Indian English

Indian English "I have a doubt" to mean "I have a question".

This is can be very confusing to us non-Indian English speakers: I've seen emails where the Indian author says "I have a doubt about your research paper."  To an American English speaker this sounds like "I suspect there is a problem with your research paper," which is way different than their intended meaning, that they merely have a question.10 Comments • Share • 21 Jul

    Pushpendra Mohta, Myself, Push.2292 votes by Farhat Habib, Florence Lowe, Navin Kabra, (more)Let me revert back to you on the same after I have done the needful. I will be out of station this weekend as my cousin niece is passing out from college. All her mugging and all the coaching classes paid off for her I guess. The ceremony is at a hill station. It will be good time pass.  It is also my native place so all our near and dears will be there. Definitely worth using up all my casual leaves.

Soon, her mother will be looking for a suitable boy as she is of marriageable age.  Unfortunately, her father expired recently. Her mother wants a foreign-returned or NRI bridegroom. Someone convent-educated from a status-family. Wheatish complexion highly desirable. Caste no bar. But, my niece says she will be going for a love marriage only. I think she likes her lecturer. Issueless, innocent divorcee. Sorry case. Long story. Her mother says that will be a big nose-cut for the family. She wants an arranged marriage. She refuses to discuss about it. She has already put in a matrimonial in the leading dailies.

But I am suggesting my niece to seriously give the GMAT and CAT papers instead. Because, see, there I am having no pull and we can not afford the capitation fees for the private colleges. And nil chance of paper leaking and the invigilators are very strict. But she says her chance of getting in is too less. But I say, always some chance is there, no?

My niece is having PG-accommodation only so I will be putting up at the Taj hotel. Although, the staff there acts very pricey. But more better to avoid dicey food and the loose motions, and the gentry there is good only.  Their mutton curry is majorly tender.  Fresh baby goats. Order with curd. Portion size is too huge so we always order one into two. Plus, never any load-shedding. Cent percent full value. Why take tension? It is bang opposite to the airport. One just has to cross the flyover. Ask anyone for directions if you are having your own conveyance, but the auto-wallahs and taxi-wallahs who ply there are knowing it very well. It is easier to find a parking slot if you enter from the backside. All the Page 3 type people go there. Last time I was staying there, I met a Bollywood starlet. Very tip-top. Her item numbers are heavenly. I had a good mind to.. ok,ok, no non-veg jokes.

As it turns out, the manager there is also my college batchmate. You can use my connection there. Just give your good name. We were both backbenchers but he was actually rusticated for ragging and bunking. The final straw was when he was caught eve-teasing the dean's daughter. But, he did some jugaad and palm greasing, and got himself a license to manufacture Indian-made foreign liquor. Rags to riches story. Now he is a mover and shaker. For a while he was

under the scanner of the IT authorities and they chargesheeted a disproportionate-asset case against him. I think he may have been doing some hawala transactions. The whole official machinery was after him.  He tried to file a grievance but there was no redressal mechanism for such cases. Ultimately, he went on an indefinite fast. Some local politicians and godmen came to his rescue as he is also from the same minority community. Vote bank politics. Soon the whole city was in a bandh. Hartaals every day. Even on gazetted holidays. Miscreants took advantage of the situation and it spiraled out of control. The police ordered a lathi charge. Then there was air firing. Many MLAs defected. The assembly was adjourned every session. President's rule was imposed in the state after many ultimatums by the high command. Finally there was some seat-sharing agreement and the impasse was resolved. After that he was given a clean chit. The CM even held a felicitation function for him. Many many VVIPs. Of course, at the very same Taj.  Later that CM was caught up in the 2G telco scam. Too good, yes?

That reminds me, I should get my pre-paid converted to post-paid to make sure there is no hassle with roaming. The operator tells me that under the current scheme roaming is free but always the possibility for screwup is there. But the paperwork for updation is too great. Every time wanting same to same KYC. Limited timings, phones always engaged, very much difficult. They trouble you like anything but never answer any of your doubts. Tell me, what is one to do yaar? They are like that only.

I need to prepone some meetings to arrange for the trip so I need to rush due to the same, but not to worry,  I will keep you initimated of my progress. Will give you a missed call when I deplane upon returning back.

p.s.

Hope your head is not paining, I didn't mean to eat your brains. I will offer a translation in a few days. Now it's time to slow the volume, increase the AC, and off the light because sleep is coming. Kindly to stay in tune.104+ Comments • Share (50) • 15 Jul

    Mayank Kapoor, Seeker1550 votes by Suhrud Bilolikar, Sumeet Singh Sarna, Shivam Thapar, (more)This is a bit of English with mathematics.

When we were made to learn multiplication tables, this is how it went .. (Mono tone)2 2 za 42 3 za 62 4 za 8 ..2 5 za 10 .... and so on ..

I always wondered what in the world is "za"

It was later i realized what they actually meant

2 2s are 42 3s are 6 ...51+ Comments • Share (8) • 21 Nov

    Radhika Malik 347 votes by Craig Heile, Sripradha Iyer, Shrikanth Shetty, (more)When I first came to the US 4 years ago for college, I asked one of my classmates if he had a "rubber" (which in India refers to an eraser) without realizing that I had just asked someone that I barely knew whether he had a condom.10+ Comments • Share • 5 Dec

    Nishita Agarwal 141 votes by Anon User, Amey Dharwadker, Stephanie Kaye Turner, (more)Although Indianism encompasses enough to brag itself as an entire school of study, some of our terms stand out as classics:

Prepone: An indigenous contribution to the English language, this is the word we use, to schedule things ahead of time. Can we pre-pone our trip to this week?

Gymming: In-house version of 'Working out'. Have you been gymming lately? Taking Tension: Same as getting tense. You've been taking a lot of tension from office. Out of station: A blast from the past. Native version of the 'I am not in town' routine.

Sorry I can’t see you, I’m out of station for the weekend Good name: A step-brother to the Hindi version of 'shubh naam', it's common if you hear

people you've just met saying 'What is your good name, son?'

I guess a lot of these arise due to their parallel translations in Hindi (as with 'taking tension' and 'good name') or as an extrapolation of the existing English language rules (as with 'prepone').5+ Comments • Share • 14 Jul

    Anurag Mishra, Should have something catchy here235 votes by Florence Lowe, Shalin Shah, Mohak Gambhir, (more)We are like that only.7 Comments • Share (1) • 15 Jul

    Farhat Habib, Indian113 votes by Rashmi Singh, Nikhil Garg, Rishi Kumar, (more)Myself xxx - beginning of introduction of oneself

good name - literal translation of 'shubh naam'

dearness allowance

hill station

wheatish complexion

lakhs, crores, etc.

'into' for multiplication

Adding 'no' at the end of a sentence or request, e.g. 'you will join us for the movie, no'9+ Comments • Share • 14 Jul

    Mohak Gambhir, Conceived, born, brought up in India501 votes by Sundeep Kumar, Sripradha Iyer, Neeraj Agrawal, (more)

Indians don't take tests, they give tests They don't find connections, they find pulls Emails are usually replied to with, aboves and belows People are not our relatives, we are in relation to them We can interchange 'have, has, had' very comfortably Most Indian cars don't have boots, they have 'dickys' The barber doesn't cut hair, but hairs Sunglasses are so out of fashion, goggles are in! When we have to say yes, we nod our head and say no Men with great bodies don't wear sleeveless, but cut-sleeve shirts

(Edit) Bonus round at 3:15am:

As per discussion, please do needful when convenient to you. He had a baby, she is a girl I have the same shirt, it is same to same I think she likes you, but has a lot of ego We don't like to chew gum, we like to eat chewing gum We've never been to places, they have gone/went to places We thank someone for their effort, and get a 'mention not' in return Hey? Are you not having any pizza-shizza?

