We don’t hide in bushes, rather, hide in THE bush
No lecturing today; so we’ll move straight to serving gems we unearthed over the past few days, therefore, here we go…
Our first gems are from Page 3 of the tabloid closely associated with this columnist, (May 3 edition). First, a look at the story entitled, ‘Fear as ward executive shot dead’.
Purporting to report what the Rukwa police boss said, the scribbler wrote: “…after the killers were done, they disappeared to an unknown place and they (sic) took nothing from NEITHER the deceased OR the bar.”
Neither …or? No please, we say, “neither…nor”. And then we’ve “either…or”. Elementary, isn’t it? Yes, it is, but there we are! The sentence is also rather awkward and so, here’s our rewrite:
“The RPC said, after murdering their victim, the killers disappeared, taking nothing from EITHER the deceased OR the bar”
On the same page, there’s another story headline: ‘Promote social welfare to develop’, in which the scribbler, in his effort to report what one Prof JS told a gathering, wrote: “The main challenges that have HELD many people INTO poverty…include lack of technical know-how.”
Held people into…? This doesn’t sound right. Now how about, “…challenges that have TIED many people TO poverty”? Or, in a much simpler language: “…challenges that RENDERED many people POOR…”
And then, the Sat, May 5 edition of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet ran a story on Page 3 with the headline, ‘Toilet shortage worrying as 6 succumb to cholera’. Now giving an English version of what the Longido DC must have said in Kiswahili, our colleague wrote:
“Many residents in Longido do not have toilets and attend to their calls of nature in BUSHES…” Not quite correct, we say! Why, a bush (plural, bushes), is a plant that grows thickly with several hard stems coming up from the root. We have, for instance, a rose bush.
However, “THE BUSH”, which has no plural (uncountable), means an area of wild land that has not been cleared. Therefore, going by the story, our compatriots in Longido have this bad habit of relieving themselves in the bush (not bushes).
Finally, let’s get some goodies from Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Tues, May 1. On Page 5, there’s a headline that reads, ‘Experts demand FOR tough measures on substandard drugs’.
A-a! The verb “demand” doesn’t go with the preposition ”for”, so, we demand things (not for things). However, when used as a noun, “for” is okay. For instance: “Experts’ demand for tough measures should be taken seriously”.
On Page 7 of the broadsheet, there’s a story headlined, ‘CSOs ask for govt support…’ in which the scribbler says: “Deputy Minister of State in the President’s Office has acknowledged the role “civil” CSOs play in development…”
Civil CSOs? Nope! Why, CSO stands for CIVIL society organisation.
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
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