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  3. Indian English and a matter of tense

Indian English and a matter of tense

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    Nish Nishant
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Why do Indians prefer present tense ( or present progressive tense )? Most Indians would say, "I am attaching the doc" instead of "I have attached the doc". Why? Is it due to the fact that Indian languages lay more stress on the present tense? Being an Indian English speaker, I am confused as to which'd be more clean (both seem to be grammatically okay). Mr .NET says both are fine with him. Nish

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    • N Nish Nishant

      Why do Indians prefer present tense ( or present progressive tense )? Most Indians would say, "I am attaching the doc" instead of "I have attached the doc". Why? Is it due to the fact that Indian languages lay more stress on the present tense? Being an Indian English speaker, I am confused as to which'd be more clean (both seem to be grammatically okay). Mr .NET says both are fine with him. Nish

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      Christian Graus
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      As someone of German heritage, I've seen first hand that people learn a new language word by word, and then translate using the tense that feels right to them. On another front I was listening to a German metal band yesterday and they have a song called 'Iron Force', but every time he sings it, he emphasises the r in 'iron'. It made me laugh, anyhow. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

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      • C Christian Graus

        As someone of German heritage, I've seen first hand that people learn a new language word by word, and then translate using the tense that feels right to them. On another front I was listening to a German metal band yesterday and they have a song called 'Iron Force', but every time he sings it, he emphasises the r in 'iron'. It made me laugh, anyhow. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

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        Nish Nishant
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Christian Graus wrote: he emphasises the r in 'iron'. It made me laugh, anyhow. I know a few people too who pronounce the r in iron like the r in ironic :-)

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        • N Nish Nishant

          Christian Graus wrote: he emphasises the r in 'iron'. It made me laugh, anyhow. I know a few people too who pronounce the r in iron like the r in ironic :-)

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          Vikram A Punathambekar
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Nishant Sivakumar wrote: I know a few people too who pronounce the r in iron like the r in ironic That's ironic. ;P Cheers, Vikram.


          http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar "It's like hitting water with your fist. There's all sorts of motion and noise at impact, and no impression left whatsoever shortly thereafter." — gantww.

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          • N Nish Nishant

            Christian Graus wrote: he emphasises the r in 'iron'. It made me laugh, anyhow. I know a few people too who pronounce the r in iron like the r in ironic :-)

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            Yulianto
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it?


            Work hard, Work effectively.

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            • V Vikram A Punathambekar

              Nishant Sivakumar wrote: I know a few people too who pronounce the r in iron like the r in ironic That's ironic. ;P Cheers, Vikram.


              http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar "It's like hitting water with your fist. There's all sorts of motion and noise at impact, and no impression left whatsoever shortly thereafter." — gantww.

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              Nish Nishant
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Vikram A Punathambekar wrote: That's ironic. Ouch!!!

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              • Y Yulianto

                Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it?


                Work hard, Work effectively.

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                Nish Nishant
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Yulianto. wrote: Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it? The 'r' is silent.

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                • N Nish Nishant

                  Yulianto. wrote: Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it? The 'r' is silent.

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                  Nish Nishant
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Nishant Sivakumar wrote: The 'r' is silent. But it's not pronounced like ion. iron is pronounced more like i-ern

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                  • C Christian Graus

                    As someone of German heritage, I've seen first hand that people learn a new language word by word, and then translate using the tense that feels right to them. On another front I was listening to a German metal band yesterday and they have a song called 'Iron Force', but every time he sings it, he emphasises the r in 'iron'. It made me laugh, anyhow. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

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                    Weiye Chen
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    Christian Graus wrote: he emphasises the r in 'iron' That would sound like 'onion'. :laugh: Weiye Chen Life is hard, yet we are made of flesh...

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                    • N Nish Nishant

                      Yulianto. wrote: Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it? The 'r' is silent.

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                      Yulianto
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Silent as in Ionic. You remove the 'r'?


                      Work hard, Work effectively.

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                      • Y Yulianto

                        Silent as in Ionic. You remove the 'r'?


                        Work hard, Work effectively.

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                        Nish Nishant
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        Yulianto. wrote: Silent as in Ionic. You remove the 'r'? No - this is more like eye-ern. Nish

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                        • N Nish Nishant

                          Why do Indians prefer present tense ( or present progressive tense )? Most Indians would say, "I am attaching the doc" instead of "I have attached the doc". Why? Is it due to the fact that Indian languages lay more stress on the present tense? Being an Indian English speaker, I am confused as to which'd be more clean (both seem to be grammatically okay). Mr .NET says both are fine with him. Nish

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                          ThatsAlok
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Why do Indians prefer present tense ( or present progressive tense )? Because India is Multilingual country,so one lanaguage have some effect on other. for example i can speak more than 20 variant of HINDI! :) As for Famous Saying:- " Har kose par badle pan, har 100 kose paar badle boli" It means:- “At Every KM water taste change and for every 100 KM language" It’s not sound very rhyming :-D

                          "Opinions are neither right nor wrong. I cannot change your opinion. I can, however, change what influences your opinion." - David Crow

                          cheers, Alok Gupta

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                          • N Nish Nishant

                            Yulianto. wrote: Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it? The 'r' is silent.

