Passengers aren’t picked, dropped; they are picked up, dropped off
I have before me the Saturday, December 18 copy of Kenya’s huge tabloid that commands a sizeable readership in Bongo. On pages 2-3 of this edition, there is a story entitled ‘Murgo sisters: Our encounter with Ndichu brothers at hotel’.
In an interview, one of the Murgo sisters, Stephanie, is recorded as saying with regard to their fashion company: “Our fashion line deals WITH both men and women clothing…”
Now when you are in some business, you don’t deal with certain merchandise or products; rather, you deal IN the same. So, Stephanie should have said: “Our fashion line deals IN both men and women clothing…”
On Page 3, the other sister, Cheryl, is thus quoted: “I did not eat for three days and I lost so much weight. And after going to the police, I remember ME and MY sister cried…”
Two issues here. One, the pronoun “me” doesn’t go with a verb, like, “Me cried”. The correct pronoun is “I”. However, in line with mainstream English, we don’t say: “I and my sister”. Instead, we say: “My sister and I…”
On Page 12 of the same edition, there is a story entitled ‘Accused: I was paid Sh3,000 for spying on Kimani’s client’. In this one, the scribbler writes in Para 7:
“On June 23, 2016, Mr Ngugi had been detailed by Mr Kamau to spy on ‘a thief’ attending a case at the Mavoko law courts…Mr Ngugi was DROPPED at the law courts and Mwenda was pointed out to him.”
Hello! You give someone a lift in your car and then, upon reaching the passenger’s destination, you don’t drop them. You drop them OFF. Drop (alone) means something else, which is: to let or make something fall down vertically.
The story continues, and our Nairobi scribbling colleague writes on Para 8: “After a short court session, Kimani and Mwenda boarded the taxi driven by Muiruri. Mr Ngugi, who has been spying on them, was keeping watch outside. He was PICKED in a vehicle and they drove fast after the three.”
Picked in a vehicle? Nope! He was picked UP in a vehicle. Our notorious daladala drivers, for instance, stop their vehicles anywhere along the road to PICK UP (not to pick) commuters. “Pick” refers to making a choice or selecting. Like when your 14-year-old child is picked to join Form One in a public school.
Let us return to Bongo. Here, what we have in our hands is our huge and colourful broadsheet of Saturday, December 18, in which there is a story on Page 4 entitled ‘Dodoma region collects 21.96bn/-‘. Therein, the scribbler purports to quote a regional commissioner and writes:
“During the 2021/22 fiscal year budget, the region has been projected to collect 64,069,966,000 whereby by November 2021, A TOTAL of 21,954,702/37 WERE collected.”
A total of…and then you proceed to give a figure? That is engaging in verbosity, i.e. using more words than needed or, in a word, indulging in wordiness! When someone owes you Sh10,000 just tell him, “You owe Sh10,000” and not “You owe me a total of Sh10,000.”
Yes, the qualifier, “a total”, in the broadsheet reporter’s story is most unnecessary. Furthermore, the scribbler errs in using the verb “were” instead of WAS. It is apparent falsely assumed his key subject was the “MANY shillings” (plural). The truth, however, is that his key subject was “A TOTAL” (singular).
On Page 3 of the same broadsheet, there is this story, ‘Kahama district completes the construction of 247 classrooms’, in which the scribbler writes:
“Finance minister…was quoted saying (sic!) the government was planning to spend part of the 1.3trl IMF loan FACILITY to construct 18,000 classrooms TO both primary and secondary schools.”
Sh1.3 trillion loan facility? Well, why not just, LOAN? Let me also note that we construct classrooms FOR (not to) our schools.
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
