Suffering from disturbing porn-links on your Facebook wall?

Clickjacking is a malicious technique of tricking Web users into revealing confidential information or taking control of their computer while clicking on seemingly safe web pages.

For example, you find a link on your Facebook wall saying, “Click to know who viewed your profile today”, “Know who deleted you from friend list”, “Who is your secret admirer on Facebook” etc or it can even be a tempting porn link. You click on the link and you are clickjacked! Such links normally take you to another step of action such as clicking on a button etc. Out of your curiosity you keep doing exactly what the hacker wants you to do, ending up in compromising your valuable confidential information such as username, password and so on.

Once you are clickjacked, the embedded malicious code on the link takes control of your account (Facebook, Twitter etc) and starts sending porn or gore links to many of your friends randomly and repeatedly, forcing your friends to think that you are doing all this!

If you are already facing this problem of being accused of sending porn links to your friends on Facebook, there is a solution:

• Go to the Account Settings drop-down menu in the upper right side of your screen.
• From the Account Settings drop-down menu, choose Privacy Settings.
• On the bottom right side of the Privacy Settings Page, click the Apps & websites link "Edit your settings."
• On the App page, next to "Apps you use," select edit settings.
• There you will see the third-party apps that have access to your Facebook profile. Delete any rogue applications. (It's a good idea to check this setting regularly – at least once a week.)

If you are already being looked down upon or humiliated by your friends because of this, change your password immediately besides changing the above-mentioned stetting. Then send an apology (preferably a private message) to all your Facebook friends who may have been tagged, and advise them to do the same.


Simply resharing "ATTENTION FRIENDS, WARNING FRIENDS" stuff will not work!

Wanna, Gonna Gotta.... Part 2

Gonna is another frequently used word widely heard  in informal colloquial English. This phrase is used instead of going to. Though basically a product of American English, gonna has already got worldwide popularity hence used by millions of English speakers all around the world.


Examples:
She's gonna marry him (she's going to marry him).
We're gonna sack Peter (we're going to sack Peter).
It's gonna rain (it's going to rain).
Are they gonna do it again? (are they going to do it again?) etc


Gonna can be used with first, second and third persons.
e.g. I'm gonna teach him a lesson.
We're not gonna attend the party.
You are gonna be all right.
He's gonna come with you.
She's gonna face the music for her actions.
They're gonna launch the product soon. 
Garry is gonna marry Natasha.


Remember that in questions, are is usually omitted when the subject is
(i) first/second person plural (we, you) and
(ii) second person singular (you as plural).
e.g. What ~ we gonna do next? ('are' omitted)
Where ~ we gonna invest it? ('are' omitted)
When ~ you gonna meet us again? ('are' omitted)
Why ~ you gonna take this decision? ('are' omitted)


NB Many learners of English have a tendency to make the awkward sentences of the following kind. Please avoid them carefully...
He's gonna to leave for Australia (incorrect)
He's gonna leave for Australia (correct)
He's going to leave for Australia (correct)


To learn about how to use 'wanna', visit the following link:
http://novaenglishcampus.blogspot.com/2011/10/wanna-gonna-gotta-part-1_7732.html

Wanna, Gonna Gotta.... Part 1

British English aka Queen’s English is still widely accepted as the purest English. However due to the unquestionable role that the United States of America plays in international affairs and the worldwide popularity of American culture, many typical American English terms have crept into the speaking habits of English speakers across the world.

A lot of such Americanisms are frequently heard in the informal written as well as spoken English e.g. wanna, gonna, gotta, kinda etc.

Wanna is the shortened form of ‘want to’ as in

I want to leave now (I wanna leave now)
I don’t want to lose her (I don’t wanna lose her)
Do you want to come with me? (Do you wanna come with me?) etc.

Wanna can be used with all persons - singular and plural, except third person singular.
I wanna (correct)
We wanna (correct)
You wanna (correct)
They wanna (correct)

But...
He wanna (incorrect)
She wanna (incorrect)
Sam wanna (incorrect)

This is because wanna structurally rhymes only with I want to, you want to, we want to, they want to, but not with he/she/Sam wants to where the final 's' is too intrusive. However, crazily enough, even this exceptional rule is increasingly ignored by a huge number of speakers across the world, including the Americans!

