We usually say those words when we may have heard something that gives us a jolt, a sudden mental nudge that compels us to quickly scan our brain’s databank so that we may be able to decide whether what we have heard is admissible or not.
This usually happens during conversations, and I am sure that most of us have experienced being in a situation when, as we exchange words with someone else, he or she blurts out something which is – uhm – grammatically wrong, or mispronounced.
As a college instructor here in Tabuk, I’ve heard almost all sorts of mistakes from students – but then that is forgivable since they are students, and it further solidifies one’s position to correct an obvious error.
But when the mistake comes from a fellow professional? Hmm, that is an entirely different matter, and somewhat unforgivable. Having reached our present stations in the professional ladders, we are at least expected to be some leaps ahead with regards to choosing the right words – and saying them correctly.
Okay, no one is perfect. However, what makes the mistake inexcusable is when the speaker utters it in an all-knowing fashion – you know, very confident, sure of what he/she is saying (and how he/she is saying it). Your tolerance level is breached, and you suddenly have a problem on how to correct the speaker.
Here we go… here are the most common errors that we hear, and I hope that a number of people would somehow read this and avoid making the glaring slip-up in the future:
“Pinagalak lattan ti TWO-YEARS course jay anak ko.” Please drop the “S” to come up with TWO-YEAR which already functions as an adjective describing the course. Same thing applies with seven-month old baby (“The seven-month old baby weighed 7 kilos”). The hyphen compounds the words, thus “S” is unnecessary. As opposed to when we say “My baby is seven months old” – in which case, “S” must be there.
Another. The oft-quoted line “Birds of the same feather flock together” is most often re-stated as “Birds of the same feather FLOCKS together. I was in a meeting at the Laoagan Function Hall when I first heard this and I almost fell off my chair. Then when I heard it again on-the-air from a guest during a local radio program, I realized that there might be people who might not be really well-versed with the famous line.
Simply drop the “S” because there are too many birds flocking together; don’t attach “flocks” to that one feather which the birds commonly share (why they are flocking together is another matter).
Then there’s the question “Sino ti ASIGNATORY?” There is simply no such word in the English language. Why add “A” when the four-syllable (there, another example) SIGNATORY will do?
One time, a parent (who, I know, is employed at a certain government agency) came up to the enrollment table and asked “Kasanu ti panaka-process ti ACCOMPLETION ti grades ti anak ko?” in the same vein as the “asignatory” error, “accompletion” does not exist in the English vocabulary. The parent obviously merged “accomplish” and “completion” – coming up with “accompletion.”
The rule, of course, is to gracefully do the correction – and the best way is to repeat saying the word in its correct form.
In my most subtle way, I said with a smile, “Nu COMPLETION ti grades ket masapul jay instructor na nga nagited ti incomplete mark.”
Heedless of the clue that I dropped, the parent insisted “Apay haan nga ijay registrar ti ACCOMPLETION?”
At that point, I wanted to worsen things and throw in the word COMPLICATE into the concoction, so that we could come up with ACCOMPLICATION.
After all, no one is perfect.
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