[Gansan]

Ah, Times of India! Here is a gem I came across in the front page recently; "Raja Raja Chola's Big Temple at Tanjore has marvelled the world for a thousand years"!

[Swanand Inamdar]

Originally Posted by noopster

Edit: "I'd prefer not to..." is one those typical Brit usages that drives us desis up the wall . Like "quite a few" means many or "not bad" means very good indeed. Why can't you guys say what you mean LOL.

Noop, if the Brits terminology drives you mad, wait till you hear the Aussies speak!

[noopster]

Haha, Swanand. I reckon I already have, mayte!

[mayankjha1806]

Came across this Brit phrase yesterday at office "Starter for ten", was completely clueless until my colleague explained that it means "Make a start with this".

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It's a nonsense.

Thad, what's wrong with saying "It's nonsense"?
Are you using the 'a' because you are referring to a specific sentence that is nonsensical?

Originally Posted by tsk1979

I know its bad english
But its used online in a fair bit of articles(use google to search)
...

"I know it's bad English". An apostrophe is required there; and English needs a capital 'C'.
"But it's used online in many articles". The apostrophe again. And 'a fair bit of articles' is incorrect English. You could say, 'a fair number of articles'.

Originally Posted by noopster

...you'll be surprised at what obvious mistakes find their way into print.

..."you'll be surprised at the obvious mistakes that find their way into print". The 'what' is not quite correct.

[noopster]

@anupmathur (nice to meet person with same first name who shares my penchant for good grammar): nice catch.
"You'll be surprised at the obvious mistakes that find their way into print" is indeed correct.
I am now wondering if my usage is plain incorrect or just colloquial. Perhaps Thad, the native English speaker, can confirm.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I think "a nonsense" is ok. I know I use it, but that doesn't make it right.

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Came across this Brit phrase yesterday at office "Starter for ten", was completely clueless until my colleague explained that it means "Make a start with this".

It comes from a long-running TV quiz show: University Challenge.

A team from each of two universities took part in each program.

"Your starter [question] for ten [points]" would be put to both teams. The individual who thought they knew the answer would press their buzzer and answer. If they were correct, the team got ten points, and then went on to answer a multi-part question on which team members could confer. If they got it wrong, the team lost points, and the other team had the opportunity, without the time pressure, for an individual to answer, but, "No conferring!" The multiple-part question (probably had a name too. I don't remember) would only be given on the successful answer of that starter for ten.

As far as TV goes, it was the intelligent quiz program of all time. The questions ranged from general knowledge to the deeply intellectual, scientific, historical, etc. Part of the drama was watching specialist (eg medical, engineering,) colleges failing to get starter questions, and seeing science questions going to the other side. The program revealed individuals with the most astonishing wealth of knowledge and speed of reaction: it also made some teams famous for their abject failure.

The original presenter, Bamber Gascoigne, added to the content by his knowledgeable reaction to wrong answers.

I guess the program (I don't know if it still exists) became a part of the British psyche, probably to a much greater extent, even, than the other intelligent quiz show: Mastermind.

Youtube will add some meat to my bones.

But ... Please save the first item on this search list until you have watched one or two of the others. It is an outrageous skit on the actual series by an anarchic comedy called The Young Ones.

(My personal cause for embarrassment by The Young Ones is that, yes, when I was 20, I was horribly like Neil. Man. <Blush>)

"You'll be surprised at the obvious mistakes that find their way into print" is indeed correct.
I am now wondering if my usage is plain incorrect or just colloquial. Perhaps Thad, the native English speaker, can confirm.

It's not wrong, but in the context, we would say You'd be suprised.

Contemplate the difference between You will and You would

I guess, also, that either is rendered colloquial by the apostrophe!


(and having read the post, I've decided not to be dogmatic about this one. Where's Sam these days?)

~

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It comes from a long-running TV quiz show: University Challenge.

Thank you Thad, that was a very detailed explanation. Will look up the link at home.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

...
Contemplate the difference between You will and You would
........
Where's Sam these days?)

Thanks, Thad, that makes sense!
Would it be correct to brief someone, "You'll be surprised at the obvious mistakes you'll see that find their way into print"?


Aye! Where's Sam?

[Samurai]

Thad, that's a nice explanation. I guess Rex Harrison was wrong about the British.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Cheers, folks.

"Your starter for ten" is something that every Brit born in the fifties, sixties, or possibly even later, can hear, in their heads, in Bamber Gascoigne's voice!

[Punzabi]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Noop, if the Brits terminology drives you mad, wait till you hear the Aussies speak!

Originally Posted by noopster

Haha, Swanand. I reckon I already have, mayte!

I know my post won't contribute much towards the discussion but couldn't resist posting. I have lived + worked in the UK and currently living in Auss. Brits and Aussies don't just have different accents rather have different understanding of language as well. Some words which are common in Brit vocabulary are completely strange to Aussies. I remember from an instance where in a meeting at office I used word "Prepone" and most of the Aussies asked me what's that mean. Then this one Brit present in that meeting explained its meaning.

On the other hand most of the Indians take Aussie word mate (pronounced as mayte) as mite . They don't just pronounce it "mite" but write it as is.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Prepone is not British English (In fact, I think it is exclusively Indian). I guess your Brit just had more imagination than the others! It's not so tough to work out what it means!

[IronH4WK]

awesome thread Sam! i'm sure this is going to be helpful for a lot of us

[Punzabi]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Prepone is not British English (In fact, I think it is exclusively Indian). I guess your Brit just had more imagination than the others! It's not so tough to work out what it means!

You're correct in saying its not British English and I was under the impression its Indian invention but that Brit colleague said its pretty much used in the UK.