While using wanna in interrogative sentences (questions), the helping verbs ‘do’ and ‘does’ are often omitted.

e.g. What ~ you wanna do now? (‘do’ omitted)
~ you wanna fight me? (‘Do’ omitted)
~ he wanna get divorce? (‘Does’ omitted)

(to be contd...)

Words with silent 'd'.

It is common among many learners of English especially those who learn it as a second language to pronounce the words just as they are written. No doubt, English pronunciation system is the most complicated system of pronunciation in the world – in many cases illogical too! The best way to master the pronunciation conundrum is to listen as much good English as possible. The following is a collection of commonly used words in which the sound /d/ is always silent.
The pronunciation of the words using the international phonetic symbols is given between slashes (//) immediately after the words. For those who are unable to understand them, the simplified pronunciation is given in brackets.


Abridge /əˈbrɪdʒ/ (əˈbrij)
Acknowledge /əkˈnɒlɪdʒ/ (əkˈnolij)
Adjacent /əˈdʒeɪs(ə)nt/ (əˈjeis(ə)nt)
Adjective /ˈædʒɪktɪv/ (ˈæjiktiv)
Adjust /əˈdʒʌst/ (ˈəjʌst)
Badge /badʒ/ (ˈbæj)
Bridge /brɪdʒ/ (brij)
Budge /bʌdʒ/ (bʌj)
Cartridge /ˈkɑːtrɪdʒ/ (ˈkɑːtrij)
Drudge /drʌdʒ/ (drʌj)
Edge /ɛdʒ/ (ej)
Fridge /frɪdʒ/ (frij)
Grudge /grʌdʒ/ (grʌj)
Hedge /hɛdʒ/ (hej)
Judge /dʒʌdʒ/ (jʌj)
Knowledge /ˈnɒlɪdʒ/ (nolij) NB /k/ is also silent in this word.
Ledger /ˈlɛdʒə/ (ˈlejer)
Lodge /lɒdʒ/ (loj)
Nudge /nʌdʒ/ (nʌj)
Pledge /plɛdʒ/ (plej)
Porridge /ˈpɒrɪdʒ/ (ˈporij)
Ridge /rɪdj/
Wedge /wɛdʒ/ (wej)
Budget /ˈbʌdʒɪt/ (ˈbʌjit)
Fidget /ˈfɪdʒɪt/ (ˈfijit)
Gadget /ˈgadʒɪt/ (ˈgæjit)
Midget /ˈmɪdʒɪt/ (ˈmijit)
Widget /ˈwɪdʒɪt/ (ˈwijit)


In the list given above, the accent mark (ˈ) shows that the syllable immediately after it must be stressed while pronouncing the specific word. æ is pronounced just as ‘a’ in cat, ə is pronounced as ‘a’ in ‘about’.

NEW WORDS FOR THE NETIZENS...

A Netizen is a person who spends a lot of time on the Internet. The term Netizen is a blend of two other familiar words: Internet and citizen. A comparatively young word, Netizen came into English in the 1990s. Netizens spend the most of their time in social networking (on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc) and other forms of online communication.

Netizens are also referred to as cyber citizens. Both Netizen and cyber citizen were coined by Michael Hauben (1973-2001), an American computer specialist and author who was a pioneer in identifying the collaborative nature of the Internet and its effects on the global community.

And now, if you are reading this blog, probably you are a digital native. What does it mean? A digital native is a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and so familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age. The Digital Age began in the late 1960s.

Then what word can best describe the people who were born before the Digital Age, yet adapted to the activities (Internet, social networking and so on) of the digital natives? Well, they are digital immigrants! Interesting, isn't it?

Is it right to use ‘According to me’?

‘According to me’ is one of the most popular usages among the speakers of English in south Asian countries, especially in India. Though beautiful and of course nice to hear, this phrase is un-English.

But why?

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the preposition ‘according to’ like this: as stated or reported by somebody/something. What does it mean? Well, ‘according to’ should be used to repeat a statement which was made by another, preferably a third person.

Let’s take an example to make it clear:

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” is a very famous quote made by Edison. When you want to repeat this quote, you may say, ‘According to Edison, genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’. Here you are repeating the statement made by a third person (Edison). So ‘according to’ can be used.

