When English grammar comes to India

"Please reply back as soon as possible."

Can you spot the error in the above sentence? How about the one below?

"The Prime Minister would be making a speech in the city today."

Languages can be intimidating. You might not realise it, but the first language you learn has a powerful impact on your life. It can shape the way you think, and affect seemingly unrelated aspects of it - even your sense of direction and how you perceive colour¹. That's why learning a new language can be an arduous task; it can go against the very way you think, forcing you to accept things that contradict what you've always taken for granted.

India has something of a disadvantage when it comes to language. You see, Indians have to speak at least two languages to go about normal life²; more specifically, we have to speak English - a language that's alien to our various first languages. The result is a mixture (christened 'Hinglish', 'Minglish', or even 'Tinglish' depending on what regional language is added) that is delightful to a casual listener, but tiresome to a regular one.

Through decades of use and abuse, Indian English is almost a different language from that spoken in England. It doesn't help that it's fashionable to misspell words and ignore grammar and punctuation while posting to most forums and social networks. That's where this web site comes in.

So why should you care about grammar and spelling?

Good question. Language, after all, was invented for communication. As long as you get the message across, what does it matter if you misspell a word or two? A few reasons follow.

1) It doesn't always get the whole message across.

"Rajiv injured a fellow student today. The boys parents were summoned immediately."

Whose parents where summoned? Just Rajiv's? Or did both sets of parents have to share an awkward silence in the waiting room outside the principal's office? The humble apostrophe can solve this dilemma once and for all, depending on where it's placed. "The boy's parents" would imply that the injured student's parents were not called, whereas "The boys' parents" would inevitably lead to the embarrassing silence in the waiting room.

2) It makes what you write harder to read.

"i still remmbr last year exam ...dint prepare at all...threw the paper in the dustbin aftr takin the exam...the kind of paper"

What's wrong with this, you ask? Sure, there isn't a whole lot of emphasis on full stops, but the meaning's plain as day. But imagine trying to read an entire book written like this - or even a whole page. Punctuation helps you pace your reading by telling you where to pause. An ellipsis (that's what you call three dots in a row) implies a longer pause than a full stop, and gives the impression that something dramatic is about to follow.

To make it easier to read, you would replace the above sentence with this:

"I still remember last year's exam. I didn't prepare at all. I threw the paper in the dustbin after taking the exam - that's how tough it was!"

3) It's bad for your career.

Every time you misspell a word or use incorrect grammar in an official email, an article, or your resume, you stand the risk of not being taken seriously.

The logic behind this is a little flawed, but it's also very common: 'X has misspelt a word on his resume. Therefore, he did not put in the effort to proofread it (which implies this job does not mean much to him), or he simply has not learnt to spell the word correctly. If he has not even mastered the basics of language, how could he possibly handle this position? X is clearly unsuitable for this job.' And just like that, you've lost a job you might have been otherwise qualified for.

But the Americans do it too!

When confronted with the idea that Indians should change the way they speak, some contend that we're going about this the wrong way. Maybe we should be proud of Indian English. It's part of our culture, part of what makes us Indian. Besides, the Americans did it too! The Americans spell 'colour' without the 'u', and no one has a problem with that. How is it any different when it comes to India?

American English is a language (set of dialects, rather) widely accepted and spoken in the U.S. It's taught in schools there. There's no dearth of dictionaries that use American English. Indian English, on the other hand, is not considered a separate language even in India. Schools here teach British English. No reputable English textbook used in India would condone the use of such gems as 'time-pass' and 'reply back'. That's why when an American writes 'color', he's writing it as 'taught in his country' but when an Indian says 'reply back', he's saying it wrong.

I now return to the questions I posed at the beginning of this article. The use of 'reply back' is wrong because it contains a redundancy. The word 'reply' means 'to say something back'. The meaning of the word 'back' is already contained in 'reply', so there's no need to use them together. The corrected sentence is:

"Please reply as soon as possible."

The second sentence (about the Prime Minister making a speech) is not necessarily wrong; it uses bad style. You see, the intended meaning is that the Prime Minister is scheduled to make a speech today. Using the word 'would' reduces the certainty of something happening, and introduces a certain conditional or 'if' element. I have no problem with the following sentence:

"The Prime Minister would be making a speech in the city today if the budget proposal hadn't been rejected".

As it stands, however, this would be a better replacement:

"The Prime Minister will be making a speech in the city today."

I'll cover these topics in greater detail in a later post. Meanwhile, feel free to contradict me, argue, or voice your opinion in the 'Comments' section.

1: This article from the Wall Street Journal suggests that the language you speak can shape how you think

2: This is probably a sweeping generalisation. What I mean is that it's difficult to get very far in your career if you do not speak English.