English as it is Broken

Singaporeans, your interest in speaking and writing English well and your passion for the language have been phenomenal.

We have more questions on English usage than we can possibly use in the hugely popular column in The Sunday Times.

To meet the thirst for answers, we are extending the print column on-line to Stomp.

Here, in this Stomp section, our English language panel answers your questions.

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We will endeavour to answer every query.

This section is made possible by the Speak Good English Movement.

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I was surfing the net when I came across this. I couldn't stop laughing for at least 10 minutes.

Pete

The English Language Panel comments:

Hi Pete!

Wow, your stomach muscles must hurt pretty bad.

'Activated' will be a much better word to use here instead of 'ignited'.

'Who' vs 'whom'

Dear Sir,

What would be the best way to explain to primary school pupils on when to use 'who' and when to use 'whom'?

There are many exercises in workbooks which require students to fill in the blanks with these two words, and students are usually confused.

Thanks!

Terence Lee

Hi Terence Lee!

This has been touched on before in these column pages. Let me paste a past explanation that should explain it quite succinctly which to use:

'Who' is used with a subject. (performs the action)
Who is scaring me? ("who" is doing the scaring.)

'whom' is used with an object (receives the action)
I scared whom? ("whom" is the one being scared.)

Got it?

A notion that is a misconception

Hi,

I am confused on the following sentence.

Please advise whether it is correct to use" misconception notion" in the following sentence :

'If you have a misconception notion that all literature books are boring and lengthy, .......'

Thank you.

Br Winnie

Hey Br Winnie!

You're using one too many words there, Br Winnie!

'Misconception' is enough to mean a wrong notion. So there is no need for the word 'notion' after 'misconception'.

Kind of complicated

I have a question. What is the difference between ‘which kind’ and ‘what kind’? I think the correct way is ‘which kind’.

Complicated

Hi Complicated!

Well, you’d say ‘which kind’ when you are referring specifically to some objects. Like say if you had 3 different types of screws in your hand and you asked someone ‘which kind do you want?’

‘What kind’ is when you’re just asking a question in general. For instance, if you didn’t have any screws on you at the moment, and someone asked you for a screw. You’d ask ‘What kind?’

The propensity

Hi

I recently had the following question marked wrong on a homework assignment where, among other words, we were required to use the word propensity, so I used the following sentence: "Many claim poor handwriting is a propensity for being a doctor."

However, the student teacher who marked it wrong was unable to give an explanation as to why it was marked wrong, so I was wondering if you could help me with explaining why it was marked incorrectly.

Gaby

Hi Gaby!

Well, it looks like you were using ‘propensity’ to mean ‘characteristic’.

‘Propensity’ actually means an inclination or a tendency. So what your sentence actually means is that people with poor handwriting have a tendency to become doctors. Now, we know that’s not generally true, so that’s why your sentence is wrong!

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