The sentence ‘According to Edison, genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’ means ‘as stated by Edison, genius is……………………’

According to John Keats, ‘a thing of beauty is a joy for ever’

(As John Keats said, ‘a thing of beauty……………………..’)

According to Napoleon, ‘nothing is impossible’

(As Napoleon said, ‘nothing is……….’)

In all the examples above, the statements/opinions were made by a third person (Edison, Keats, Napoleon etc) and we are repeating or reporting them. That’s why we use ‘according to’.

Now, what’s wrong with ‘according to me’? When you say, ‘according to me, she is not reliable’, you are making your own opinion (not reporting a third person’s). Remember that ‘according to’ does not have the meaning ‘in my opinion’.

Apart from a third person, ‘according to’ can also be used with a third source such as a book, newspaper, TV channel and so on. For example, ‘according to BBC, the incident took place at midnight’, ‘According to the Holy Bible, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of heaven’, ‘according to Bhagvad Gita, man is made by his belief’.

Pleasure, Measure and Vision: Funny Indian pronunciation!

/ʒ/ (the sound of ‘s’ in pleasure, measure, leisure, vision etc) is another sound which is still beyond the reach of many of Indian speakers of English.

The speakers of Hindi and other north Indian languages use something like a ‘y’ in place of the sound /ʒ/. A good majority of them pronounce pleasure, measure, leisure and vision almost as ‘pleiyar’, ‘meiyar’, ‘leiyar’ and ‘viyyan’ .

What about the southern speakers? Their tongues can utter these words only as pleshur, meshur, leshur, vishen etc. The apparent absence of an equivalent to the original English sound /ʒ/ in any of the Indian languages is the culprit in this case as well.

The only way out for those who live in this country yet want to improve their pronunciation is to listen to good English, preferably spoken by native English speakers.

Indian English – North Vs South!

India has already been officially declared as the world’s second largest English speaking country. However, being home land to more than a billion people with noticeable social, economic and linguistic diversity among themselves, there are a number of Englishes spoken throughout this country.

While the people living in the north claim to be comparatively better in pronunciation, those down south of the country boast of their upper hand in grammatical accuracy. Here I am posting a few non-English elements which I came to notice in the speaking habits of both south and north Indian speakers of English.

Many speakers of English in south use /s/ in place of /z/. So ‘Zen’ becomes /Sen/. ‘Jazz’ is pronounced as /jass/. Zigzag is distorted as /sigsag/. ‘Zeal’ is /seal/. Interestingly, many of them pronounce the following pairs of words in the same manner: [sip, zip], [sing, zing], [is, ease], [rice, rise], [C Tv, Z Tv] etc. The apparent reason is the lack of a corresponding sound to /z/ in many of the south Indian languages. So, they naturally tend to manage with its lookalike /s/!

Now, let’s move a little north. Many northerners find it difficult to pronounce the sound /z/. You may often hear ‘jen’ in place of ‘zen’; ‘jeero’ in place of ‘zero’ ‘joo’ for ‘zoo’ and ‘jigjag’ instead of ‘zigzag’! The reason is the same as that of the southern speakers – lack of an equivalent to /z/ in most of the north Indian tongues!

(to be contd…)

Tonic for improving your spelling!

Mnemonics is a system which uses certain patterns of letters, ideas, or associations to help a person to remember something. It is extremely useful for the learners of English to memorize the spellings of confusing words.

Many people are often confused about the spellings of 'stationary' and 'stationery'. It can be sorted with the help of a mnemonic. Stationery has er in it as in the case of paper. So stationery refers to paper, pencil etc!

'Grammar' is another word which many people spell as grammer. Try this mnemonic: ‘Grammar is an art of using a language correctly’. Link the ‘ar’ in grammar with art!

Another widely misspelled word is 'arithmetic'. This word is often misspelled as arithmatic because of its resemblance with the more common word mathematics. So, what is the way out? Learn this simple sentence which is a funny full-form of arithmetic: 'A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream!'

And the next one is ‘separate’. It is often wrongly spelt as seperate. Why don’t you try this interesting mnemonic? There was a farmer named Sep. One day his wife saw a rat. She yelled – “Sep, a rat – Eeeee!”.

