English is never a measure of intellect rather, a language of communication and as long as the message can be decoded by the receiver, then the grammatical structuring is irrelevant.

This is why the rest of the world is better than Africa in STEM education.They focused less on foriegn language generally and lesser on the "English" language particularly.

China teaches Physics, Maths, Engineering, Chemistry, Economics, Astronomy and every other subject in Mandarin,
Germany teaches same in German,
France does same in French,
Brazil does in Portugese,
Greece does in Greek,
Americans with no medieval history wanted to be different and even coined their own english language, American


But Nigeria, we are still slaves to the British 58Years after independence. You must get a credit in English Language at O'levels(Jamb & WAEC) before you could ever dream of a University Education.

[quote author=IMASTEX post=69716646][/quote]

I am not the author of this article tho. A Prof. (PhD.) or so did it

But I think I can try.

It has been used. (means that process has been completed and not continuous. Your money has been used to feed your friends -means "we don spend your money finish to feed ur guys"

It is being used. (this is a continuous statement and the process is still ongoing. The process could still be repeated. Your money is being used to feed your friends - means we are currently spending ur money to feed your friends...the money fit still remain)

I hope you find the above helpful. I no be prof sha o. Cheers!

Mac2016:
English words that make Nigerians say the opposite of what they mean
by Farooq Kperogi (PhD)

I bring to light Nigerian English words and expressions that mean the opposite of what they are intended to mean when spoken to native English speakers:

This is the point of the write up.... we can use these terms and communicate very well with other Nigerians ..... but to others....communication becomes a big problem. If you are aware...and can use the terms correctly when needed to...then you wouldn't have a problem. If not...then misuse of such terms can make you lose job opportunities and a lot more..... and you wouldn't have a clue. Soo many want to work with multi national corporations.... but in such corporations your ability to communicate is very important.
If we are only interested in communicating with our fellow Nigerians...then this should be of no interest to us...after all...who English epp?.. in fact we shouldn't even be here in Nairaland.

erico2k2:
OP, this is a case of Blatant assumptions, you just copy and paste without researching how the article relates to Nigeria.

Your thoughts!

joshyo1:
[sub][/sub]



far-fetched
ˌfɑːˈfɛtʃt/Submit
adjective
adjective: farfetched
unlikely and unconvincing; implausible.
"the theory sounded bizarre and far-fetched"
synonyms: improbable, unlikely, implausible, scarcely credible, difficult to believe, dubious, doubtful, unconvincing, incredible, unbelievable, unthinkable, beyond the bounds of possibility; More

so if someone says "the reason is not farfetched (doubtful)', how is he not correct op?

you have a point

Originalsly:


This is the point of the write up.... we can use these terms and communicate very well with other Nigerians ..... but to others....communication becomes a big problem. If you are aware...and can use the terms correctly when needed to...then you wouldn't have a problem. If not...then misuse of such terms can make you lose job opportunities and a lot more..... and you wouldn't have a clue. Soo many want to work with multi national corporations.... but in such corporations your ability to communicate is very important.
If we are only interested in communicating with our fellow Nigerians...then this should be of no interest to us...after all...who English epp?.. in fact we shouldn't even be here in Nairaland.

we no how to do our things nao...my post is just for read and improvement esp. when non-Nigerians are involved. I once had a friend from Barbados (wish you could hear my pronunciation). The girl was just correcting everything I pronounced then I knew our English don metamorphose! Cheers!

y british colonize us why

Knowledge is power.

@op. God bless you for this.

There's nothing like Nigerian English as yet. What you talked about are the crude, at times, awkward appropriations of the English language. These anomalies have been influenced by culture - because language is culturally trsnsmitted- and other factors.
For Nigerian English to be recognised, there has to a codification and standardisation of the language such that it will become internationally intelligible, that is, understood.

MrCork:




...sorry we can't relate....we Spek queens English in london! ! (No ofeense )

Dide you have to quote the whole thing to make your point?

Kingsleychris1:
The epistle is too long..
I need a summary so I can make my comment..

You need to read it line by line. it is so so interesting.