Even more (we are like this only):

Our obsession with foreign land, sends the dead 'heavenly abroad' Chinese dishes invented in India include, chicken manchurian

If it gets too noisy, Indians can turn the volume slow Can't move forward in an email-reply? please revert back asap

Another Batch:

People going to the same school are called batchmates Please leave me a voicemail, if my phone is engaged If my phone is busy, please leave behind a voicemail

Update 23rd July, conversations with friends:

Me: Killer jam. Friend1: Traffic's smooth, won't take long. (yesterday) Me: Raining in GK. Friend2: No rain on my side. (earlier today)

A climatic update on 09th August:

Its too hot, please put the AC on full speed The weather is humid, so I sent him by bus I did not went to any hillstations this year He is a shopkeeper, he sells AC's, air-cooler's and apostrophe's In the next one month, the hot weather would pass away

21+ Comments • Share (9) • 16 Jul

    Ankush Saxena, Indian23 votes by Rohan Mehta, Utkarsh Desai, Ankita Das, (more)A lot of them, actually. Some of them might have been mentioned here already, I didn't go through all the answers here, there are an awful lot of them! SO, getting to the question now -

1. Years back - "I purchased this house years back."2. Backside entrance - "You may use the backside entrance whenever you come late."3. Repetitions! - "Eat slowly slowly", "The sky is so blue blue today"4. Kindly revert - Revert means to return to a previous state. Here, it is often used as a

synonym for reply. "Kindly revert at the earliest"5. Revert back - In the light of the previous explanation, doubly damning ;) "I hope you

will revert back soon"6. Better half - "I'm sorry, but my better half is currently staying at her mother's place"7. Return back - "Please return this book back to me as soon as possible"8. Doing the needful - "Please do the needful when you can"9. Order for - "Lets order for dinner soon, else it will be late"10. Out of station - "I am out of station at the moment and will be back after 2 days."11. Discuss about - "Lets discuss about the chapter you read yesterday"

12. Do one thing - "Do one thing, remind me about it a couple of hours later"13. Passing out - "I passed out of school last year"14. Prepone - "We can prepone the meeting if he is unavailable later"15. Good name - "May I have your good name please?"16. Take tension - "You don't need to take any tension about work, I will handle it till you

are better"17. Cousin brother/sister - "I met my cousin brother last month at a cafe"18. A few random but common ones -

"She is here only" "He himself did the work" (No kidding?) "I am loving it" (No thanks to McDonald's for promoting this one!) "I had a terrific headache" (Really? You probably want to have it again then, I guess!) "You did the work, no?" "He performs a lot of charities" "Please don't interrupt in-between the meeting"

Whew, I'm exhausted. I hope that compiling this stuff hasn't affected my English. This is stuff I have been listening to since years back. I will try to add more later, sleep is coming now. Please feel free to add comments, I will revert back surely.;)2 Comments • Share • 30 Dec

    Prince Mukka, You aren’t wealthy until you have som... (more) 715 votes by Shrikanth Shetty, Aryaman Fasciati, Zahid Ghadialy, (more)Indian : I passed out from IITAmerican : I graduated from MIT

Indian : My uncle expiredAmerican : My uncle passed away

Indian : I am shifting to Mumbai. I will live there only.American : I am moving to Newyork

Indian : Do you have a stephnyAmeridcan: Do you have a spare tire

Indian : Too much stuff in dickyAmerican : Too much junk in trunk

Indian : How to change a punctured tire ?American : How to change a flat tire ?

Indian : Accelerate the car

American : Step on the gas

Indian : I am having loose motionsAmerican : I am having diarrhea

Indian : zebra crossingAmerican : Crosswalk

Indian : Nice cooling glasses yaarAmerican : Cool sunglasses Bro..Wat upp..!!

Indian : Do you like curdAmerican : Do you like yogurt

Indian : I am going to canteen American : I am going to cafeteria

Indian: I brought tiffin boxAmerican : I brough my lunch box

Indian : I love to time passAmerican : I love passing time

Indian : My mail id is xyz at the rate of yahoo dot co dot inAmerican: My email is xyz @ hotmail dot com

Indian: Mobile PhoneAmerican : Cell Phone

Indian: Bill pleaseAmerican: Check please

Indian : Skip classesIndian : Bunk classes

Indian : BrinjalAmerican : Egg plant

Indian : geasersAmerican: water heater

Indian : CommodAmerican: Toilet

Indian: Aluminium with an iAmerican: Aluminum

Indian : Tata, See youAmerican : Bye

Indian : purseAmerican : Wallet

Indian : Trial roomAMerican : Fitting room

Indian: Wind cheaterAmerican : Wind breaker

Indian : MarksAmerican : Grades

Indian : HousefullAmerican: Full house

Indian :BonnetAmerican : Hood

Indian: PetrolAmerican : Gas

Indian : Gear shiftAmerican : Shift stick

Indian: LorryAmerican : Truck

Indian: FaintedAmerican: Passed out

Indian: IntimateAmerican: Inform

Indian : Join dutyAmerican: Report to work

Indian: Straight awayAmerican : Right away

Indian : Wash upAmerican: Do the dishes

Indian : The line is engagedAmerican : I got a busy tone

Indian : SilencerAmerican : Muffler

Indian: WindscreenAmerican: Windshield

Indian: Air hostess (is hot) :)American : Flight attendant

Indian: FootpathAmerican :Sidewalk

Indian: Flyover American: Passover

Indian : Rajni KanthAmerican: Chuck Norris

I will get DISMISSED(Fired)  if i  TIMEPASS at OFFICE ;)...so THAT IS all for today. Namaste...(Back to work..ohh wait after this song..oh na na what is my name...)31+ Comments • Share (5) • 26 Jul

    Aishwarya Balwani, Student20 votes by Vivek Verma, Aneesha Govil, Tom Wills, (more)

You won't believe how many times I've seen this has happen! It never fails to amuse me!

Person 1: You had a baby! Congratulations!Person 2: He's a baba,not a baby.

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this.If someone has,I've missed it.Obviously.Anyway,getting back to the question at hand.We Indians have a weird way of saying that we're not at fault and/or not responsible for a situation when we are accused of being so.For example:

Teacher : Pappu,why didn't you do your homework?Pappu : Miss/Mam I completed my homework last night.But I forgot it at home.Mother Promise!

Mother Promise is the literal translation of the very commonly used 'Maa Kasam' or 'Aai Shapath'. You see,we don't swear on our parents' graves. That would require them to be dead. This is so much more convenient! We don't cross our hearts and hope to die,because that would mean that we're putting ourselves in danger! Who would want to do that? We simply say 'mother promise'. Apparently something 'BAD' will happen to your mom if you make a false 'mother promise'. But we all know that that's not true.At times,we also use God Promise or Father  Promise.The hierarchy of the promises is something like this.God Promise >Mother Promise > Father PromiseGod promise is the ultimate. Because one does not take the Lord's name in vain. Get it? Then comes the Mother Promise. It's used most often. And then,we have the Father promise. I yet don't know why exactly we give the mother promise more importance than the father promise.That's just the way it is.

The term cheatercock in place of cheat.For example:

Kid 1:You know,he cheated during the cricket match! He didn't walk off even though he was out!Kid 2: That boy is such a cheatercock!

At times cheatercock can also be used as an adjective3 Comments • Share (1) • 19 Dec

    Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India144 votes by Tom Wills, Vishal Garg, Zahid Ghadialy, (more)I am an MBA (thats the forth state of matter, for Indians!)

I am caught up in a traffic jam! (oh thats terrible!)

Lets meet today evening (as you say, sir!)

Deude - how are you (I am good, dude, how are you!)

Has the electricity come? (It came, but the door was locked, so it went back!)

Lets sit in the drying room (Sure? Because I really wanted to check out your drawing room instead!)

Can you revert back on email? (Sure? Reverting back would mean the mail will come back to me!)

