Be wary of awkward expressions that dull your superb diction

While waiting patiently to talk to an attendant in a wholesale store who, at the time, was engaged by another customer, a booming voice at the back intoned, “It is how much”. Those of us who had been waiting turned to find a young fellow, rough along the edges, holding some merchandise aloft.

This peculiar habit is gaining currency in Kenya so much that some people do not bother to concern themselves with good manners. Most are always in a hurry, behaving as if they have a monopoly on life and everything around them must give way or bow before them. How else would someone whose faculties are functioning fail to acknowledge that those before him or her deserve to be served first?

The question is; what exactly did the fellow mean by the words: “it is how much”? We can take it that the subject sought to know the price of whatever he was holding high for the shop attendant to see. However, that very bland statement- neither a statement nor question- because it is a combination of the two - violates basic of grammar rules. Clearly delivered in bad form, the sentence combines two different issues for, while the phrase ‘it is’ answers a question, the phrase ‘how much’ poses a question.

Random conduct

Ideally, questions should be direct, preceded by either an interrogative or possessive pronoun, namely; ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘who`, ‘where’, ‘whose’ and ‘when’.  It is bad form to preface a question with “it is”.  If one needs to know the cost of something, the question should be: “How much will this cost me?”, “What is the going price for this?”, “what will it cost me?” and so forth.

The idiomatic expression ‘rough around the edges’ in the context it is used here means crude or rough, both in manner and appearance. While it is wrong to stereotype people by the random conduct of others, my assessment of the subject was based on his unkempt hair, the bloodshot eyes common in individuals who go heavy on alcohol, and unwashed clothes. The idiom could also mean to look sickly.

That, however, is just a small part of the expressions we use on a daily basis without paying much attention. Expressions like: “So that I can be able to”, “The reason why I did that “, “A few more days to go until the World Cup begins” and, in response to how one feels, “I am feeling fantastic”. The phrases “I can” and “able to” express the same thing. When you say ‘you can’, it means you are able, and when you say you are ‘able to’, it means you can. To use the two together to form a sentence is bad form, it should be avoided.

Appropriate substitution

Similarly, ‘reason’ and ‘why’ should not be used together.  Reason basically is the ‘why’. For instance, “Why did you report for work late?” ‘The reason I reported late for work was traffic congestion”. The word ‘until’ (a preposition), is perhaps one of the many that we unconsciously use out of context. ‘Until’ means ‘up to a certain point in time’ or simply ‘as late as’. Substituting ‘until’ with ‘as late as’ shows the absurdity in the sentence in which it appears above. We cannot use ‘until’ to talk about what is yet to happen, neither is it an appropriate substitution for distance (we ran until the five kilometer mark). ‘Until’ cannot be used to describe or state ‘in advance of’. 

To omit the word ‘until’ in the aforementioned sentence would still render it complete. Yet if there is necessity for an additional word(s), ‘before’ or ‘to the start of’ suffices; “A few more days before the World Cup begins”. “A few more days to the start of the World Cup”. “Until’ should be used as a subordinating conjunction to connect an action to a given point in time. For instance, “Let us shelter here until the rain subsides”. “We did not stop worrying until the boss said he had forgiven us”.

‘Fantastic’ is defined as extra-ordinarily good or attractive, of an extra ordinary size or degree, imaginative or fanciful. Thus, the word ‘fantastic’ is more appropriate to looks, appearance, than to feeling. And because it can be categorized as imaginative, it is abstract, fabulous. Ideally, there is any number of adjectives that can define feeling; good, great, fresh, pressed, charged, fine and so forth, certainly not fantastic. A second or third person can say, “You look absolutely fantastic!”

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The [email protected]