This is not just helpful, it's also funny. Imagine telling someone you want to flash him and he starts running away.

But looking at it from another angle, we don't really have to change our grammar to suit British/American English, we could have something called Nigerian English too. We only need to understand theirs so as to know how to communicate with them.

How Many English People Can Speak Calabar Language Or Ijaw Language. We Even Tried To Speak And Write English Our Own Way.

guy, are we now the native speaker? leave us alone ooh, hehmmm

Mr Grammer Nazi, you failed to grasp the full meaning of "pass out".
For military and paramilitary bodies, to pass out means to graduate or the end of a program.
Corps members using the term should not baffle you, unless you are not as smart as you think.

make dose onyibooo learn, them no get common sense to take learn our own. common i go flash you em de run. he never see anything nan

Mac2016:
English words that make Nigerians say the opposite of what they mean
by Farooq Kperogi (PhD)

In this week’s column, I bring to light Nigerian English words and expressions that mean the opposite of what they are intended to mean when spoken to native English speakers:

1. “Offer course”/ “run a course”/”take a course.” I’ve grouped these expressions in one cluster because they are related, and occur primarily in university settings. Nigerian university and high school students often say they “offer” a course where native English speakers would say they “take” a course. For instance, in response to one of my Saturday columns deploring the discontinuation of the teaching of history in Nigerian secondary schools, someone wrote to tell me that he was the only one in his class who “offered history.” It had been a while since I heard someone say or write that, so I was initially puzzled. It didn’t take long, though, to realize that he meant he was the only one in his class who “took history” as a subject; others too government.
This popular misuse of “offer” in Nigerian English has real consequences for mutual intelligibility in international communication. In my December 18, 2011 column titled “Top Hilarious Differences between American and Nigerian English,” I recounted the story of a Nigerian who “wrote to tell me that an American university admissions officer was bewildered when she told him she wanted to ‘offer a course in petroleum engineering’! I told her in America-and in Britain-students don’t offer courses; only schools do. To offer is to make available. Students can’t make courses available in schools; they can only take or enroll in courses that schools offer.”
So the school “offers” the course, the teacher “teaches” it, and the student “takes” it. A student can’t offer a course.
A similarly puzzling Nigerian English phraseology is the use of the word “run” to indicate enrollment in a course of study, as in, “I am running a master’s degree in English at ABU.” That expressive choice became mainstream, at least as far I am aware, after I left Nigeria. That was why when I first heard it I thought the person who “ran” a course was the director or coordinator of the course. This was how the conversation went:
“Hello. I am running a postgraduate course in mass communication at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and need your help.”
“Let me get this straight first. Do I understand you to mean that you’re the postgraduate director of the mass communication program at Nsukka? If yes, what help do you need from me to run the program?”
“No, I am not a postgraduate director. I am a PhD student.”
“A student? How do you run a program as a student? Are you a student assistant to the postgraduate director?”
“No, just a student.”
“OK. So you mean you’re enrolled in a PhD program?”
“Yes, that.”
This conversation took place many years ago. Since then, I’ve heard and read many Nigerians say they are “running” a course when they mean they’re enrolled in a course. I frankly have no idea where that construction came from. But to run a department, a course, a program, etc. is to be in charge of it, to direct it, to control it.
Maybe the expression is an incompetent mimicry or misapplication of the idiom “run its course,” which is used to say that something starts, continues for a time, and then ends, as in, “I didn’t take medications for the catarrh; I just let it run its course.” But to use the idiom in place of “enrolled for a course” is simply perplexing.
I also recently became aware that Nigerian lecturers now say they “take a course” to mean they teach it. One Prof. Richard Akindele, who was recently fired from Obafemi Awolowo University for demanding sex from a female student in exchange for better grades, wrote about courses he “took” the student who exposed him. How does a lecturer “take” a course he or she teaches? A teacher teaches a course and a student “takes” it.

2. “Customer.” In Nigerian English a “customer” simultaneously refers to one who buys and one who sells. That’s why both buyers and sellers call each other “customers” in Nigerian markets! In Standard English, however, only the buyer is called a customer.