Have you come by walking? (Sorry, what!?)

Your good self? (Thats 3 words that dont make any sense together)

Myself, Ankur Warikoo (Good to meet yourself)4 Comments • Share (1) • 28 Jul

    Norm Soley, annoying hack9 votes by Sameer Gupta, Hemalatha Kamaraj, Chandra Mohan, (more)One I keep hearing in my business is "fresher" for a new graduate looking for a job or someone just newly hired in their first job. Has a totally different meaning in the UK and is not used at all in North America.2+ Comments • Share • 19 Jul

    Witold Chrab 12 votes by Tom Wills, Shrikanth Shetty, Mohit Agrawal, (more)A lot of Indian Restaurants are called Hotels.

Talk about being disappointed when you drive down a road at night, hoping to find a place, you see a big "Hotel" sign, only to discover they only serve food there.Share • 15 Sep

    Bhasker Kode, Recent entrepreneur,♥ text ∩ tech46 votes by Stephen McInerney, Prathamesh Dalvi, Harish Mallipeddi, (more)"Iron man"referring to the man in the neighborhood who irons

"Running hot water"A boy, running with hot water. Made famous by the Indian Movie Kahaani (2012 Movie)

by Яachel caЯbonell3+ Comments • Share • 19 Nov

    Aparna Singh, A would be Engineer. And Blogger.9 votes by Kamal Gaur, Murtaza Aliakbar, Niranjan Uma Shankar, (more)"Weightage"An Indian-English term used widely throughout the country.2+ Comments • Share • 10 Dec

    Vinati Singh, I grew up here.6 votes by Shobhit Khinvasara, Murtaza Aliakbar, Girish Malkarnenkar, (more)My two favorites:

-'Adjust kar lo na' or 'Please adjust'. Can be used anywhere from currying special treatment in small matters to extreme encroachment. I've heard hilarious stories of people sitting in crowded, hot, dusty long distance buses and some stranger feels perfectly okay with climbing onto their laps. Any protest is met with, 'Adjust kar lo na'.

-'We are like this only'. Loose translation- 'Hey, that's how we roll', except used as liberally as 'adjust kar lo na'.

Every Indian should get a tattoo that says, 'We are like this only. Adjust kar lo na'.1+ Comments • Share • 29 Jan

    Priyanka Pani 8 votes by Kamal Gaur, Krishna Pramod, Achal Varma, (more)ONE TIGHT SLAP. Indian parenting swears by the healing power of 2-3 of these to handle rowdy offspring. Said offspring usually goes on to CRACK every exam known to mankind.Rarely used elsewhere with good reason, especially in Norway.1 Comment • Share • 28 Dec

    Ramesh Ganapathy, Marketer, Internet Addict, Music Love... (more) 8 votes by Niranjan Uma Shankar, Kamal Gaur, Nancy Maria, (more)A few specific examples. Almost all Indians have said this sometimes in their lives. Including me.

The ah question - questions starting with have you

"You are going home ah?" "You have seen Hobbit ah?"

The and-all - generalizing

"You and all don't know anything"

The you-itself - please do it yourself

"Go outside and get some milk""I am tired. You itself do it."

The me-only - instead of saying it's me.

"Who is inside?""Me only mom"

The wont-come-for : not feasible, usually for some amount of money

"Auto won't come for 50 rupees sir""Xerox won't come for 30 paise for 10 copies"

The this-is-not argument: unnecessary and invalid usually

 "Auto won't come for 50 sir. This is not Kochi""Chennai is always hot. This is not Bangalore""Driving will always be bad in India. This is not the US"

We can probably think of a lot more if you try to spot funny and incorrect slangs from across India.

On a general note, please share your opinions here : Does grammar really matter if meanings and messages can be conveyed without it?Share • 27 Dec

    Arjun Krishnan, Indian33 votes by Rama Pokkunuri, Janani Ravi, Astha Garg, (more)

Prepone -  bring something forward to an earlier date or time; used as an antonym of ‘postpone’ [in place of 'advance'].

Club - merge things together. Loose motion - diarrhoea. Stepney - spare tire. [Interestingly, like Dalda (for any hydrogenated vegetable oil) and

Sabena (for any dish-washing powder), Stepney is a proprietary eponym (a trademark or a brand name -- 'Stepney Spare Motor Wheel' in this case -- that has become a generic name).]

8+ Comments • Share (1) • 14 Jul

    Akshatha Hegde, a metaphorical juggler7 votes by Sumanth Prasad, Abhishek Gandhi, Mopur Aditya, (more)Off the top of my head, the interchangeability of 'marriage' and 'wedding'. Exhibit A: "Mr. and Mrs. S. Patel solicit your presence on the occassion of their son's marriage."

 Propose: To ask a woman/man out on a dateNightie: A woman's night gownBar Soap: A bar of soapCheck out www.samosapedia.com for the entire list. ROFL-worthy!2 Comments • Share • 16 Jul

    Sripradha Iyer, Champ of anything tasty17 votes by Mohak Gambhir, David Urquhart, Chandra Mohan, (more)In addition to the ones that have been mentioned.

Saying plastic "cover" instead of bag. Boarding and Lodging instead of Board and Lodging Strong preference to using present continuous tense instead of simple present. For

example: My head is hurting instead of "my head hurts". Saying "I came by walk" instead of "I came on foot". Using "return" and "back" in the same sentence as in " I'll return back from Singapore on

Monday". Bonus satire: http://thelocalteaparty.com/post...

1 Comment • Share • 15 Jul

    Saurabh Odhyan, Indian13 votes by Anon User, Anurag Mishra, Eeshan Malhotra, (more)Extensive list on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ind...

Same discussion going on Reddit. Not sure if the same person asked the question here too  http://www.reddit.com/r/linguist...2 Comments • Share • 15 Jul

    Chaitanya Raskar 6 votes by Bala Senthil Kumar, Mani Kanth Kasula, Vikram Purohit, (more)You are going naa? It means “are you going?”

Generally, it happens in India that people use “naa” in the end of the sentence,to intend that sentence as a question.

"Understood naa?"1 Comment • Share • 7 Jan

Vivek Verma, Quoran #4455477 . Dealt a good hand :D9 votes by Joy Emma Cundy, Sandeep Eskees, Mohit Agrawal, (more)Juicebox is known as Frooti (A particular brand that got famous) in India.

1+ Comments • Share • 27 Oct

    Ramakrishnan Parthasarathy, In one or more embodiments7 votes by Tom Wills, Achal Varma, Angeline Bhavya, (more)The frequent use of "only."

Customer: Sir, when will my suit be ready?

Tailor: Today is Tuesday only. I told you that it would be ready on Wednesday only.

The Indianness of interrogative questions is a riddle in itself. "Only" is just seasoning.

"Didn't I call you that day?"

can be turned into:

"I called you that day only no?"

If you don't get the Indian expression of exasperation that goes along with it, you may interpret it as "I called you that day. No?"Share • 13 Oct

    Ankita Das, Lawyer, budding chef, future owner of... (more) 5 votes by Vivek Verma, Saurabh Shah, Dwarkanath Prabhu, (more)I remember there was a show called "Just Mohabbat"which aired on Sony sometime in the late 90s. People started using "fy" after every single hindi word after that. For e.g., marofy, chepofy, karofy, etc.2 Comments • Share • 28 Dec

    Bala Senthil Kumar, Curious humanitarian at large.6 votes by Abhinav Rajagopalan, Vivek Verma, Murtaza Aliakbar, (more)1. In Tamilnadu, a fiance or a fiancee is a "would be".  For example, "This is XXX, my would be" is a perfectly acceptable introduction.  I always ask "Would be what?" if I know the person well.

2. "I am one of the member" - some Indians for some reason can never get why they can't be one of a singular tribe!

