[General] Indianisms

[Anand2014]

Are the below sentences correct to use ?

1. üI have a doubt ?
2. üWhere do you stay?
3. üYour voice is very slow
4. üWhat’s your good name?
5. üPlease revert for clarification
6. üPlease do the needful
7. üWould you like to avail the offer?
8. üPlease be on line (on the telephone)
9. üI think your branch has shifted
10. üShe met with an accident yesterday
11. üCan we prepone the meeting?
12. üThe current went
13. üThe electricity / power went out
14. üMy boss is out of station
15. üMy father expired
16. üMy boss is having an off day

 

[Tdol]

1/10/15 (possibly, but it's not very natural)/16 would work in British English, though we would use off-day. 13 might work. Some people have started using Do the needful and prepone, but not many. 2 could work in some contexts, but without further context sounds odd.

 

[SoothingDave]

What does "off-day" mean?

In AmE if someone is having an off day, that means that they are not up to their usual standards/skills, or are being particularly unlucky. Like a normally decent athlete who can't do anything right during a particular game.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Why do think it doesn't mean that here too?

 

[emsr2d2]

Are the below sentences correct? [strike]to use ?[/strike]

1. I have a doubt. (This is not a question so you didn't need a question mark.)
2. Where do you stay? This is grammatically correct but "Where do you live?" or "Where are you staying?" are natural in BrE.
3. Your voice is very slow. It's grammatically correct but we would say "You speak very slowly".
4. What’s your good name? No. I don't know what this means.
5. Please revert for clarification. This use of "revert" seems to be used a lot in Indian English. It appears occasionally in BrE but, as yet, we don't like it.
6. Please do the needful. As above, it appears a lot in Indian English. It is not used in BrE.
7. Would you like to avail the offer? No. "Would you like to avail yourself of the offer?"
8. Please be on line (on the telephone). "Online" means "using the internet". "On the telephone" means "speaking on the phone". It would be very strange to request that someone speak on the phone in this way.
9. I think your branch has shifted. This doesn't make sense. Do you mean "The branch you use has changed"?
10. She met with an accident yesterday. Yes.
11. Can we prepone the meeting? We had an interesting thread about it not long ago. It exists as the opposite of "postpone" but in BrE, we use "Can we bring the meeting forward?"
12. The current went. If you mean "The electric current went off/failed", then no.
13. The electricity/power went out. This is OK though in BrE, we would normally say "There has been a power cut".
14. My boss is out of station. If you mean that he is not in his/the office today, then no. We don't use that in BrE.
15. My father expired. If you mean "My father died" then it's grammatically correct but very unlikely. We say "My father died" or "My father passed away".
16. My boss is having an off day. This could mean "He is having a bad day/he is in a very bad mood" or "He is not working today". I would accept it with either meaning but you would have to be sure that the listener knew which one you meant.

I have removed the inexplicable "ü" which appeared before the first word of each sentence/question.
We don't put a space before a question mark.
My comments on each one are above in red, as are my corrections.

 

[SoothingDave]

I am not a teacher.

Why do think it doesn't mean that here too?

I've learned not to assume that y'all use the language the same way we do.

I am also curious what the Indian fellow meant, since he mentions his boss. He might mean that his boss is having the day off.

 

[SoothingDave]

"The power went out" is fine in AmE. We don't meet with accidents, either.

I would not accept "off day" to mean "day off."

"Prepone" is just clever enough and fills a need that it might catch on. "Revert" does not mean "reply" and it never will. "Revert" means to go back to a previous state, like if you remove an update to a program on your computer and go back (revert) to using the old version.

 

[bhaisahab]

"What is your good name?" is very, very commonly asked in India. It means "What is your first name/what do you call your self?"