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I strongly object to the use of the word British for the gentleman in question!

:D
For, Thad is as much a desi as a majority of us on the forum are; ergo, he keeps confusedly hopping between and harping on the various iterations of English and American Englishes and their Indian offsprings too!!!

:cool:

My problem: I am forgetting some of my mother tongue, whilst continuing to fail at learning the local language.

More than twenty years ago, an Indian-origin lady in London got me in the habit of on-ing and off-ing lights. Reach is a transitive verb (ie should have an object: reached what?) but daily I message my wife that I reached. My English has become Indianised: it can be confusing sometimes! But my Tamil vocabularly is still in single digits :disappointed

If this were the case, you would've said "cutted & putted" ;)

Cheers

The terms 'upgrade' and 'downgrade' are often misused when referring to switching between different types or categories/classifications. These terms should ideally be used to describe a move within the same category/classification.

I belong to a local cycling club and I often hear folks say "I want to upgrade from my MTB to a road bike," it is incorrect. An MTB and a road bike belong to different disciplines designed for different purposes, and terrains. Switching from one to the other should not be termed an 'upgrade' because it implies that MTBs are inferior to road bikes.
They are simply different tools for different cycling needs.
The correct phrasing would be, "I want to switch from my MTB to a road bike".

Similarly, in the context of automobiles, saying "I want to upgrade to an SUV" from a sedan or a hatchback is misleading. SUVs, sedans, MUVs, and hatchbacks belong to different classifications of vehicles, each catering to specific needs. An example of an 'upgrade' would be moving from a lower-end sedan to a higher-end sedan with better performance, more features, or superior materials, parts, build quality, fit, and finish.

Am I wrong in my assessment?

I think you are right. This is marketing speak, where everything has to be better, more, improved, even if it isn't. Every change is an upgrade!

In the hifi world, many people just remain in the mid-fi muddle. The just sidegrade and waste their money, rather than upgrade to something better.

I don't know the origin of the word sidegrade. It's obviously a made-up derivative word, but I'm ok with it. I think it is a good one.

In India, 'upgrade' has come to mean a more 'expensive' product. If you look at it that way you will be surprised how often the word is used 'correctly'! :D

I suspect that the example was not very carefully chosen to illustrate your point! -- I don't see any problem with it.

In fact just "reached" would have been sufficient in your message since the destination (object) was understood.


A language is a means of communication, of which the written form is but a limited subset. Your example was just a form of private communication which doesn't necessarily have to conform to the rules of the written language meant for common usage. It just needed to make sense to the intended recipient.



Right. -- It actually is correct usage (no quotes needed, and not just by an Indian) in accordance with the following dictionary meaning of the term "grade":

Frankly, I don't either. But English-language pedants do!
Not by the pedants :disappointed
Agreed, and generally accepted that there is a colloquial form, which is looser, but do not agree at all that grammar and correct usage is only meant for written language. It is meant for all language.

Dictionaries? In the end, they just confirm misuses when they become adopted. They have to: they have to describe a language as used, for better or worse.

Typo of the day :)

I'm almost jealous of this on. It is very much my kind of mistake, but I don't think I ever made it. Yet.


Wreckless driving.

no, no, no. Avoid reckless driving and stay wreckless!

Here's something I might have read in many a T-BHP post...

"I drive past that building everyday." ...It's wrong.

"I drive past that building every day." ...is correct.

This is just the sort of mistake that autocomplete churns out all the time. The person who "typed" it might not have even noticed.

Than deletes more words

Another made up example, because I can't remember what the poster actually wrote: "I bought the manual version than the automatic kind." Oh, please! It doesn't take too much effort to work out less/more, but this stopped me in my tracks.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...ml#post5791307

@Altrozed, I'm posting this here because it's relevant to this thread.

The vehicle struck living individuals, causing their deaths. It is inaccurate to say it landed on those already deceased.

True, but it is one of those cases where the meaning is clear. Nobody would take from that statement that the car landed on two corpses.

While the underlying meaning or intent is generally clear, this thread serves a different purpose.

I think you are correct in your assessment. However, Indian colloquialism has stretched the definition of "upgrade" to mean a move from your existing category to one that is perceived to be higher and also more expensive. So when someone 'upgrades' from a hatchback to an SUV, he uses this term, and he means it in this sense and his listeners understand exactly what he wants to convey.

To make the speaker and the audience both update their lexicon is asking for too much. I think sometimes it is better to let things be.

If something is perceived as an improvement then perhaps it is not such a stretch to call it an upgrade.