OK! Call my handphone : Can! what’s your handphone’s name?

DO you find anything wrong with the title? No? I don’t blame you. These days, everyone is becoming very economical…. Even with their words. It’s fine I suppose if you know the real way of saying or writing but the danger is when you don’t even realise you are speaking gramatically wrong English.

Funny how just because everyone says it, the phrase becomes right.

Most people use the phrase, ``Call my handphone’’ to mean ``Call me ON my handphone.’’

But, grammatically, ``Call my handphone’’ means to call out to it.

We could then possibly say, ``Hello, Nokia, ‘’ ``Hi, Celcom’’, ``Hi, Motorola’’

That would be disastrous, wouldn’t it?

Let’s look at a conversation between two good friends.

Shaiful: Hey, Ernest. What are you looking for?

Ernest: I’m looking at some Grammar books. I want to improve my English.

Shaiful: Did you find anything useful?

Ernest: Not really. Most of the books here are of the advanced level.

Shaiful: Don’t worry. I’m sure you will find something you can use.

Ernest: Yeah…. I just have to keep on looking.

Shaiful: O.K. Have to go now. I’ll give you a call later.

Ernest: Can, but make sure you CALL MY HANDPHONE!!!!

How often have we replied like this? Shaiful understands exactly what Ernest means and Ernest himself knows his sentence is grammatically wrong but he says it nevertheless. Why?

Perhaps it would be better if we all tried to speak grammatically correct English. It would help us from getting into the habit of using `broken English’ and excusing ourselves by saying, ``Of course, I know what I should say. It’s just……’’

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

This column is only meant to take a light look at `broken English’.

If you have any interesting experiences to share, please do so.

We at Portal Pendidikan would be happy to let more Malaysians gain from these experiences.

Please email your thoughts/ incidences/experiences to kak_jaya@utusan.com.my .

Don’t forget to include your full name and address and a little bit about yourself.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________