The Invisible Indian: May 2015

Darshit Parekh, Scorpion, suave, succinct.

'Giving an exam'.

This is one of the most common errors committed by millions of students and (sometimes) teachers too.

Students take exams. Students don't give exams.
I have corrected most of my friends committing this error.

Wrong: "When did you give your GRE?"
Right: "When did you take your GRE?"

Wrong: "Are we supposed to give the exam on Monday?"
Right: " Are we supposed to take the exam on Monday?"

Wrong: "I gave my final exams last month."
Right: "I took my final exams last month."

Teachers give exams. Teachers don't take exams.
Wrong: "My teacher took a surprise test today."
Right: "My teacher gave me a surprise test today. I took the test."

Wrong: "Students, I am going to take your exams in the next week."
Right: "Students, I am going to give you exams in the next week."

So why do we do it?

Such wrong usage stems from our usage of the same expression in Hindi.
Student: "Aaj exam dene jaana he."
Translation: Today, I have to give the test.

Teacher: "Aaj mein aapki pariksha loongi."
Translation: Today, I will take an examination.

The expressions in Hindi and English interchange. And, that's where most of us commit this error.

So, the next time your friends are going to 'give' an exam, you stop them right there and ask them to take their exams seriously!

Iraada Glynis, lover and fighter

'Cope up with'. No. You don't cope up with things, you cope with things.

'I couldn't resist myself'. Are you that irresistible? You couldn't resist [object/action], not yourself.

'Take out the value of [x]'. You mean 'find/calculate the value of [x]'.

'How is [x] like?' No, it's 'What is [x] like?'

'Many a times'. You either mean 'many times' or 'many a time'.

Similarly, 'anyways'. The word is 'anyway'.

'You need not to [do x]'. You either mean 'you need not [do x]' or 'you do not need to [do x]', which are equivalent.

'Revert back'/'Revert'. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. 'Revert' means 'return to a previous state'. The word you're looking for is 'reply' - and what's more, just 'reply'. Not 'reply back', for crying out loud.

'Debate competition'/'quiz competition'. The word is simply 'debate' or 'quiz'.

[Edit: 'Lot many'/'a lot many'. No. It's either 'many' or 'a lot', or (usually) 'a lot of'.]

[Edit 2: 'Doesn't [verb ending in s]', such as 'doesn't fits', 'doesn't matters'. 'Does/doesn't' already contains the requisite 's', so the verb doesn't need it: 'doesn't fit', 'doesn't matter'.]

[Edit 3: 'Discussing about [x]'. Tautology; it's just 'discussing [x]'.]

[Edit 4: 'Commonsensical' is not a word. How many times. It's not 'commonsensical' - it's a matter of common sense.]

[Edit 5: 'Be rest assured'. 'Rest' is the verb here; you can 'rest assured'. ]

[Edit: Adding a few common errors that have been pointed out in the comments, with thanks to the people who mentioned them:
'Myself [so-and-so]'; nope, it's 'I'm [so-and-so]'.
'I don't think so [statement]'; it should be 'I don't think [statement]' (Paramu Kurumathur)
'I didn't [verb in the past tense]', as in 'I didn't came', 'I didn't brought...' - a 'did' or 'didn't' nullifies the need for the verb to be in the past tense, so it's 'I didn't come', 'I didn't bring...' (Bhuvi Jain and Rohit Sharma)
'More [comparative adjective that ends in -er]'; if the form of the adjective ends in '-er', there's no need to use 'more', so it's just 'harder', 'better','faster', 'stronger'. (Madhu Ramachandran)
'Reply back'/'return back'. Tautology; 'reply'/'return' suffices.
(Claudelle Mariola Monis)]

And finally, 'out of the blue moon'. Are you kidding me?

Harsh Athalye

In addition to many good answers here, I would like to add one.

One of the most commonly used wrong phrases in India is "me and my xxx"

For example,
"Me and my friends went for the dinner party"
or
"Yesterday, me and my wife celebrated our 4th marriage anniversary"

This is the grammatically incorrect form of usage. It should be "My xxx and I"

So the correct sentences would be:

"My friends and I went for the dinner party"
"Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated our 4th marriage anniversary"

EDIT: Thanks guys for all the upvotes! You all made my day.

Dhruv Anand, made of star-stuff.

A month back

To say that something was done before a particular amount of time elapsed –the right word is “ago” and not “back”.