3.  This is old fashioned now, but people in India used to add "and oblige" at the end of any letter of request.  For example, "Kindly grant us leave and oblige".

Of all English users in the world that I have come across, nobody has as much confidence in its wrong usage as Indians.  Screw the queen, we own her bloody language - we can do whatever we want with it!

This essay should highlight my point:

A funny Essay from Indian UPSC examsShare • 29 Dec

    Abhinay Patil, Curious4 votes by Vaagdevi Ravishankar, Kiran Chincholi, Anshuman Agnihotri, and Nawfal Hasan"Hey look! Rain is coming".I heard this many times in my school.Share • 8 Jan

    Zahid Ghadialy, Knowledge seeker, Problems fixer, Tra... (more) 37 votes by Anon User, Arindam Mukherjee, Chandra Mohan, (more)10 classic Indianisms

1. 'Passing out': When you complete your studies at an educational institution, you graduate from that institution. You do not "pass out" from that institution.

2. 'Kindly revert': One common mistake we make is using the word revert to mean reply or respond. Revert means "to return to a former state."

3. 'Years back': If it happened in the past, it happened years ago, not "years back."

4. 'Doing the needful': Try to avoid using the phrase "do the needful." It went out of style decades ago, about the time the British left. “Will you do the needful?”

5. 'Discuss about': You don't "discuss about" something; you just discuss things. The word "discuss" means to "talk about". There is no reason to insert the word "about" after "discuss."

6. 'Order for': "Hey, let’s order for a pizza." When you order something, you "order" it, you do not "order for" it.

7. 'Do one thing': "Do one thing" is a phrase that does not make sense. It is an Indianism. It is only understood in India. It is not proper English. It is irritating. There are better ways to begin a reply. And worst of all, any person who starts a sentence with "do one thing" invariably ends up giving you at least five things to do.

8. 'Out of station': Another blast from the past, this one, and also, extremely outdated. What's wrong with "out of town" or "not in Mumbai" or my favorite "I'm not here"?

9. The big sleep: "I’m going to bed now, sleep is coming." While a fan of anthropomorphism, I do have my limits. "Sleep is coming" is taking things a bit too far.

10. 'Prepone': “Let’s prepone the meeting from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m.” "Prepone" is probably the most famous Indianism of all time; one that I’m proud of, and that I actually support as a new entry to all English dictionaries. We don’t have the time to say silly things like "could you please bring the meeting forward." Prepone it is.

Source: http://www.cnngo.com/mumbai/life...7 Comments • Share • 16 Jul

    Aneesha Govil, a new-found joy-maker and joy-seeker,... (more) 2 votes by Yash Arora and Mohit Agrawal"Revert" for "Reply"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/0...

And another one - using "too" to mean "very" and not excessive with the negative connotation. E.g. The food at the restaurant was too good! That movie was just too funny!Share • 8 Dec

    Satyajeet Jadhav, positive6 votes by Sanika Joshi, Suhrud Bilolikar, Sandeep Eskees, (more)Timepass. There is no word like timepass. Saves the rest of the world a lot of time.Share • 27 Oct

    Keshav Mahendru, in no hurry to make it13 votes by Chandra Mohan, Madavapeddi Suman, Shiv Kapoor, (more)Hi-fiUsed to refer to the swish set.Used primarily in North India.Eg. All my friends are hi-fi.

L.S./Low class/Down Market/CheapoThe opposite of hi-fiI'm not sure what L.S. stands for (possibly, low society. IDK)Usage: All your friends are so LS. The dress looks to low class. She sounds so down market.

Joint FamilyA phenomenon where the extended family lives together, under one roof or in the same compound.Usage: I live in a joint family

Cousin sister/brotherfemale/male cousinUsage: I live in my joint family with my grandfather, 2 uncles, 2 aunties, 3 cousin sisters and 2 cousin brothers.

AuntyOlder female family friend, on rare occasions for distant relatives.Usage: Kamala aunty makes the best samosas and jalebis.

ColonyNeighborhoodUsage: I live in Defense Colony, getting to your place in Gurgaon will take me 3 hours in this jam.

JamA bad traffic situationUsage: The road is completely jammed with three-wheelers.

Three-wheelersA popular alternative to taxis in Indian metrosUsage: The three-wheeler union is on strike today.

Halfpants and LongpantsShorts and trousersUsage: Up to class 10 all boys have to wear halfpants to school and after that they are allowed to wear longpants.

Specs/Goggles/ShadesEyewear (Specs is schort for specticles)Usage: I broke my specs while playing basketball.

Most definitely Quite certainlyUsage: You will most definitely not get a refund for the expired Diet Coke I sold to you yesterday.

Toilet/LooBathroomUsage: The public toilet was so stinky, that I had to pee really quickly!

For FreeUsed in place of free of charge. Usage: I got my pen for free.

BillCheckUsage: Waiter, please bring the bill.

BathCould mean anything from showering to an bubble bathUsage: The best bath I have ever had has been under my neighbor's shower.

ServantDomestic helpUsage: 23 servants work at my home.

DriverChaufferUsage: (On the phone) Driver bhayya! Give me a missed call when you reach Chirag Dilli flyover.

Missed CallCalling on the mobile phone and hanging up before the person has a chance to take the call. This is done to prevent incurring a charge as incoming calls are free on Indian cell phones. (I know, thank god for competitive markets!)Usage: Pranav gave me a missed call, what a cheapo.

FlyoverA bridge for cars over a busy crossing. Constructed to ease bottle neck and traffic situations, usually with little avail. Very common in New Delhi.

Gobar-gasUsed to refer to the gaseous fuel that is obtained by composting cow dung, known as gobar in India.Usage: the gobar-gas plant that is coming up in this locality will surely drive the real-estate prices down.

Increase the AC/On the lightsLower the temperature on the airconditioner's thermostat.Usage: Increase the AC, man. It's 48 degrees celcius outside.

Parkingparking lot/parking lotUsage: Driver bhayya! Where are you? I have been waiting in the parking for last 5 minutes!

God Bless

God bless you (a kind of blessing)Usage: Young boy bends down and touches his grandmother's feet.Grandmother: Gaad bless!

BossUsed liberally to refer to anyone from a cab driver and your best friend to your supervisor at work (Not used the way in the sarcastic sense in which it is often used in the US or in the sense equivalent to the use of the word 'Beast')

Other than that, generally mixing up the pronunciation of 'w' sounds and 'v' sounds and the use of metric units.

I'll add more as I come across them.Share • 15 Jul

    Lee Hanxue, Application Specialist and now entrep... (more) 4 votes by Vasant Tiwari, Shree Patwardhan, Shikhar Swarup, and Suresh SubramaniamLet's pre-pone the meeting from next Friday to next TuesdayShare • 22 Jul

    Aparna Chugh, I believe in laughter.7 votes by Prateek Goyal, Murtaza Aliakbar, Sudeep Agarwal, (more)My friend mentioned her 'shady' boyfriend.

I was wondering why she is with him until I met the sweet guy and realized he was only dusky.Share • 26 Dec

    Shikhar Swarup 3 votes by Vivek Verma, Sanjay Mehrotra, and Mridul Kapoor"Halt-hukamdar"(Holt-hu-cum-dur)

This was a commonly used phrase by guards, policemen and soldiers and still is with many in the capital region but we don't really notice it much. It is used whenever some car is crossing a barricade or entering guarded premises. The guards/soldiers would say this often as every car approached.

