Know Your English (Jan2001)

Know your English

``HERE COMES the future chemist. How was the test? How did you do?''

``Pretty bad, actually. The only person who said that he had done a good job was Rahul.''
``Rahul? You mean Vijay Kumar's son?''
``The very same. The ....the....`hair' to ....How do you pronounce `heir'? I always get confused.''
``H..e..i..r is pronounced like the word `air'.''
``But I have heard many people pronounce it like h..a..i..r.''
``That's true. But it's pronounced like `air'. You were saying something about Rahul?''
``He is really smart. You know he works really hard. I don't understand why the heir to millions should work so hard.''
``You have to work hard in order to make more money.''
``I wish I were heir to....''
``...why don't you get somebody rich to adopt you?''
``Not a bad idea, actually. May be I can get Rahul's father to adopt me! I think I shall inform him your idea.''
``Inform him of.''
``What?''
``I think I shall inform him of your idea. You don't inform someone something, you inform someone `of' something , or `about' something.''
``I see. How does this sentence sound? The Cabinet Secretary informed the Minister of the mine disaster.''
``Sounds good. The students informed the Principal of the drug problem on campus.''
``We informed the Bank Manager of our new address.''
``Tell me, have you ever been to Rahul's house? I understand it's....''
``....I have been there only once. It's huge. We went to downstairs and the rooms....''
``....to downstairs? You never say `to downstairs' or `to upstairs'.''
``I know. It was a mistake''
``The words `downstairs' and ....''
``....upstairs are like the words `here' and `there'. One doesn't say, `Come to here'. Similarly, it is wrong to say, `Come to downstairs'.''
``Very good. Instead, you simply say, `Come upstairs', or `Go downstairs'.''
``Just like `Come here', or `Go there'.''
``That's right. Any way, what did you do in Rahul's house?''
``We played a lot of table tennis. He has a lot of computer games. So....''
``....you spent a lot of time playing computer games!''
``Unfortunately, no. Rahul's mother prevented us to play on the computer.''
``You don't `prevent someone to do something'. You usually `prevented someone from doing something'.''
``Prevent from, eh? That's interesting. How about this example? The students were prevented from entering the college by the police.''
``I was prevented from taking part in the contest.''
``Was it a beauty contest? If that was the case, I can understand why the people prevented you from taking part in it!''
``Not very funny.''
``Sorry! What about the word `prohibit'? Is the word `prohibit' usually followed by the word `to' or `from'?''
``The word `prohibit' usually takes the word `from' after it. You are usually prohibited from doing something. The workers were prohibited from entering the factory.''
``When the doctors realised that the man had only a few weeks to live, he was no longer prohibited from smoking and drinking.''
``That's a good example.''
``We were prohibited from entering the room.''
`` Now tell me, why did Rahul's mother prevent you from playing on the computer?''
``Because she wanted Rahul to finish his homework.''
``So whether you are the heir to millions or .....''
``...heir to nothing, you still have to do your homework.''
``The wonderful life of an Indian student!''
``Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.'' - Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law at work: In the answer to the first question last week, I was trying to explain the meaning of the word ``BLASE'' and not ``BLASI''. The ``e'' in the word ``BLASE'' has an accent mark on it. Unfortunately when a text document of the column was sent to the editor, the computer, for reasons which I don't understand, converted the ``e'' with the accent mark on it to an ``i''. Let me assure you that I wasn't being ``blase'', or ``blasi'' as my computer would have it, about the spelling of ``blase''! By the way, the word ``BLASI'' doesn't exist.

Source:
The Hindu daily, Tuesday, January 16, 2001