sport of himself. When you say something in sport, you are saying it just for fun. He made the comments in sport, not seriously.”

“Thank you, sir. It was informative.”

Friday 9 March 2012

A great paradox

A few centuries ago, a law teacher came across a student who was willing to learn but was unable to pay the fees. The student struck a deal saying, "I will pay your fee the day I win my first case in the court". The teacher agreed and proceeded with the law course.

When the course was finished and teacher started pestering the student to pay the fee, the student reminded him of the deal and pushed days. Fed up with this, the teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law and both of them decided to argue for themselves.

The teacher put forward his argument saying: "If I win this case, as per the court of law, the student has to pay me as the case is about his non-payment of dues. And if I lose the case, student will still pay me because he would have won his first case. So either way I will have to get the money". 

The equally brilliant student argued back saying: "If I win the case, as per the court of law, I don't have to pay anything to the teacher as the case is about my non-payment of dues. And, if I lose the case, I don't have to pay him because I haven't won my first case yet. So either way, I am not going to pay the teacher anything". 

It is said that this is one of the greatest paradoxes ever recorded in history.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Learn spoken English


Veta is the largest corporate entity in the spoken English industry. Veta today is the leader in spoken English training. Training in English spoken, Learn spoken English, Business English, written and business communication. If you are looking for the experts, welcome to Veta.