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                            Corinna John
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Nishant Sivakumar wrote: The 'r' is silent Why do you write the 'r' at all, if it does not really belong to the word? :confused: _________________________________ Please inform me about my English mistakes, I still try to learn your language!

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                            • C Corinna John

                              Nishant Sivakumar wrote: The 'r' is silent Why do you write the 'r' at all, if it does not really belong to the word? :confused: _________________________________ Please inform me about my English mistakes, I still try to learn your language!

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                              Nish Nishant
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Corinna John wrote: Why do you write the 'r' at all, if it does not really belong to the word? English is not a phonetic language, remember, so words are sometimes pronounced differently from how they are written.

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                              • N Nish Nishant

                                Yulianto. wrote: Hey that's me. How do you pronounce it? The 'r' is silent.

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                                73Zeppelin
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                Nishant Sivakumar wrote: The 'r' is silent. ion?? I pronounce it "eyern"

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                                • 7 73Zeppelin

                                  Nishant Sivakumar wrote: The 'r' is silent. ion?? I pronounce it "eyern"

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                                  Nish Nishant
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  John Theal wrote: I pronounce it "eyern" Me too - see my later posts :-)

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                                  • N Nish Nishant

                                    Why do Indians prefer present tense ( or present progressive tense )? Most Indians would say, "I am attaching the doc" instead of "I have attached the doc". Why? Is it due to the fact that Indian languages lay more stress on the present tense? Being an Indian English speaker, I am confused as to which'd be more clean (both seem to be grammatically okay). Mr .NET says both are fine with him. Nish

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                                    Giles
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    If I am on the phone, writing an e-mail to the person as I speak, over the phone I would say the former. In the e-mail I would use the past tense, though I would agree that the latter is okay, because at the time of writting you are, and its just conveying something from the writters point of view, and not for the recipents point of view. The reason I would normally use the later, is the majority of my e-mails are for business, and so I want it from my clients perspective. Its just etiquette I supose. An experiment : In the case above would normally write something like "Please find attached", not but definitely not "Please find attching.", as the later is from the recipients perspective. English from what I hear from people to whom it is their second language is a tricky language to learn. There are rules, and then lots of exceptions to the rules. In some cases there are rules with just one example. Hmmm. Then there is the pronaounciation, and the fact that there are lots of words that sound the same but mean different things..... There, Their, They're Which, Witch Where, Were, Wear But I'm sure you are familiar with these, but the list does go on. English is pretty expresive, and flexible. I like the fact that you can swear every other word in a sentance and still make sense. Though I don't do it too often. :)


                                    "Je pense, donc je mange." - Rene Descartes 1689 - Just before his mother put his tea on the table. Shameless Plug - Distributed Database Transactions in .NET using COM+

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                                    • G Giles

                                      If I am on the phone, writing an e-mail to the person as I speak, over the phone I would say the former. In the e-mail I would use the past tense, though I would agree that the latter is okay, because at the time of writting you are, and its just conveying something from the writters point of view, and not for the recipents point of view. The reason I would normally use the later, is the majority of my e-mails are for business, and so I want it from my clients perspective. Its just etiquette I supose. An experiment : In the case above would normally write something like "Please find attached", not but definitely not "Please find attching.", as the later is from the recipients perspective. English from what I hear from people to whom it is their second language is a tricky language to learn. There are rules, and then lots of exceptions to the rules. In some cases there are rules with just one example. Hmmm. Then there is the pronaounciation, and the fact that there are lots of words that sound the same but mean different things..... There, Their, They're Which, Witch Where, Were, Wear But I'm sure you are familiar with these, but the list does go on. English is pretty expresive, and flexible. I like the fact that you can swear every other word in a sentance and still make sense. Though I don't do it too often. :)


                                      "Je pense, donc je mange." - Rene Descartes 1689 - Just before his mother put his tea on the table. Shameless Plug - Distributed Database Transactions in .NET using COM+

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                                      Nish Nishant
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      Giles wrote: I like the fact that you can swear every other word in a sentance and still make sense. Though I don't do it too often. Yeah that's fun ;-)

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                                      • N Nish Nishant

                                        Corinna John wrote: Why do you write the 'r' at all, if it does not really belong to the word? English is not a phonetic language, remember, so words are sometimes pronounced differently from how they are written.

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                                        hairy_hats
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Nishant Sivakumar wrote: English is not a phonetic language, remember, so words are sometimes pronounced differently from how they are written. This is due in part to the written/printed word - once spellings were down on paper, subsequent shifts in pronunciation have often not been reflected by updated spellings. For example, the spelling of place names Gloucester (now pron. "Gloster") and Leicester (pron. "Lester") are several hundred years out of date. Damn the Ordnance Survey! I spent a long time being totally against spelling reform, but after learning a phonemic language (Kernewek Kemmyn) and seeing the advantages, I now reckon UK English could do with a little phoneticising... Steve.

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                                        • C Corinna John

                                          Nishant Sivakumar wrote: The 'r' is silent Why do you write the 'r' at all, if it does not really belong to the word? :confused: _________________________________ Please inform me about my English mistakes, I still try to learn your language!

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                                          Colin Angus Mackay
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          I think it is more of an accent thing. In Scotland the R is more heavily pronounced than in other English speaking areas.


                                          My: Blog | Photos WDevs.com - Open Source Code Hosting, Blogs, FTP, Mail and More

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