It was later discovered that this phrase originated from the British rule times when guards were instructed to always stop the vehicle or person by saying the phrase "Halt! Who comes there?" and the generations of mispronunciation turned it into the 'Halt-hukumdar'

Share • 27 Dec

    Sumeet Maniar 3 votes by Dharmesh Sheta, Mopur Aditya, and Vipul YadavHaving lived in many countries the answer is quite systematic (unless the question is rhetorical)

(1) regional isolation - this will have less of an impact with global communications becoming rampant.  The British left India with their Victorian/Georgian English.  Many of those phrases stayed within India.  If we want to study mid-19th Century Gujarati communities it's best to visit East Africa, and then early 20th Century Guju ones - go to South Africa.  Those people held on to the culture when they left India not realizing that the the home culture advances on it is own.  Similarly things have happened between England and its crown colonies (Commonwealth).  In Australia I find some expressions common to India/England but not the US.  Likewise, Australia has its own terms.  Good day - while common, is just an off shoot of the common German Guten tag, which is another way of saying hello.  In UK they do not say it as oft,but that was the case when those Crown settlers came down under.  They held on to what they knew or know.

(2) local bastardization or to say it nicely, local interpretations.  This is because India has so many native tongues the confluence of both English and its Indo-European counterparts in India allow for many creative expressions in India to be created where Indian thinking is applied to English expressions, etc. .  Same came be  said for Singapore English (Singlish).  Or one can say the same for Malaysian English where they add a la at the end of every sentence. The Canadian colloquial, eh is a more exposed terms that Americans can understand but used in the same manner.  One takes an exam in America, but in India one writes an examination.  The latter is probably more proper English (how can one really "take" an exam?) Is the term xerox now a common English word?  To most Indians it would be.

(3) natural evolution.  Listen to the style of English spoken in 1940s and 1950s American tv or movies.  The style is slightly different than what we speak.  As with all cultures, languages evolve.  So, Indian English (which is one of the seven official versions of English), has its own evolution. Similarly British English is much different than what is was say 100 or 200 years ago.  Hence, Indian English is also evolving.

What is probably holding the above three back is now the Internet and effectively Hollywood American English.  Ask most people in the world when they want to learn English - they wish to speak American English. With the internet age upon us, I do not think there will be much evolution of the above three. Hence, this will keep the above three from not drifting too far and becoming distinct languages on their own.EditShare • 26 Jul

    Sudipto Hazra 6 votes by Abhinav Rajagopalan, Mohammad Nisar, Jay Bhukhanwala, (more)My all time favourites We are Indian, and so is our English!Share • 21 Feb

    Arvind Pai, continuous random variable3 votes by Paul Stockley, Vivek Verma, and Nawfal HasanIndia this is. Here English is talked like this only. :PShare • 31 Dec

    Mahesh Narayanan, Just another curious guy3 votes by Nitin Sharma, Abhinav Saxena, and Munmun AhujaMost of us indian educated folks would have heard these in our school days. These two words that I could never follow for quite some time, were frequently used in an assembly, march past etc.. 

Pronunciation as below, with emphasis on the upper case bold letters :

ahTenSionStandaTease

Figured out later that these meant, "Attention" and "Stand at Ease"Share • 12 Mar

    Mohit Bagadia, Tester4 votes by Bala Senthil Kumar, Shailendra Kumar, Abhilash Dvr, and Keerthi Raj N1. Using many dots after a sentence.2. What is the rate of this product?3. do GOOGLEShare • 21 Jan

    Harsha Hulageri, lives in india2 votes by Arindam Mukherjee and David UrquhartPlease do needfulShare • 14 Jul

    Esme Vos, Entrepreneur, global nomad, internati... (more) 3 votes by Sameer Gupta, Sripradha Iyer, and Tom WillsTiffin: means lunch or snack. The British don't use this anymore but in India it is still in use. If you read Somerset Maugham's stories set in Singapore, you will see that he uses this word to mean lunch.Share • 25 Jul

    Jeewan Daniel, blogs at www.Yeeeeee.com5 votes by David Urquhart, Tarun Kumar, Chandra Mohan, (more)Petrol Bunk for Gas StationAre there any Petrol Bunks in this area?

Tee for T ShirtFlipkart has an amazing sale on Tee's

Uncle & Aunty used to speak with any elderly person, even if just metI have just arrived at a new town and would like to ask a gentleman an address, I say, "Uncle, can you please..."I visit a friend, his mother brings over some coffee, I say "Thanks Aunty"

Picture for FilmI call my friend, hey John, would you like to see a picture?

How much is the Time? for What time is it?

There are many more but these are the ones that instantly pop up to my mind.2+ Comments • Share • 16 Jul

    Faizan Bhat, Love to write.2 votes by Farhat Habib and Vipul YadavIndians tend to turn nouns and verbs into double-barrelled words. You may hear phrases such as 'car-var' and 'computer-schumputer', where each second word is simply a nonsensical rhyme word. This usually happens when Hindi is being spoken but the habit sometimes creeps into the local English dialect. Semantically the rhyme word is usually a synonym for 'etc.'Share • 19 Aug

    Akash Agrawal, A proud Indian2 votes by Sugavanesh Balasubramanian and Dev KhareTo get a sense please read the speech the British king will make twenty years later in London:

Dear brothers, sisters, uncle-jis, aunty-jis and respected  elders,

These are difficult times. The law and order situation is not good and goondas and other rowdy elements have been creating a lot of hungama. Not a week goes by without a bandh. Rasta-rokos and rail-rokos are common. On several occasions the police have had to resort to lathicharges. And this tamasha is happening not just here in London but also in the mofussil areas. Even bhadralok are nowadays taking part in this nonsense.

The economy is going down the nullah. Loadshedding is rampant. It is affecting all classes of society. Even we in the royal family have been affected, with my cousin sister, I will not tell you

her good name to respect her privacy, trying to sell her benami bungalow at her native place. It is a very exclusive property, sea-facing, only genuine buyers may contact, brokers excuse. My co-brother was telling me that he had never seen such tough times, although he had a love marriage with a girl from a very rich high status family, convent-educated. Of course, he did not marry for money, what attracted him was her wheatish complexion. But my point is that even they have lost crores of pounds in the economic recession and are now subsisting on curd rice, bidis and cutting chai, although she is carrying.

Our young people are unable to get into good colleges in spite of getting cent per cent marks, because of the high capitation fees. There are no job opportunities, so they just do timepass and chitchat and waste their time consuming alcohol and discoing and doing jhatkas and matkas to item numbers. They only want to act like heroes or heroines in masala films. The other day I was talking to a young person, an innocent divorcee who is somehow getting along by doing all kinds of jugaad and she told me how the social fabric of our great nation has deteriorated. Eve-teasing is going on all the time, roadside Romeos pass non-veg jokes and there is a lot of immoral traffic. She said the havildars only collect hafta. And the babus are of course completely useless, no?

You will be pleased to know that all these problems are the result of the policy paralysis of our earlier pseudo-secular government, 420 people who only cared about their vote bank. Thankfully, the former prime minister has taken sanyas. Now that we have a new government, that too headed by an eminent foreign-returned double post-graduate who has airdashed to London to take up his post, you need not take any tension.

My new government will ensure that the days of Aya Rams and Gaya Rams are over and we will do solid work to improve things. A lot of reforms are on the anvil and we will do our best to prepone them. Of course, there will be no big bang announcements, it is best to do these things slowly, from the backside. The improvement may take some time, so kindly adjust. We also propose to change the vaastu of the Parliament building immediately.

So it is time, my friends, to once again enjoy life and be bindaas.

I now announce the opening of the new Parliament session.

Jai Britain.

