Why Do Indians Use So Many Present Continuous

NEW DELHI: This morning, while I was buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks, the barista asked me a seemingly innocuous question. "What is your good name?" he said, pen in hand to quickly jot down an obvious misspelling of whatever my response was to be. To many an Indian, there was nothing unusual about this question.

"Rahul," I should have responded without batting an eyelid. For me though -- no matter how many times I hear this oft-asked question -- I am reminded of the fact that I am supposed to have a "good" name, as opposed to my evil, troll-eating alter-ego "bad" name. "Rahul," I finally said, having conjured up images of my five-foot-something frame dressed in a warrior suit chasing a polka-dotted troll through a Pacman-like maze.

The incident -- in addition to adding some humour (and an equal dose of annoyance) to my morning -- reminded me of the fact that we Indians really do employ a unique, if misplaced, variant of the English language. The only problem though is that more often than not people do not realize that these -- shall we call them 'phrases -- are entirely incorrect English.

With that in mind, here are ten "Indianisms" that you should probably stop saying before my troll-eating "bad" name alter-ego rips your eyes out.

1. Prepone

I bet you're surprised to see this on the list. Prepone is a perfectly legit word, you think. Prepone is the opposite of postpone, you think. In reality though, prepone is an Indianism. It was conjoined by English speakers in India and had never existed in the English language before we started saying it. The correct phrase is to "advance." So, instead of "can we prepone the meeting to 2 PM?" you should say, "can we advance the meeting to 2 PM?" However, given the influence of Indian English on the evolution of the language and the fact that it is a decidedly useful word, prepone was in fact added to the Oxford English dictionary. That said, its use outside of India is still limited so you will sound like an idiot of you go about spouting the word outside of the motherland.

2. Use the backside entrance

A few days ago I was planning on going over to a friend's house for a game of Fifa. "Use the backside entrance," he said. I chose to stay home instead but later realized that my friend was referring to the rear entrance of his house. Do not use this phrase unless it really is an invitation to the back side of your butt.

3. Out of station

I called a colleague for some work only to have her mother answer the landline and tell me, "sorry beta, she is out of station right now." This would be acceptable if we lived in an era where trains were the dominant mode of transport and out-of-station correctly referred to being "out of" Delhi railway station. "Out of town" is the preferred aviation-friendly phrase.

4. Please revert

The word "revert" is incorrectly used in all official emails sent across India. "Please revert at the earliest," reads one email. "Kindly revert soonest" says another. "I will revert back at the end of the day," promises the third. Revert does not mean respond but to "return to a former state." So unless you're reverting back to the days that you were learning to speak English, please do not use this word in email replies.

5. Pass out

A visiting aunt just asked me, "what year did you pass out from college?" I'll admit that I had a wild time in college and literally passed out several times too many, but using "pass out" to mean "graduate from" is not correct English.

6. Give an exam

"When are you giving the board exams?" "Are you going to give the SATs?" The correct word is "take." You take the board exams. You take the SATs. You can also say sit the exams.

7. Do the needful

"Do the needful" is meant to refer to doing what is necessary, but it is -- again -- only used in Indian English. The rest of the world says "do what is necessary."

8. The present continuous tense

I was at a party last Friday where a friend was knocking back jaegerbombs (a type of alcoholic beverage). "He's loving those jaegerbombs," another friend remarked. "He loves those jaegerbombs," I corrected her.

9. Real brother/sister

"This is Amit; he's my real brother" said Tarun as he was introducing us. As opposed to your fake brother? Simple rule of thumb: if you have the same parents, you are siblings (and using brother and/or sister is correct and sufficient). If your parents are cousins, then you're cousins. And please don't say "cousin brother" and/or "cousin sister" -- that too is incorrect. In the English language you can either be a cousin or a brother/sister, with the former implying that you're related but not siblings and the latter referring to siblings. This also means that referring to cousins as siblings -- as many Indians do -- is also entirely incorrect.

On that note, how Indians use "first cousin," "second cousin" and so on is also incorrect, but that's far too complicated to deal with in this post.

10. Timepass

Used to refer to an activity that aids in the aimless passing of time, "timepass" is one of India's most ubiquitously-used "Indianisms." What's wrong with saying "I'm chilling" like the rest of the world?

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Source: https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/8/3186/Ten-Common-%28Incorrect%29-Indianisms-That-You-Need-To-Stop-Saying

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