That "Am" thing is extremely irritating but at least one can tolerate all this bbm, whatsapp and text message language. The thing that I hate and I have never understood is when people use "now" in a sentence, like " I now told him/her that .... yada, yadda, yaddah". This purely applies to "Nigerian English". Nowhere else in the world will you come across this grammatical abomination. I just wonder whether or not people know this is wrong or is it just that because they don't know any better it's acceptable?

uuzba:

-
Without this English we are speaking, we would not have a country. There would be mass chaos everywhere.
The English we are speaking united us. The English we refused to speak, when we started doing "me and my village"
runs in government work, has led to the detriment you see today.

Is that so? Are you saying that our dwindling use of the English language has led to the disruption and decadence in our society, morals et al?

How did speaking English unite us? And how has not speaking English separated us?

Please I'm all nti.

KrystosCJ:


Is that so? Are you saying that our dwindling use of the English language has led to the disruption and decadence in our society, morals et al?

How did speaking English unite us? And how has not speaking English separated us?

Please I'm all nti.

We are not a real nation.
This region is the Niger Area. Occupied by different tribes. A total of over 600 languages.
We did not know each other before colonial times. Everybody just did their thing in their respective kingdoms.
The British White Explorers, came on ships to this region in a period of years. They came to explore, exploit...
How does a British man speak to people who are not English? They just force English into your ears. Unlike other
Europeans who colonized other parts of Africa, British did not attempt to learn any of our languages.

They taught each of the different regions English, for Trade, for Christianity...

Once each region could speak English, then it was possible for a Hausa man to talk to an Igbo man in English.
A Yoruba to talk to an Efik man in English.

Once this region (Niger area) started speaking English, we could be grouped into on country, Nigeria.
On the West is Benin Republic - French colony. On the East is Cameroon - German Colony.
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The language of our Government is English, Education- English, Administration - English.
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We had no problem when they were here. We didn't even fight for independence. They just left.
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And then, the tribal wars began. Goodluck was just too sensible to speak English. No matter how foolish you think
he is, he sha spoke English. Buhari has addressed us in Hausa - The president? - Definitely that Address was meant for
the northerners. Everybody remembers Daura, Fulani, Herdsmen, Appointed security personnel. Is that not enough
evidence to you His Hausa is meant for the Hausa part of Nigeria?

When people are clamouring for Igbo Presidency, what do you think will happen? An Igbo President will get to power
and start speaking Igbo. Whom will Benefit? Igbo's alone. Can you not see that if that cannot happen, that is why they
want Biafra back, let them speak all the Igbo they like to each other.

And Oduduwa Republic of the Yoruba's?
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Nobody is learning anybody's language. Everybody remains on their mother tongue. And back again to the division
of the different kingdoms we were, before the British came.

I don't know your tribe. But I am neither of Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa. Nigeria does not favour me at all now, and will
not favour my people in the future. My area supplied Nigeria with all the Crude oil. The money of which is spent on things
like N50,000,000 power bike...

Ralphlauren:
sunky97

how can you forget to add 'lose' vs 'loose'

a lot of people do not know the difference between both words and how to use them correctly in the right context in a sentence

Please don't go there. There are a lot of words under that group that are much more confusing than loose/lose. Take a look at these:
*Envelop/envelope
*Principle/Principal (pronounced same)
*Advice/advise
*Heroin/heroine
*Practice/practise
*Every day/everyday
etc

How do you see them?

Nobody remembered pairing "did & the past tense" together. A lot of people make that mistake too.
*Did you ate the food?
*I didn't saw you last night.

What about interchanging has/have & also using any other form of tense other than the past participle?
*She have go (glorified private school students say this a lot)
*He have ate his food.

Truth be told, English Language could be annoyingly hard!

MissJoy29:

Please don't go there. There are a lot of words under that group that are much more confusing than loose/lose. Take a look at these:
*Envelop/envelope
*Principle/Principal (pronounced same)
*Advice/advise
*Heroin/heroine
*Practice/practise
*Every day/everyday
etc

How do you see them?

Nah. It's basic English. This is the essence of Brighter Grammar, and proper/thorough English Language teaching and tutoring.

mascotman:
.
he did a great job there. you complemented his job in you explanations. I think it is no use advising him to leave people alone with their grammar since we're not English. A lot of people have taken correction from his write up and yours.

Are you gay
Uche face your work

veekid:
This one go put food on my table abi?