Copied from HT artcile: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Ne...Share • 6 Aug

    Vishal Lohia, student at BIT MESRA - CSE department2 votes by Abhishek Agrawal and Abhilash DvrIndian English                                         Standard EnglishBY WALK                                                   ON FOOTGOOD NAME                                               NAMEMARRIAGE                                                   WEDDINGBIO-DATA AND JACK                                RESUME AND APPROACH

GET DOWN                                                 GET OFFTIME IS OVER                                             TIME IS UPPIN DROP SILENCE                                   PERFECT/COMPLETE SILENCE1 Comment • Share • 10 Mar

    Ratna Sarkar 7 votes by Sripradha Iyer, Tom Wills, Niharika Marwah, (more)There are two types of marriages in India: an "arranged marriage" and its opposite, a "love marriage". Go figure.Share • 26 Jul

    Sohel Golwala 2 votes by Munmun Ahuja and Kamal Gaurin case of any doubt, please revert back to me.

the meaning of the word revert means to come back to a originial state. the statement is commonly used at the end of emails.Share • Fri

    Krish Narendran, Contra-Hip, Anti-Cool1 vote by Abhilash DvrPushpendra Mohta has covered almost everything so I can come up with 2 that cracks up people:

1. Do you have a fag for me?To an Indian, a fag is a cigarette but imagine the awkwardness when of my fresh off the boat colleagues used the above phrase to ask if he could borrow a cigarette from another colleague. For those who still don't get it... In the US the term 'fag' is a derogatory term for gays.

2. I passed out last yearPassing out is something Indians do all the time.... Because it means that you successfully graduated to the next level in schools and colleges. During interviews with my fellow panel members I had to explain that the candidates were not being knocked unconscious with alarming regularity, they were merely graduating to the next level.Share • 14 Feb

    Mehul Kamdar 2 votes by Neeraj Agarwal and Nandini BansalThere is a combination of factors here - Indian schools still teach the formal English that grammarians like Nesfield and Wren and Martin prescribed almost two centuries ago. In much of the rest of the word, the trend is to abandon several of the tenses described by these grammarians and to split sentences into shorter "American" style ones. You also have a lot of early 19th

century vocabulary still in use in India - "sleuths" for detectives, "scribes" for journalists and similar. In return, India gave the English language several words including "bungalow," and "catamaran."

In India, too, regional influences and local languages gave English several local flavors that are understood by Indians who can pinpoint what language a local twist on English comes from. These local influences affect accents, grammar and idioms in a way that has provided entertainment to both Indians and foreigners alike. Just read the verse that Nissim Ezekiel wrote (his poems "Soap" and "A Farewell to Miss Pushpa" come immediately to mind) or watch the Peter Seller act in the movie "Party" to enjoy stereotypes of various Indian accents.

And, if you're more academically inclined, there's an excellent book that describes the process by which the English language absorbed influences from different languages, and how it continues to evolve: "Grammar" by Frank Palmer. Palmer was the first grammarian to turn the old idea of prescriptive grammar on its head, and to promote the idea of "descriptive grammar" instead. Anyone interested in not just Indian English, but also the evolution of the many dialects and vernacular versions of the language would enjoy reading the book.1 Comment • Share • 26 Jul

    Thakur Mishra 8 votes by Chinmaya Chandan, Vivek Verma, Swetansu Mohapatra, (more)"I m suffering from fever" many people use(mostly students)...as if there is someone who enjoys fever1 Comment • Share • 18 Feb

    Sonal Chokshi, editor3 votes by Kamal Gaur, Mohit Agrawal, and Stephen McInerneyNot phrases per se but parts of phrase/ languagerisms:

saying 'fullstop' at end of pronouncements pluralizing things -- my mom calls Google "Googles" turning R's into V's -- so Ricky becomes Vicky adding 'the' in front of things where it doesn't belong -- for example, THE Gangnam

Style:

Share • 29 Dec

    Andrew William Pamperin, Tech Teacher4 votes by Roberto Lie, Prabhakar Anand, Tejaswi Lanka, and Gurdeep Kaur SoiCum1+ Comments • Share • 31 Jul

    Suhrud Bilolikar, Lived in England most of my life1 vote by Stephen McInerneyThe use of the word 'kindly' instead of 'please'Share • 29 Sep

    Adesh Sharma, Digital Marketing Strategist4 votes by Pushpendra Mohta, Mopur Aditya, Praneeth Pasumarthy, and Abhilash Dvrone i did not see here.. if it is a busy signal on phone, often use the word  'engaged'1 Comment • Share • 26 Jul

    Sanket Alekar, Thinker1 vote by Varun AthreyaThis is a wee bit ridiculous. Some of the phrases/words/expressions mentioned in the answers might be due to British influence, but a lot of them are just plain wrong. They aren't "English phrases", they are just word for word translations from Indian languages!Share • 15 Aug

    Ashutosh Nandeshwar 1 vote by Abhilash DvrAll from this great article: http://www.languageinindia.com/j...

This article explains the origins of various terms and argues convincingly that Indian English is quite different from British English.-------------------------

English-speaking classes convent-going cousin-brother and cousin-sister chalk-piece, key-bunch, meeting notice, age barred, and pindrop silence. litters, furnitures, and woods "One of my relative" "That movie was real time-pass." Enthusiasm is called enthu; "That guy has a lot of enthu." fundamentals, which is shortened as fundas "She knows her fundas." "He is fundu." adding -fy to a Hindi word to indicate that an action is being done to someone by

someone ILU = I Love You (from a song; pronounced ee-lu) Vowels which have been dropped by North American and British English speakers are

typically articulated by Indians. For example, typically is generally pronounced ti-pick-lee, but Indian English speakers will often say ti-pick-ah-lee.

A food grinder is simply called a mixi.

A square root is known as an under root. use less to indicate that something is insufficient -- "There is less salt in the curry. today morning  or yesterday night Shut up in Hindi is chup bet, which is generally used more casually (but which can be

used offensively as well). They do not realize the belittling, racial connotations that it carries with it -- for them it is

a simple translation of aap log or tum log. masala  film There is a seemingly arbitrary use of the articles a and the, which do not have parallels in

Hindi. "We are going to temple." "Come come! Sit sit!" hot, hot water and long, long hair "open the light" and "close the light." "Will you take tea?" keep instead of put:  "keep the ball there" "keep the ball back" "Shall I put the tape?" "I am doing it often" "Where are you coming from?"   instead of "Where have you come from?"; "She was having many sarees" rather than "She had many sarees "What you would like to eat?" and "Who you will come with?"

1 Comment • Share • 26 Jul

    Deepshikha Kothari 1 vote by Kamal GaurThrice

Everywhere else people say three times. My British friend refused to believe its an actual word and thought i had derived it from twice so I had to show him the dictionary!Share • 30 Jan

    Haran Shivanan, Been more or less living in India for... (more) 1 vote by Chandra MohanI'm surprised no one mentioned 'tiffin' - which is predominantly used in the south and roughly means "Any meal not involving rice".

"Nothing but" - used wherever one may use "basically" or "essentially" but more common in India than in other places.

The  use of 'I hope' as a substitute for 'I think'. As in:"The foo has to go before the bar. Is that how it currently works?""I hope so".1 Comment • Share • 19 Jul

    Anon User1 vote by Abhilash DvrThis answer talks of a childhood game which almost all regular indian must have played and how it was actually a combination of our english influence. Lukka Chippi (Hide and Seek)

Anyone, remember the term "Aais paayis" or "Aas paas" (depending on how you distorted it)

Well its actually a variant of "Eye Spies"-a purely english word.

P.S. Noone wants to agree to this fact, and we still love to play 'aais paayis' in our own style, because thats Indian ! :)1 Comment • Share • 27 Dec

    Abhinav Raghavan, Electrical and Electronics Engineer1 vote by Murtaza AliakbarHere are few that I've come across :

"slowly slowly" used as ' slowly slowly you will begin to understand'"lady's finger"-- I guess it's called okra in most countries other than India."copy"-- People commonly refer to a notebook as a copy!Share • Sat

    Sarayu Srinivasan, VC3 votes by Pushpendra Mohta, Mopur Aditya, and Raveen S. NathanIn addition to "will do/do the needful," "will revert back" it was "please adjust". After several years on the ground in India, this was one of the phrases I heard over and over and OVER again. For everything. Usually with a figure eight head nod thrown in which could mean "please", "yes?", "no" or really anything else under the sun. Please adjust was the answer I heard, for example, from the driver who showed up to pick me up one hour late for an event I was a keynote speaker at, from payroll when I discovered my salary had been miscalculated for months, and from the salon that burned my head with the blow dryer nearly every week.2 Comments • Share • 26 Jul

    Niranjan Mutkekar, Social Media Manager, Start Ups Follo... (more) 1 vote by Abhishek KumarI can point some Indian Vs American English which I encountered..