What is the opposite of Feminist?

A feminist is a person who supports the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. Feminism refers to all the movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. The feminist activities have undoubtedly helped a lot in changing the position of women in the society.

Well, it is now clear that a feminist is one who advocates equal rights for women. But what about a person who supports and defends the rights of men? The word is ‘hominist’! Don’t think it is a newly invented word; the term was coined by George Bernard Shaw, more than a century ago.

However, the word hominist did not gain much popularity. Now another word ‘masculinist’ (also masculist) is widely used instead.

Poor Silent Letters!! Crazy English Spelling & Pronunciation. Part 3

Here are a few more illogical spelling-pronunciation disparites in English...

Gnat, gnaw, gnome, gnarl, gnat, deign, foreign, reign, sovereign, sign, ensign, design, resign, etc have a ‘g’ in them when they are spelled but the poor ‘g’ is totally neglected when people pronounce these words!

And where did the intruder ‘k’ come from and place its butts at the beginning of these words: know, knee, knife, knit, knickers and knuckle? Linguists may have come up with some theories but they are not at all digestible to the laymen!

Learners of English take weeks, if not months, to be confident enough to spell the following words correctly although they are able to pronounce them:

psychology, psychiatrist, pneumonia, psalm, psoriasis – the list is too long. The letter ‘p’ in all these words stands as a mute spectator of the illogical rules of the English language spelling reforms! Thank God, at least the ‘p’ in psalm got a dumb friend (l) to company with!

Cousin, Second Cousin, Third Cousin, Distant Cousin....

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines cousin as ‘a child of your aunt or uncle’. The word cousin is a neutral term which applies to both males and females. Many people especially in South East Asia incorrectly use this word as cousin brother, cousin sister etc. Remember the word cousin is used to refer to:

1. Your uncle’s son/daughter (uncle can be your father’s brother or mother’s brother)
2. Your aunt’s son/daughter  (aunt can be your father’s sister or mother’s sister)

The listener can understand whether the ‘cousin in context’ is male of female from the pronoun which is used to describe them for example, in sentences like ‘He’s my cousin’, ‘My cousin is coming today with her children' etc. , the pronoun ‘he’ and the adjective ‘her’ clearly resolve the ‘gender confusion’. In some cases, it’s also possible to say ‘male cousin’ or ‘female cousin’ for specification or emphasis.

First cousin is another word which means exactly the same as cousin. Well, a (first) cousin is the child of your uncle or aunty. Who is your second cousin? It’s the grandchild of your grand uncle/aunty*.

Then comes the third cousin: the great grandchild of your great grand uncle**.

Of course the description of relationship tree in words is very confusing. The following graphics will make it a lot easier for you to understand the kinds of cousins:

*brother/sister of your grandfather/grandmother.

**brother/sister of your great grandfather/ great grandmother.

Crazy pronunciation Part 3

Here are a few more examples of illogical inconsistencies in English pronunciation:

The past form of say is said. It is pronounced as /sed/ but the past form of pay and lay are not pronounced as /ped/ or /led/! Rather you have to pronounce them as /peid/ and /leid/.

Bomb is pronounced as /bom/ and comb is pronounced as /com/ but what about tomb? It’s pronounced as /toom/!

Come and some do not agree with dome and Rome when it comes to pronunciation!

There is logic in pronouncing eve as /eev/ but I don’t understand why ewe is pronounced as /yoo/

Curry and hurry are two words that all of you might pronounce with ease. However, bury is a word a good number non-native speakers find difficult to pronounce; it is pronounced /bery/. It is rather crazy!

Crazy English pronunciation. Part 2

When I was in fifth class in which I started learning the spellings and pronunciation of English words, my English teacher used to tweak my ear for mispronouncing the word 'hood'. I used to pronounce hood with a long u – something like /hoood/ instead of /hud/. My budding mind, as in the case of any children, thought all the words with ‘oo’ should be pronounced in the same way as in food, fool, noon, mood, soon, moon, loo etc.