Incorrect: I started blogging two years back
Correct: I started blogging two years ago

Discuss about

Well, you just “discuss” something –“discuss about” is wrong because “about” is implicit with the word “discuss”

Incorrect: Lalit, I want to discuss about how to earn money from Internet
Correct: Lalit, I want to discuss how to earn money from Internet

Passing out

In India, the meaning of “passing out” is taken as “to graduate” or to complete studies from an institution. However, the real meaning of “pass out” is to lose consciousness. So, we should hope, no one actually passes out upon knowing that s/he has successfully completed studies.

* In the military context, “pass out” is considered as a valid term for completing training. That’s why we get to see passing out parades.

Incorrect: He has recently passed out of college
Correct: He has recently graduated from college

Order for

Here, the preposition “for” is unnecessary. You just order something –not order for something.

Incorrect: Let’s order for a pizza
Correct: Let’s order a pizza

Kindly revert

First of all, use of the word “kindly” is considered antiquated. You should use “please” instead. The second problem with the phrase is that the word “revert” actually means “going back to an earlier state”. For example, if you press a sponge pillow –it reverts to the original shape when the pressure is removed.

Incorrect: Kindly revert at the earliest
Correct: Please reply as soon as possible

Most common + irritating:

Out of station

This phrase is also obsolete–although it used to be of significance during British Rule. In pre-independent India, the East India Company used to post its officers to particular “stations”. When they used to be out from their duty stations –the officers used to be referred to as “out of station”.

Incorrect: The CEO cannot meet you because he is out of station
Correct: The CEO cannot meet you because he is out of town

Akhya Shukla, 2/4 Chemical Engineer. Grammar geek.

The first one being

1) Let's vs Lets
Let's is the contraction of let us.
Example-
*Let's go grammar lovers.
*Let's eat one by one.
Where as,
Lets means to allow or permit.
Example-
*She lets her dog out everyday.
*His father lets him play in the evening hours.

Now we know, when to use let's or lets. Cool ! Moving forward - The most redundant mistake of selection between whom or who. I don't blame you, it's a tricky one. So, how to correct it?

2) Whom vs Who
Always frame a question out of the sentence. If the answer to the question ishe then use who and if the answer is him use whom.
Let's take some examples-
Situation-
I bought a wallet as a birthday present for my brother.

How would you ask?
(Incorrect) Who are you gifting this wallet?
(Correct) Whom are you gifting this wallet?
Because I'll be giving it to him and not he.

You want another one? Okay, see this.
Situation 2-
Knock knock ! Can you please open?

How will you ask?
(Incorrect) Whom is at the door?
(Correct) Who is at the door?
Because he is standing at door and not him.

One of the common mistakes of grammar but now you know the trick. Would you like to do one for me? Please !
Situation 3-
I'm hosting the Christmas party !

Great! _______ are you inviting?
(Leave your answer in the comment section)

3) Over usage of the term - 'literally'
Literally means without exaggeration or what actually happened.

When you say - I wanted to literally kill her after what she said.

What you mean - After listening to what she said you actually wanted to shoot her dead.

When you say - I literally cried my eyes out !

What you mean - You have cried so much that your eyes are out.
Hilarious, right?
So let's stop with repetitive usage of this word that too at wrong places.
Leave some fun 'literally' sentences in the comment section and I'll know you understood :) !

Too sleepy. Will add more later ! Thank you :)

Jasleen Kour, for i am a girl sans fear

May instead of can.

Whenever asking for permission use may instead of can.
Incorrect: can i go to the toilet?
Correct: may i go to the toilet?
This picture will further exemplify why can is not used.

Aakaash Narayanan

The unnecessary usage of 'only' at the end of many a sentence has become an alarmingly contagious habit amongst us youth of late.

For example-

Priya: "Did you calculate the constants using the boundary conditions?"

Aditya: "Arre, I didn't solve the differential equation only. How can I calculate constants?"

Here, the word 'only' is said to emphasize the pathetic utter inability of even doing something that is a prerequisite of what the questioner asked. Now how can you discard 'only' and still manage to convey the same?

Use 'even' and add 'let alone'. (And always be wary of the usage of didn't andcouldn't. Former implies that you can do it but instead you chose not to do and latter implies you were simply unable to do.)

So, the correct usage would be:

Priya: "Did you calculate the constants using the boundary conditions?"

Aditya: "Arre, I couldn't even solve the differential equation
o̶n̶l̶y̶, let alone calculating the constants."