It does for some!

add these:
wondering and wandering,
wondering : to wonder , a query.
wandering : to move from place to place

those two words cost me a lot.

uuzba:


See the difference here:
https://writingexplained.org/will-vs-would-difference

I'm grateful, thanks.

uuzba:


English is like a computer software or programming language. It is filled up with advanced codes. Sometimes you need to arrive at a specific point to achieve a specific goal without giving anyone any room for misunderstanding.

Bad English just means you are reckless with your words and under unfavourable conditions will breakdown and say rubbish.
-
The Yoruba phrase ( I'm not Youruba):
Éjo e bami sun. Is wrongly translated to:
Please help me shift.
People say this all the time thinking they are speaking English.
-
Actually, I don't need to help you shift. You can shift by yourself. Just try it.
-
In correct English, you should be saying:
Please could you shift a bit.

What if I say 'can you shift a bit?' instead of '' could ''

ApolitiCal:


What if I say 'can you shift a bit?' instead of '' could ''

Don't use extra words unless you mean to.
You have added the word "can".

Do you want this person to shift or not?
-
For the question, "Can you shift a bit?"
You have now opened up avenue for the person to respond"
1. Yes I can
2. No I cannot.
3. Yes I can shift a bit, but I only shift in France.
-
As I said, English is a programming language. Speak it properly to get the exact result you want.

Good one bro
U try

Angelfrost:


Nah. It's basic English. This is the essence of Brighter Grammar, and proper/thorough English Language teaching and tutoring.

Is it really?
Ok. If you say so.

gurunlocker:
Has and Have still remain the hardest for most...

pls speak for yourself

No one has answered me. What are the rules guiding the use of less and lesser?

Isomerizm:
No one has answered me. What are the rules guiding the use of less and lesser?

As a general rule, "smaller" is used for size, whereas "lesser" is used for quantity.

Lesser can only be used attributively. So you can say: I earn a lesser salary than my wife, but not: My salary is lesser than my wife's.

chukxie:


Permit me to ask a question. I hope you wouldn't mind or think I'm trying to slight you. I'm just trying to learn.

Which is of the two expressions below is correct?

A) I for one is very fond of making mistakes.
B) I for one am very fond of making mistakes.

A) I(for one) is very fond of making mistakes.
B) I (for one) am very fond of making mistakes.

I'm not sure which is correct...I is...or I am!

sunky97:



As a general rule, "smaller" is used for size, whereas "lesser" is used for quantity.

Lesser can only be used attributively. So you can say: I earn a lesser salary than my wife, but not: My salary is lesser than my wife's.

less and lesser sir. Not smaller and lesser.

Originalsly:


A) I(for one) is very fond of making mistakes.
B) I (for one) am very fond of making mistakes.

I'm not sure which is correct...I is...or I am!

B is the correct one.
The 'be' for I + am. While the 'be' for he /she/it / sb / sth + is. Lastly, the 'be' for we / you/ they + are.

Demonicide:
Thanks OP for this wonderful piece. I'm learning everyday. Anybody that doesn't know the difference between you're and your should be flogged.

I thought u were just told "that" is used for objects and "who" for living things......kwantinu

aribisala0:


Thank you but

Number 5 .
I do not think this is a matter of grammar but style and in some instances it is just not right
e.g we would not write

Have you heard from Zenith Bank?
It has not responded

Rather

they have not responded


Nuumber 14

Whom did we hire to join the podcast team is just wrong

Rather whom is used to indicate a KNOWN person or entity and not an UNKNOWN person .

If we don't know who we are talking about we do not use WHOM as in

Whom did we hire but


Who did we hire.?


When we know who we are talking about then we say whom e.g

This is Jane is the one whom I spoke to you about last week.
Jane s the one whom we have hired

So it is wrong to ask identity starting with WHOM, use WHO instead

There are other rules rrelating to use of whom or who which I won't go into here


My take: if you are not an expert leave people alone with their grammar we are not English

I don't quite agree with you on your take about the use of 'whom' and 'who'.
Whom is used to refer to the object of a clause or sentence, while Who is used to refer to the subject of a clause or sentence.
It has nothing to do with your knowledge or lack thereof, of an identity.
You can start a sentence with whom if it refers to the clause or sentence object. For example. Consider the sentence below.
"She beat him to a pulp."
The subject is 'she' and the object is 'him'.
Now I want to find out who was beaten.
I ask
" Whom did she beat to a pulp"?
Because the person beaten is the object of the sentence and therefore cannot go with who.
Now let's say I want to ask the identity of the beater (who is the subject). I'll say -
"Who beat him to a pulp?"
So "whom" is an object pronoun, while "who" is a subject pronoun.
Quick tip ; Him(and her) go with whom.
He(and she) go with who.
If the answer to your question is 'Him(or her), use whom.
And vice versa.