OUR KIND OF ENGLISH: Prez ‘beats A drum’? No, he ‘plays THE drum’
What you need to know:
When you’ve in mind things that are necessary, the noun “need” is countable. That’s why educationists talk of “pupils with special needs”.
On Page 14 of the March 9 edition of the tabloid closely associated with this columnist, there’s a story entitled ‘Lundenga’s call too little, too late?’, in which the scribbler says: “Miss Tanzania … was on the verge of collapse and there WAS NEED to bring some order...”
When you’ve in mind things that are necessary, the noun “need” is countable. That’s why educationists talk of “pupils with special needs”. Or, we say: “Identify a need, then look for ways of fulfilling it.” It means our colleague should have written: there was A NEED to bring some order…” In the same story, the scribbler says: “…the contest had become a money spinner for the GRASS ROOT organisers.”
We say GRASSROOTS organisers. In this tabloid’s Thursday, March 8 edition, there’s a story headlined: ‘TPDF told to focus on quality’ and the scribbler, purporting to quote General VM, wrote in Para 4: “We must ADVERTISE MORE OUR PRODUCTS and at the TPDF level we shall communicate with our COLLEAGUE in the EAC and Sadc”. We’ve a syntax challenge here with the expression: “…advertise more our products”. We aver it should be: “We must ADVERTISE OUR PRODUCTS MORE…” And, obviously, the TPDF have plans to communicate with their COLLEAGUES (not colleague) in the EAC and Sadc.
In the last para, in his attempt to report what was said by the TPDF garment factory manager, Major WM, the scribbler writes: “…the plant, which was launched in April last year, has the capacity to produce 500 sets of COMBATS OF soldiers per day.” Sets of combats? Nope! What garment factory workers produce are COMBAT UNIFORMS (not combats of soldiers).
On March 10 edition of Bongo’s senior-most Saturday broadsheet, there’s story on Page 4 entitled, ‘Medical Stores Department LAUNCH delivery pack with essential instruments’. There’s an obvious grammatical flaw when the page handler writes, “MSD launch… (instead of “LAUNCHES…) On Page 10 of the same edition, we’ve a photo of JPM doing what he loves most whenever an opportunity avails itself—showing off his skills with the conga drums (tumba in Kiswahili). However, here’s what the caption writer tells his readers:
“President John Magufuli BEATS A DRUM IN THE tunes of Peter Msechu Band during the official launch of CRDB Chato Branch….” Well, well, well… Let’s attempt a rewrite: “President… PLAYS THE (CONGA) DRUMS TO THE tune (not in the tunes) of Peter Msechu Band during the official launch of CRDB Bank, Chato Branch...”
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
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