Hi Mayo I am down on flu today, can we meet “next tomorrow”?

I'm like “next tomorrow”? Does she mean next time we meet should be tomorrow?

I am not a master of the English language, I make mistake just like you do. Some mistakes I find quite amusing and often laugh at when I am corrected.

But there are some “Made in Nigeria English (MINE)” which, when you say outside Nigeria would make people stare at you and reply “WHAT??”

Such words or phrases are used so often that they are part of us and has become quite a norm.

The very educated Nigerians are also not left out of this. English for many of us, comes after our native language, most of us growing up learnt our native language before learning English language in schools, nevertheless that shouldn’t be an excuse to “man handle” the English language.

I will be discussing some words and expressions we use often in Nigeria which are wrong.

Back to my story at the beginning, the girl I was talking to meant we will see a day after tomorrow by saying “we will meet next tomorrow”(of course you know that).There is not such word as “next tomorrow “ in English, say “a day after tomorrow” instead.

The verb derivation of the noun "accreditation" is "accredit", not "accreditate" This also indicates that the word “accredit” doesn't have its past tense as “accreditated”, it’s “accredited”. To my dismay, the news media in Nigeria that should be a language-learning tool also make such mistake.

“The Pastor casted sexy gorgeous demons out of the old woman”.

The verb “Casted” is not the past tense of “Cast “. The verb Cast is conventionally uninflected in the past tense and as a past participle. So it should be “Cast”.

“Where is my phone, oh, I left it in the parlour”

“As a kid, my parent often refer to “sitting room” as “parlour”. “Parlour” is an English word though but it’s quite outdated and no longer in use anymore.

Another mistake we make often is how we ask questions.

“Musa, can you help me with this luggage”.

*Musa is far away and replies, “I should come Oga?” or “I should bring the bag?”

If you’re not familiar with the Nigerian English, you might think the fellow is making a statement but that’s a question. Questions should be asked this way “Should I come” or “Should I bring the bag?” not the other way round.

“Please stop flashing me?”

An American would take the statement above as though you intended he should stop flashing a torch at you. The English word that is close to the sense we try to convey when we say “flashing” would be buzzing, he buzzed my phone.The lash became a common word among Nigerians those days when a flash of your scrren's light indicates a call or may be a buzz.

Also, I read in a blog recently about the word “disvirgin”, I never knew this before now.

There is no word like "disvirgin" in English dictionary (except may be your dictionary is co-authored by Patience Jonathan lol). Americans and Britons use "deflower" to express the sense we imply when we say "disvirgin". In newspapers, headlines such as : 40 year old Man disvirgin 10 year old girl, and not deflower are quite common.

“When I was small I use to go to the zoo with my family”.

Small? Small should be used with an object, instead of “small” use “little or young”.

Calling a “Dustpan”, “Packer”. Since a dustpan packs dirt, we Nigerians like to call it Packer, Biko nu, its Dustpan not Packer, why not call a knife, a cutter since it cuts?

"Buy me some Maggi when you get to the market, I prefer Knorr not Royco”.



The hard cube shaped seasoning ingredient we use to spice up our food is called "Bouillon cube", or "Stock cube" and not maggi, calling it Maggi makes it a free advert for the company Maggi- which is an international brand of instant soups, stocks, bouillon cubes, ketchups, sauces, seasonings etc.

Stew and soup- The English definition of soup puts most of what we call soupin the category of stew. Generally, stews have less liquid than soups, are much thicker and require longer cooking over low heat.

To the Briton or American, it’s quite simple-stew is thick, soup is watery. And we all know egusi, ogbono, edikang ikong etc. are thick so we can’t call them soup but stew, especially when you're outside Nigeria. So what we call "stew" in Nigeria, doesn't really have to be made from tomato sauce.

If you invite an American or Briton to your house to a bowl of soup and he meets Egusi soup on the table, he will ask you why didn’t you cook the soup you promised?

“Buy me some bush meat when you travel to the village”.

We generally call the meat of wild animals killed by hunters-“Bush meat”. Also, this is another influence of our native language on the English language.

The Yoruba’s call bush meat -Eran igbe of which a direct/loose translation would be "bush meat".

The British equivalent is called- game or just say game meat.

“Madam please put the ugu leaves in a nylon”.

It’s not nylon my Nigerian people, its plastic bags

Well, my work is done here, thanks for reading and hope you saw your mistakes.

written by Mayo Bayo ,fore more interesting articles visit http://www.tlkdrum.com/made-in-nigeria-english/

nyc write up O.P.

thanks solalizzy

ebbymayox:
thanks solalizzy

itz my pleasure

Nice write up, very educative. However some things are Nigerian and will remain Nigerian. It's only right we know the actual equivalent. Bush meat for example

EDUCATIVE POST