Crazily enough, while a number of common words like moon, food, noon, broom, zoom, boon, proof, roof etc are pronounced with a long ‘u’ sound, so many other words with the same pattern take only a short ‘u’ in pronunciation e.g. book, cook, hood, look, wood, foot and so on.

If you think that the confusion is over just after learning these two rules, what about the words like ‘door’ and ‘floor’? Though they follow the same pattern of spelling, the pronunciation is different!

Is that all? Wait! A fourth small group of words (thank God, only two words in this category!) behaves in a totally different way: blood and flood. The ‘oo’ in them rhymes with the ‘u’ in ‘mud’ ‘thud’ and ‘dull’ !

Isn’t English crazy? Please comment…

GHOTI = FISH (?)

GHOTI

The pronunciation of this word is “FISH”! Surprised?This is a well known example which demonstrates the inconsistencies in English pronunciation. How can we prove that GHOTI is pronounced as FISH? Here’s how:

gh, pronounced /f/ as in tough /tʌf/;

o, pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/; and

ti, pronounced /ʃ/ (sh) as in nation /ˈne͡ɪʃən/.

This sarcastic example was first made by William Ollier, a 19^th century English spelling critic, but was popularized by Bernard Shaw in some of his writings. Indeed English spelling rules are crazy. Look at the different ways ‘ough’ is pronounced:

1. thought, bought, fought, brought etc. /o/
2. enough, rough, tough etc. /ʌf/
3. through /oo/
4. though, although, dough etc. /əu/
5. cough /ɒf/
6. bough, doughty /aʊ/
7. thorough /ʌ/

Funny English spellings! Right?

Good at or Good in?

Prepositions seem to be the most confusing aspect of English grammar for the speakers of English all around. While many people say ‘she is good at English’, the number of those who say ‘she is good in English’ is also growing. So, which sentence is the correct one?

Practically speaking, it is unwise to say only one of these two sentences is correct. The reason is English language is constantly undergoing a process of being plain, straight-forward and flexible. In spoken English, you may either say ‘good at’ or ‘good in’ as both these prepositions are nowadays interchangeably used by an increasing number of English speakers across the world. However, the standard form appears to be ‘good at’. Therefore, in formal contexts try to use ‘good at’ and in informal English either of the two!

More examples:

John is bad at Mathematics.

Jane is better at French than (at) Spanish.

Sania Mirza is very good at tennis.

The footballer was at his best performance last year.

(The sentences above can also take ‘in’ in the place of ‘at’ though the former (in) is not considered standard especially while talking about one’s ability in a subject. However, by convention, only ‘at’ is widely used with sports and games)

Don't submit your biodata!

Biodata is the most preferred term for Indian job-seekers when it comes to applying for a job. This term is the shortened form for biographical data. Biodata is a single word and it should not be written as 'bio data' or 'bio-data'.

Biodata focuses a lot on the personal details such as the date of birth, sex, marital status and so forth whereas a resume or CV emphasizes on professional skills and academic excellence. The reason perhaps could be that the looks, age, cast, colour and creed are weighed higher than the academic achievements and professional expertise in India!

Just as in the case of a CV, the academic qualifications and professional experience are arranged in chronological order in a biodata. Followed by them, a biodata lists the hobbies, interests and other activities of the person which are seldom included in a CV or resume.

These days, however, there is a tendency among many people besides Indians to include such particulars as age, sex, religion etc in their CVs but this is neither required nor considered in the burgeoning US job market!

(for details on ‘resume’ and ‘curriculum vitae’ and their differences from biodata, read the blogs which I posted yesterday and the day before yesterday)

What is CV?

The French word curriculum vitae must be pronounced somewhat like ka-ree-kyu-lam vee-taai. Vitae can also be pronounced vai-tee (consult a pronunciation dictionary). Some people wrongly spell this word as carriculam vitae, perhaps due to its striking resemblance with the other related words career, curricular etc. Remember that there is no ‘a’ in curriculum.

A curriculum vitae (also known as CV) differs from a resume mainly in two aspects: length and focus. While a resume is a crisp description in just a page or two, a curriculum vitae is usually as long as two to four pages; sometimes even up to eight pages as per the requirement! It focuses on the academic qualifications of the applicant whereas a resume highlights the professional experience and expertise.

