top of page

English is a very Phunnny language!

A very famous dialogue from one of Amitabh Bachchan's movies goes, "English is a very funny language." Is it really a very funny language? Well the answer is, No. It is funny because of the speakers who haven't got the actual flavor (I'll define this as we go on with this series of blogs) of the language.

Most of the Indian speakers simply try to translate from their first language into English and feel they speak English well; and this is exactly where it becomes a very funny language (just like the characters in this video).

Let me quote a few examples of this funny language. "Tum aa rahe ho na?" from Hindi becomes, "You are coming no?"; "Tum woh exam kab de rahe ho?" becomes, "When are you giving that exam?"; "Do one thing" is almost always used by people in India which is a literal translation of "Ek kaam karo". I have heard a lot of people saying "I work for a MNC company" without realizing that the 'C' in MNC stands for Company. All of these are classic examples of literal translation from Hindi to English.


Look up my subsequent blog English is a very phunnny language - 2 to understand what I mean by flavor and to know how the above mentioned statements should be rephrased.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Comments


bottom of page