OUR KIND OF ENGLISH: ‘Bus we were travelling in’…boring; say ‘our bus’

We’ve in the past cautioned scribblers to be careful with the adjective “other” to avoid mixing the unmixable. This adjective refers to things or people that are additional to those which have been mentioned or are known.

And, there must be an aspect of sameness between the two “sides”. It would be ludicrous, eg, to say: Abdi Sultani was there with OTHER farmers since Abdi isn’t a farmer.

Now if you’re obsessed with the use of “other”, then say: “Abdi Sultani was there with other PEOPLE, (who are farmers).

The caption on the front page of Bongo’s senior-most Sunday broadsheet (March 25 edition) says: “Passersby and OTHER bodaboda riders helplessly look at THEIR colleague who had been injured…”

The caption writer has unwittingly (mis)informed readers that that the passersby are all bodaboda riders. Here’s our rewrite: “Passersby and bodaboda riders look helplessly at a motorcyclist who had been injured…” On Page 2 of the same broadsheet, there’s a story entitled, ‘Driver, turn boy perish…” and the intro is thus written: “A fuel tanker driver and his turn boy were on Friday burned to death after a truck THEY WERE TRAVELLING IN veered off the road…”

Why say “the truck they were travelling” while “THEIR TRUCK” could do—short and clear. Brevity, we’re told, is the hallmark of effective journalism, aren’t we?

On Friday, March 23, the tabloid closely associated with this columnist had on Page 15 a story entitled, “Lady Jaydee not giving up as yet’, and therein, the scribbler says: “…when her marriage BROKE, she found the energy to get back to work…” Oops! Marriages don’t break; they BREAK UP, , meaning, “come to an end”.

On Page 16 of the same tabloid, there’s a story headlined, “Bongo Flava cradle rocking”, and this is what the scribbler says of Diamond Platinumz: “…[he] believes there wasn’t enough inclusion in the arts council before it decided to BLACK LIST his songs.”

The verb—from the noun “blacklist” which means a list of names of people, products, organisations, etc, that have been listed as undesirable—is BLACKLIST (one word).

And finally a reader, one HM, brought to our attention something from the tabloid that’s sister to Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet. It was from a Page1-2 story headlined, “Lutheran bishops meddle in politics. He didn’t elaborate, but we suspect he was concerned about the word “meddle” which smacks of disapproval, as it means “become involved in something that doesn’t concern you”.

Could the phrase WADE INTO, maybe, do? He didn’t say.

Ah, this treacherous language called English!