A CV outlines all the educational qualifications and professional affiliations in chronological order so that the employer can take a quick look at the progress of the applicant qualification after qualification Besides, it includes honours, awards, presentations, research experience and so on. A college or university graduate who is starting to hunt a job prepares their curriculum vitae so that the potential employer can get an in-depth knowledge about their academic performance based on which they will be getting the right job.

A final word: though there a few such intricate differences between a resume and a curriculum vitae, the current trend is to use the two words interchangeably. The day is not too far when these differences between the two words will fade away. The most important thing is whether you write a CV or resume, the aim should be to get the employer call you for an interview!

Difference between RESUME and CURRICULUM VITAE

Résumé and curriculum vitae are two familiar words to every educated individual today. Though they are roughly the same in meaning, there are a few subtle differences between the two.

Résumé is basically a French word meaning ‘summary’. It is one of the widely mispronounced words too. The pronunciation of the word is something like re-zyu-mei with a stress on ‘re’. Please use a pronunciation software to get it right. A resume primarily highlights a person’s professional skills, recent work experience, responsibilities held, outstanding achievements etc. The details are given in reverse chronological order i.e. latest experience first, followed by the previous ones. It also outlines the applicant’s educational qualifications but in brief, unlike in a curriculum vitae.

The length of a good résumé is generally one page (preferably A4 size). If too difficult to summarize on a single page, use two, not more than that. It is not necessary to include your sex, religion, hobbies, interests and so on in a résumé.

In short, a résumé is a customized summary which is used by experienced professionals to get a better targeted opportunity. Freshers on the look out of a job should prepare and submit a curriculum vitae about which we will discuss in my next blog.


Click to jump to next post about CV: http://novaenglishcampus.blogspot.in/2011/05/what-is-cv.html

Why do we celebrate Mother's Day?

It is Mother’s Day today. The occasion is celebrated throughout the world by those who love their mothers. They buy gifts, send greetings and spend the day with their beloved mothers to honour them.

Though the origin of Mother’s Day is somewhat obscure, most of historians say that the practice must have been influenced by the Mother Goddess cult in Asia Minor as long way back as in 6000 BC. Later on the Greeks imported the cult which was subsequently copied by the Romans as well. This practice gradually crept into Christianity too in the form of Mothering Sunday, an occasion on which Christians belonging to certain denominations honour Virgin Mary and their mother church.

In modern times, Mother’s Day is celebrated by the majority of people on the second Sunday in May. Anna Jarvis, an American lady is credited with the establishment of Mother’s Day as a recognized holiday in 1914 though she embarked on her campaign in the year 1907 following her mother’s death a couple of years ago.

Soon, like anything of the American origin, the celebration spread across the world and in a few years’ time Mother’s Day started to get commercially exploited – something Anna Jarvis never expected! Companies started wooing people with expensive greeting cards and gifts, jewelry industry and hotels reported higher revenues on or before the Mother’s Day. Frustrated, Jarvis along with her sister spent all her inherited and acquired wealth to fight against the commercialization of Mother’s Day. Both the sisters died in poverty a few years later.

It is also interesting to note that Anna Jarvis neither married nor had any children!

FAMILY is or FAMILY are.......

My family is a wonderful family.

My family are very close to one another.


In the first sentence, the noun family is used as a single unit of people. This sentence is correct if you think of the family as ‘a single body’.

But in the second sentence, family is treated as plural as the speaker wants to emphasize that every member in their family is close to one another.

The word 'family' is an example of a 'collective noun'. Some other words in this category are 'group', 'committee', 'jury', 'team', 'public', 'army', 'congress', etc.

So, the question that whether a collective noun should be treated as singular or plural solely depends upon up on what you want to say i.e. if you think of the collective noun as a unit, treat it as singular, as in

'My family is settled in USA’, ‘The team is in its best form these days’, ‘The jury needs to be impartial in its verdict’, ‘The committee was able to take a firm step against the culprit’ etc.

But if you take a collective noun as individuals acting separately, treat it as plural, as in

‘My family are very co-operative with one another’, (emphasis on each member of the family)

‘Strangely, the team are wearing jerseys of different colours’ (emphasis on each player in the team)

‘The jury have unanimously agreed to the new proposal of the government’ (emphasizing each judge in the jury)

The committee meet once a month’ (emphasizing that each member is present once in a month without fail)

This rule is often strictly followed in British English though this confusing grammatical rule is slowly becoming flexible in modern English.