"Dicky" of the car Means "Trunk" of the car in American English.

I was very famous at my "College" - That means "School" for Americans.

Nod of head means "No" - Americans don't recognize what are we trying to say.

Can you pass me the Baauuull .. - Thank means Bowl as in bowl-er in American. A bauuull movement is not a good phrase to use in public.

Also, Coach  Vs Cow-chh..Share • 23 Nov

    Amit Dhundi, Chemical Engg undergraduate1 vote by Rujuta GhikeI told you na? This word 'na''has been used by so many people across India, many times even teachers use this..

Along with 'did', one should never use a Past Tense form of a verb. But in india, they say many times, I did told you that earlier, or, I did brought Pav Bhaji in tiffin once..Share • 7 Jan

    Joel Berman 3 votes by Pushpendra Mohta, Zahid Ghadialy, and Tarun BhattiI love prepone. Especially if you do not tell everyone.  Really speeds up meetings to prepone an hour with only half the attendees.

But the "horn me" bumper stickers confused me at first but I was afraid to drive anyway.

Saw a lot of shops selling suitings and shirtings.  Makes sense.

I did want to buy a timepiece last time I was there, but did not have the chance. 

For an American it can take a little while to adapt to the speech patterns, let along the words in this article.  But once one adapts it is no problem.  The ESL people have some trouble though.  I had to translate English to English a few times for example Cinese English to Indian English.Share • 28 Jul

    Rishab Gargeya, Skeptic1 vote by Abhilash DvrTo take leave means to go on vacation.Share • 17 Sep

    Kshitish Purohit, Industrial Designer1 vote by Kavita Myles

I'm sure everyone must've come across this as kids - "I got ten out of eight in my maths test".

There's one that my parents and grandma used to say - "you should get cent percent results".

One of the most misunderstood and often said very assertively word is 'gentry' - "the gentry in that area is bad".

There's always "LPG gas", "CNG gas", "cable wire" (TV), "Yamaha's Casio", "nimbu lemon" (basically lemon lemon) that are gems!Share • 10 Mar

    Shivam Thapar, software engineer1 vote by Vaagdevi RavishankarA photocopy of a document is called 'XEROX COPY'Share • 17 Oct

    Girish Rangaswamy, autodidact2 votes by Chandra Mohan and Sayak KolayWhen it comes to money, we talk in terms of lakhs and crores, something that's totally unheard of elsewhere.Share • 16 Jul

    Darshil Dave 2 votes by Mandar Gandevikar and Abhilash DvrOur word for an eraser, RUBBER.1 Comment • Share • 21 Feb

    Pranav Kannan, Student of ChemE . Productive Narciss... (more) 2 votes by Ankita Das and Vaagdevi Ravishankar"Could not able to " !

I did not came !

Leftie !

Rightie !

Childrens !

1 Comment • Share • 5 Jan

    Navneet Singh, Student, Blogger, Movie-buff, Netizen... (more) 1 vote by Bala Senthil Kumarfound this very funny....and true.

2 Comments • Share • 8 Dec

    Shefali Sabharanjak, Science writer, foodie, travel enthusiast2 votes by Sanjay Sabnani and Abhilash Dvr#What is your native (place is implied)?  #The next one had me confused for a while- Had Food? I used to visit the bank just after lunch and the lady behind the counter would smile and ask me,"Had food?". So, for while I would answer,"Yes, I just finished lunch", or some suitable response of the sort. Eventually I figured out that 'Had food?" was a very very literal translation of the kannada phrase' Oota aayta?' (It's a way of being solicitous about the next person, in Karnataka. The assumption here is that if you can enjoy your lunch at leisure then all is well with you.)# Had coffee?# Where you are going?#Do it and take (Get done with it)# Come, sit off! # Like that only# Full blood came off# My head is painingShare • 7 Feb

    Kavin Karthik, Computer Science Student, IIT Madras"Make a straight circle"Share • 13 Feb

    Sudhindra Anegondhi, Startups, father, father in law, husb... (more) Off the light - to switch off the lightDruggist - drug addict (goa)Can I give you a tinkle? -- can I phone you?cousin sister/brother - daughter/son of mother's sisters or father's brotherCo-brother - brother in law - wife's sister's husbandOwn Sister/Brother - sister/brother as opposed cousin  sister/brotherMeet personally - meet Cook myself - do my own cookingself-drive - do my own drivingpeon - gopher usually wearing ill fitting khaki shirt and pants

and many many more.

I think so - as in "I think so the train is late"Share • 18 Jul

    Dominic Pride, Consultant in Digital Media Strategy,... (more) 1 vote by Abhilash DvrCouple that I picked up from extensive contact:Glares = sunglasses.Reached = arrivedTo wish someone (no noun or pronoun) = to wish them happy anniversary / birthday etcOne wine bottle = one bottle of wineShare • 26 Jul

    Suryansh Sahota, IIT Roorkee2 votes by Pramod Rao and Sayak KolayHmmm. Quite an interesting post. I have a compilation of my own observations which would rather be regional based. I'll be ennumerating how people from different parts of the country deal with this language:

1. Punjab, Haryana & Delhi: They have habit of substituting 'hindi' word whenever they are unable to browse their dictionary in their mind. Many have the tendency to start an english sentence with 'yaar'. Girls especially try to converse in english publically(I don't know for what silly reason). For eg: Yaar where is that.....apna ....new chinese restaurant. And, they use word smart in place of handsome. If a northie says, He's very smart then it means he's good looking and he's not an Einstein. :D

2. UP, Bihar: The UP and Bihari people have a distinct ishtyle of speaking. Probably, because of their ischooling. Their accent is so rustic that you can easily make out that this is the same english flaunted by Amitabh Bachan in Namak Haram.

3. Bengal: They're bhery intelligent. School =Sh-cool.  Washing Powder = Bhaashing Powder etc.

4. Andhra: People consider 'ra' an english word. Problem = Praa-blum. Eight = Eigth-aa. Nine = Nine-aa.

5. Karnatka: 'Aiyoo' and 'papa' are acceptable words in english.Just like Andhrites, they also add extra 'aa' syllable at the end of nearly all the english words.

6. Kerala: Words have more malayalam flavor in them and syllables like 'na' and 'la' are pronounced with extra abruptness producing a spikey syllable. Hard to describe here.

Additionally, People go to their native, not their hometown.The guy is fulllll caamedy(comedy) than hilarious.Bought Brought who cares.Their, There and they're - what's the difference.Cousin sister and cousin brother.Improvising = Improving the content of something(In india) but actually means 'Acting spontaneously'Share • 6 Aug

    Tanya Chaturvedi, Chemical Engg, Management Consultant ... (more) Using stay and live interchangeably.

Stay = temporaryLive = permanent

Usage : I have been staying in XYZ all my lifeShare • 30 Jul

    Stephen Fysh UpdationAdd, delete and update -> Addition, Deletion, UpdationShare • 26 Jul

    Sarvagnan Subramanian Another fun resource for Indian Phraseshttp://samosapedia.com/In essence, Samosapedia collects English phrases and uses of English that are only found in India. It isn't a serious site though, so using this for references and authentic information on India should be done at your own riskShare • 28 Jul

    Abra Ca'Dabra In bus or train,Proper: I will buy your ticketIndia: I will remove your ticket2 Comments • Share • 28 Jul

    Abhushan Sarraf, E-vandalist!