3. “Troubleshooter.” Many Nigerian English speakers call troublesome people “troubleshooters.” But “troubleshooters” are the exact opposite of troublesome people. The standard meaning of a troubleshooter is someone who remedies troubles. In other words, a troubleshooter is a peacemaker. I think the word Nigerian English speakers are looking for is “troublemaker,” which actually means one who causes trouble.

4. “Thank God!” Many Nigerians say “Thank God!” in response to an expression of gratitude to them. Every Nigerian understands that to mean, “The credit belongs to God, not me, because it is God who bestowed me with the means to do what I did to you.” It’s born out of religious modesty. But native English speakers won’t understand it like that. They use the expression “Thank God” to mean they are happy something bad didn’t happen, as in, “Thank God no one was hurt after the car summersaulted!” or “Thank God he didn’t embarrass us.”
So saying “Thank God” after someone says “Thank you” to you can only mean one of two things to a native English speaker. It can be interpreted to mean, “Thank God you realize that I did you a favor,” indicating that you initially acted as if you were entitled to the favor for which you’re now thankful. Or it could be interpreted as, “Thank God that you have sense enough to say ‘thank you’,” suggesting that you normally don’t say “thank you” when someone does you a favor.
The conventional idiomatic responses to expressions of gratitude among native speakers are “you’re welcome” (which used to be regarded as an Americanism but which is now used all over the world, including in the UK), “not a problem,” “you bet,” “(it’s) my pleasure,” “don’t mention it” (a peculiarly British expression that is now going out of fashion), “think nothing of it,” etc.
In the United States, people who want to demonstrate the sort of modesty that makes Nigerians say “Thank God” as a response to someone who thanked them say “Thank YOU!” with the emphasis on “you.”

5. “Scratch/itch.” Itching is the uncomfortable sensation that we feel on our skin, which causes us to scrape it with our fingers; “scratching” is the act of relieving an itchy sensation by using our fingers. But it’s common to hear Nigerians, particularly children, say their body is “scratching” them. When a child in Nigeria told me his body was “scratching” him, I told him to “itch it”!

6. “Farfetched.” When Nigerians say “the reason is not farfetched,” they mean “the reason isn’t hard to find. But farfetched means “unlikely,” so saying “the reason is not farfetched” is the same thing as saying “the reason is not unlikely,” which is a meaningless double negative at best.

7. “Sell market.” This expression has origins in Nigerian Pidgin English, but it now regularly occurs in informal Nigerian English. It is said when a trader has a good day in the market, that is, when many customers buy the trader’s goods. In Standard English, “sell market” would be understood as literally selling the land and shops in a market to a person or a corporation.

8. “Flash.” In Nigerian English, this word means to call a phone number and hang up immediately. Of the word’s many Standard English meanings, the one that native English speakers instinctively relate to is the act of exposing one’s unclothedness in public. I once narrated the story of a native English speaker who ran as fast as his legs could carry him when his Nigerian friend said to him, “let me flash you so you can have my number”! “I didn’t want to see the naked body of an old man,” he told me. When I told him what “flash” meant in Nigerian English, he felt bad.

9. “Go-slow.” This is the Nigerian English term for traffic congestion, also informally known as traffic jam or traffic snarl-up. In British English, however, “go-slow” is a form of industrial protest where workers deliberately slow down their productivity in order to hurt the profits of their employers.

10. “Homely.” In Nigerian English, this word is used to describe women who are cultured and worthy of being married as wives. In American English, however, when a woman is described as “homely” it means she is ugly.

11. “Pass out.” Nigerians use “pass out” to mean complete secondary school education or the National Youth Service Corps training and subsequent service. In Standard English, the first thing that comes to people’s mind when you say you’ve “passed out” is that you have fainted. A few weeks ago, several of my young Facebook friends who just finished their NYSC service year shared photos of their “passing out.” I was initially alarmed and expected to see photos of them lying unconscious until I remembered that to “pass out” in Nigerian doesn’t mean to faint.
The Nigerian English use of pass out comes from British English where the expression is used to denote graduating from a military training.