In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular for example, if you type ‘The jury are considering the verdict’ in MS Word, the software will underline the words ‘jury are’ and prompt you to use ‘jury is’. The reason, as you probably know, is that MS Word accepts only American English grammar and spelling unless you have changed its settings to British English.

How NOKIA got its name?

The brand name Nokia has already become one of the most widely recognizable names in the world. Headquartered in Finland, the telecommunication giant has its business spread across the world.

The brand’s name Nokia is the name of the Finnish city where the company was originally established. But the interesting fact is that the world’s biggest mobile manufacturing company, Nokia Corporation was originally founded as a wood-pulp mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river from which the city itself got its name, ‘Nokia’. The company later adopted the city's name as its brand name.

However, Nokia no longer seems to have any operations in the town of Nokia! The headquarters were moved to Espoo, located nearly 200 kilometres south of Nokia.

Have you ever gone 'yellular' on your cellular phone?

If you look up in any standard dictionary, you will not find the word ‘yellular’. It is an interesting and useful  slang term which is frequently heard these days. The term is a blend of two familiar words: ‘yell’ (= to shout in a loud, sharp way) and ‘cellular’ (related to cell phone).

Mobile phones obviously help us to stay in touch with our dear and near ones. However, the incessant technical faults sometimes make it difficult for the listener to hear what the person on the other end says. It can be due to poor network coverage or technical glitch of the user’s cell phone among many other reasons.

What happens normally on such occasions? The speaker yells at the top of their voice, thinking that yelling will troubleshoot the fault and make the connection better! This act of shouting, which is often a nuisance for others, is called ‘yellular’. When you see someone does it, you can say, ‘he’s going yellular’.

More examples:

1) My Bengali roommate goes yellular whenever she talks to her parents who live in some remote village in West Bengal.

2) Tom: “Hey, why are you screaming through your cell phone?”

Jerry: “It’s a terrible line, buddy. So I’m trying my yellular technology!”

3) After disturbing our sleep by snoring aloud the whole night, he went yellular at 5 o’ clock in the morning.

4) Stop going yellular and try to call her back after some time.

KITCHEN CABINET

Becoming the premier or president of a country is one of the most ambitious and shining jobs in the world. But at the same time, while having been elected by the people in a democratic republic, such high profile leaders have to make very important decisions on various issues during their tenure in power to win the hearts of the citizens. And these decisions should also be wise enough to please the media and most importantly to silence the opposition.

In most of the cases, the head of a State does not make the decisions themselves. Rather, he or she consults a small group of people who are very close to them. This highly confidential group of people is called a ‘kitchen cabinet’. These unofficial advisors are not often politicians but the premiers implicitly trust them.

Why does the head of a state turn to kitchen cabinet for advice rather than depending on his own official cabinet? Perhaps, because the official cabinet consists of politicians – a species who are not meant to be trusted even if they belong to your own party!

The origin of the phrase ‘kitchen cabinet’ dates back to 1830s when Andrew Jackson was the President of the USA. Whenever an important decision had to be made, he would turn to three of his close friends whom he trusted the most. But the most interesting fact is that Jackson always let these decision makers enter the White House through the kitchen door as he did not want the media, the other ministers or the public to know the secret of ‘his’ decisions. It is also believed that most of their meetings took place in the kitchen – an activity that gave birth to a new phrase in English, 'kitchen cabinet'!

Today’s media also use a few other expressions to mean the same; ‘think tank’ and ‘brain trust’ being the most widely used ones.

So the next time your country’s premier or president is applauded for his people-friendly decisions, you can imagine how they made it possible!

What does 'Adidas' mean?

Adolf Dassler was the younger of the two sons of a German cobbler. He is better known as the founder of ‘Adidas’, the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world, after its American rival ‘Nike’. Adidas is head quartered in Germany. The brand name ‘Adidas’ is a modified term made up of the brand owner’s name: ‘Adi’ and ‘Das’. ‘Adi’ was the nickname of Adolf Dassler.

Soon after Adi started his home-based shoe manufacturing business in 1920, his brother Rudolf Dassler also joined him as a partner.

The original name of the company was Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). But when the elder brother split up with Adi few years later due to political and personal reasons, he renamed the brand 'Adidas'.

Today, Adidas develops revolutionary products for six sports: swimming, track & field, cycling, fencing, weightlifting and wrestling besides manufacturing bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, perfumes and other sports and clothing-related goods. Do you know that other familiar brands ‘Reebok’ and ‘Rockport’ are also the subsidiaries of Adidas?

TEXTUAL SATISFACTION!

What is the first thing you do immediately after coming out of a building in which the cell phone use is strictly prohibited? Or when you leave your boss’s cabin after an hour’s serious meeting with him? Perhaps the same thing that I do – taking out the mobile phone from the pocket impatiently and checking if I have any sms or missed calls!

And when you find that you had a few interesting messages or missed calls, you feel happy and you can’t hide the flash of smile on your face. You feel thrilled to see that someone was missing you when you were busy or unable to use the phone. Especially if the text messages/missed calls were from your beloved ones, you might feel ecstatic!

This feeling of satisfaction that you get when you realize that someone was missing you is called ‘textual satisfaction’. Notice the rhyming of the phrase with another well known term ‘sexual satisfaction’. Though the adjective ‘textual’ is related to text messages, the new coinage ‘textual satisfaction’ is now widely used to refer to the satisfaction from both sms and missed calls.

In this era of online social networking, the term is also used by many people to refer to the glimmer of happiness that you get when you see a good number of notifications, messages, comments or friend requests on such sites as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut etc.

Do you know how much ‘textual satisfaction’ I get when I see a few precious comments by you on my blog? Indescribable!

Dictionary attack! Time to change your PASSWORD!

Dictionary attack refers to a particular method of breaking into a password-protected computer or server. This is the easiest and most favourite method of attack used by hackers all over the world to steal the passwords. As the very name ‘dictionary attack’ suggests, dictionary is the weapon with which the hacker attacks your password-protected system or server. It is also used for stealing the passwords of your email ID or social networking site accounts.

Now, you might think how a dictionary can be used as a weapon to steal a password. It is an undeniable fact that the majority of the individuals and organizations with an email ID uses a dictionary word as their passwords; perhaps you too! The reason is that dictionary words are precise and easy to remember. In simple terms, dictionary attack is the method of trying every word in a dictionary as a possible password of your computer, server, email ID etc. Years ago this kind of attack was very boring and time consuming for the attackers as they had to guess the password by manually typing each dictionary word one by one. But now the situation has changed; expert hackers have developed computer programs which can automatically generate and try all the dictionary words within the blink of an eye.

Therefore, it is high time that you changed your easy-to-remember password which is found in a dictionary especially an English dictionary. You can, however, bypass the dictionary attack by keeping an alpha-numeric password i.e. a combination of words and numbers along with a few symbols which are difficult to guess. If you want to be highly immune to such attacks, try to personalize your password by using a long meaningless jumble of letters and numerals which cannot be found in any dictionary in the world.

An extra piece of advice: never use the names or nicknames of your dear and near ones as your password, nor the date of birth, telephone number, vehicle number or reversed spelling of your own name because, besides hackers, even those who are closer to you might guess your password simply out of curiosity to peep into your valuable and highly confidential personal data!

Is the word 'PEOPLES' completely wrong? 'No...'

'People' is a word that a number of speakers of other languages misuse when they speak in English. Many of them, knowingly or unknowingly, use ‘peoples’ where ‘people’ must be used.

The word ‘people’ is a plural term, whose singular form is ‘person’. When you talk about human beings in general, you must use the term people. For example, it is incorrect to say, ‘I don’t like the peoples who talk a lot’. The sentence should be ‘I don’t like people who talk a lot’.

However, you cannot say that the word ‘peoples’ is totally meaningless or non-existent in English. When you use the word ‘peoples’ you are referring to several groups of people and each group shares a common culture e.g. ‘his latest book is about the varied peoples of West Africa’. The native peoples of Canada and their problems. In such sentences both ‘people’ and ‘peoples’ are correct. The latter is generally used where emphasis is necessary.