Source: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/amplite/english-words-that-make-nigerians-say-the-opposite-of-what-they-mean-262094.html

Nice one, but I'm having a big problem with these:
The word "FALSH" has innumerable meanings and one of them is " To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back".

Again, the word far-fetched can be used depending on the context. Far-fetched equates "unlikely" and also "difficult to believe ". So the sentence "The reason is not far-fetched" can also mean that "the reason is not difficult to believe"

Thank you for the clarifications. It is educative, informative, inspiring and encouraging. Please, I personally need more of it.

This "homely" na wahalaoo
Cos so many people uses that to define a person that is said to have a good character

Bantino:


Sorry about that, this is Nairaland, please go to Poundsland and comment. (No offense)

^^see the homebase boy...boy do u relice u talking to a Londoner? (Shake my head )

Gratefulheart1:
POINT OF CORRECTION HERE BEFORE YOU START TO MISLEAD THE SHEPPLE. YOU NEED TO MAKE FINDINGS BEFORE POSTING SOMETHING LIKE THIS. YOU'RE TRYING TO CORRECT OTHERS WHEN 90% OF YOUR CORRECTION IS WRONG. ALMOST ALL ENGLISH WORDS HAVE MORE THAN ONE MEANING.
THE ONLY ONES YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT ARE GO-SLOW AND FLASH, BUT THOSE ARE EVEN PIGIN/NIGERIAN-ENGLISH WORDS, NOBODY SAID THE WAY WE USE THEM IN NAIJA, IS THE CORRECT DICTIONARY MEANING; WE ONLY CUSTOMISED THOSE WORDS FOR OURSELVES.

THEN NOBODY USES TROUBLESHOOTER TO MEAN 'CAUSE TROUBLE', THE WORD I HEAR PEOPLE USE IS 'TROUBLEMAKER'

OGA TEACHER OP, ALWAYS MAKE FINDINGS BEFORE CONFUSING YOURSELF AND OTHERS

stfu.
attack the message if u wish, dnt attach the messenger ok.

Severally is a major one.


Several times, Severally have two different meanings.

romenna:
stfu.
attack the message if u wish, dnt attach the messenger ok.

Was it the message that posted itself? And was it an attack? it was just a correction. It's very wrong for anyone to post something on a worldwide web page that may mislead many people for life, yet still claiming you're teaching them the right thing. And as for you, you don't have to be so dumb next time. If you get offended on behalf of the OP because I prevented people from being misled, that's your headache. I don't give the smallest fcck about that, OK.

All those people criticizing the Op with "who English epp", do you think we'd even be able to understand each other on this forum or other parts of the world, if not for English language?

I love pidgin English (broken) so much, but let's say the truth, a lot of words we use in pidgin English are part of the Queen's English.
He didn't do any harm by creating this thread... It's just for anybody who feels like learning more about the language.

Anyway, I nor dey use my broken play oh! e too easy for me, because I nor dey worry about making mistake with broken

Thank you for the write up.

That "homely" and "flash" got my ribs cracking....una abeg live us alone to speak it how we understand it Joor....mustn't we have our own English?...I can remember how I followed one role model English fail my exam....the man was accusing patience ozorkwu of being a trouble shooter and patience too was like" lt is your mother and father that is a trouble shooter... Na him I go write post utme come see this question o ..."give the opposite of the word troubleshoot" as an intelligent babe and base on the mindset that celebrities can't make error in English, na so I rush choose trouble maker option o, only to reach house to hear from my brother that I have failed the option I chose.... I no agree for am o until him force me check dictionary, na since then I stop to watch nollyhood movies.

Thank you for sharing

InyinyaAgbaOku:
I still think Nigerians are right about the 'Thank God' usage

yes oo, we can only thank God

post=69714921:
Learning is a continuous process.........
We learn everyday.......
Thanks OP

learning is a relative permanent change as a result of experience

It's not father's language ooooo

Orla234:
Ol boy, you don sell ya market finish.





Nigerians!!! Peculiar people, great people.

POINT OF CORRECTION!
Peculiar People, Great country. #Gbam Lobatan. Lol