A habit of Adding an irritating "step-brotherly" way of describing a question Tag..

--You joining joining us for the Picnic, no?-- I will have some burger-wurgerShare • 28 Dec

    Abhilash Dvr, self-contradictorMost common:1) One of my friend. (incorrect)2) "Loose" in place of "Lose"1 Comment • Share • 6 Jan

    Masae Watanabe Ping ! It means "forward it ", or "let me know when you complete it ",,, To be honest , i don't know this exact meaning ,,Share • 23 Jan

    Prasun Bhowmik Ending sentences with a 'no' and turning them into questions. "This is such a funny thread, no?"Share • 21 Feb

    Sachin Bapat FunnyShare • 23 Feb

    Vinay Mahajan, I farm for my meals.What is in the name?Share • 19 Mar

    Yashodhar Narvaneni For joking on us, "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad..!!"Share • 20 Mar

    James Mayfield Yesterday morning -> today morning -> tomorrow morning.

1+ Comments • Share • 26 Jul

    Arindam Mukherjee, speak Bengali, Hindi, English, Oriya,... (more) 6 votes by Anon User, Satish K. Pagare, David Urquhart, (more)Mutton - Goat or lamb meat.Eve teasing - meaning harassing ladies.On the anvil - meaning something has been brought up in agenda for review, discussion, etc.I'll make a move - to mean I'll push off.Azume - the way Indians pronounce assume.Timepass - to mean pastime.co-brother - someone married to your wife's sister (lol!)History sheeter - police term for a delinquent with a history (of being booked, i.e. 'chargesheeted')

Pronunciation peculiarities include:Pronouncing 'accent' as 'assent' - Hyundai "assent".Pronouncing 'thirty' as 'tthirty' - I mean 'th' becomes hard rather than soft.Pronouncing 'forty' as 'four'-tee.Pronouncing 'five' as 'fai-yoo'.1+ Comments • Share • 14 Jul

    Abhishek Sonpar While ordering soup in a restaurant to be shared by two people -

'One sweet corn chicken soup 1 by 2'

Means that 1 soup is ordered which is to be split into two 2 bowls. You get a half potion.

Indianess at its best.1 Comment • Share • 26 Jul

    Shashank Bhavaraju Give me a miseed callShare • 20 Feb

    Saumitra Bhave, Software, SpiritualitySoup -- from SanskritShare • 22 Feb

Adithyan RK, Student, Aspiring nuclear physicist, ... (more) Indians misinterpret and misuse the words "Sir" and "Ma'am".

 Apart from using it for addressing someone, they tend to use it as an extension to a person's name while referring him/her.

Ex: In schools and offices, people refer a person senior to them with a 'sir' behind his/her name. eg:  Physics Sir (Instead of Physics professor)/ Physics Ma'am (for a female professor), M.L.A sir, Gandhi sir etc.Share • 6 Mar

    Bini Mathew, Human Resource Professional with stro... (more) I am running out of "petrol"! Where is the closest "petrol bunk"?

Used as in Gas and Gas Station in American English

Some use the word "petrol pump" , but in South India you hear petrol bunk quite often.4+ Comments • Share • 4 Aug

    Niranjana Dhandapani Yaa vuh?? => Is that so?Share • 9 Feb

    Kapil Gupta, Suitably Inscrutable "By the by", an expression I've only encountered in old Kannada films (which, considering how much Kannada I know, was often the only phrase I understood). I *think* it was used in place of "by the way".Share • 2 Aug

    Siddharth Shitut, Indian since 1985....This video explains it all!

Feb 3, 2013 11:42pmShare • 11 Feb

    Siddharth Shankaran, Having been thrust into "Indian-ness"... (more) What all things you want me to do?Share • 6 Feb

    Varun Athreya, Quizzer, Quotopian,History Buff,RVCE.1 vote by Abhilash DvrWe generally suffer from what's known as RAS Syndrome-Redundant acronym Syndrome Syndrome. Self-referential you see :)

For example,we say RTS system for Real time system.

and  this: "Where are you put up?"

Some wonderful dialogues from my professor.

Binary is simple.Its that one this one.(No punctuation,I swear!) You can possible to do that one. Master of all,Jack of none.(perplexed,right?) Sim-Simpleeey. Mor-Morning :)

1+ Comments • Share • 2 Jan

    Ashutosh Garg, Read in order to LiveIn India when we play Hide and Seek (More Commonly known as chupan chupai), When the seeker finds some one who was hiding, we say it "I spice". Instead of the Actual one, I spy you. Very Very common in India.Share • 25 Feb

    Vaagdevi Ravishankar "What are you coming to say?"

when what they really mean is something like "what are you about to say?" or "what do you mean?"Share • 4 Jan

    Vijay Vardhan, I am getting wiser as I grow olderTeacher, this boy is wearing jokes in class. Teacher, I did not wear cover for my book.Do it, na?Why it should be like that?PFA = Please find attached.

Please close this asap.When can we sit on this?We are looking into this. are some more...Share • 1 Aug

    Sachin Hamirwasia, ideapreneur, engineer, perpetual learner1 vote by Dhruv Hari BaldawaNot to forget "PARALLELY", so common in India that Merriam Webster turned it into a genuine word... http://www.merriam-webster.com/d...Share • 26 Jul

    Nikhil Mudaliar 1 vote by Abhilash DvrAnother one that I notice in HR lingo:He reports 'into' me rather than just reports to me.Share • 26 Jul

    Mohammad Nisar There are many, but now Indians are learning it slowly slowly.Share • 18 Feb

    Veerendra Bidare, Internet Visionary1 vote by Abhilash DvrAdding to Mayank Kapoor 's answer, using 'subStraction' for 'subtraction' and 'is equals to' which should be either 'equals' or 'is equal to' ! Even great profs do that !Share • 6 Jan

    Dhruv Anand, CSE 2nd Year Undergrad1 vote by Abhilash DvrThe phrase "until and unless". I've heard people overuse it time after time.They say it just to emphasize their stubbornness about what they are saying. Most of their statements just mean one of them. They actually say it as a replacement for "if and only if", not realizing it's clearly overkill..Share • 18 Jan

    Sanjeev Hirve

The use of "no" as an emphasizer.  Usage #1 : Eat, no!  - = "please do eat" used in a cajoling/wheedling sense in an informal setting.  I think this comes from direct from colloquial marathi, and maybe other Indian languages (Khaa naa).  But I dont know how it got into those  languages in the first place.

Usage #2 : "He is smart, no!".  This probably started out being used in the "dont you agree?" sense, but has morphed from  to an empahizer or filler.  An extreme use of this is "yes, no"Share • 14 Feb

    Sanket Sunand Dash, interested in everything under the sun1 vote by Abhilash DvrHas anyone heard the term "by heart" used for thoughtlessly committing something to memory.1+ Comments • Share • 15 Jan

    Murtuza Kutub, Interested in startupsBhaat is going to be happen?2 Comments • Share • 8 Jan

    Anon UserThis is a phrase i've heard one too many times in college.. "I can't able to understand what you are telling"Share • 11 Jan

    Priyanka Gupta Many many happy returns of the dayShare • 18 Mar

    Samir Bellare Iron Box!1 Comment • Share • 26 Jul

    Pavan Kumar Mehta Before 2 months I went to delhi..This should be " I went to delhi 2 months back/ago"Share • 16 Dec

    Monal Shah

Rubbish!! Once I used this word in United States,, And people around me were like What!!:?Share • 28 Jan

    Manish Kishore I told you, no? --This is the Indian way of saying "Didn't I told you?"Most of the times in India people translate their mother tongue while they communicate in English.This makes it much difficult for some people to converse over phone, especially when somebody with English as mother tongue uses their own colloquial. No wonder when I saw a guy not understanding when he was communicated over phone by saying "you are breaking"!!Share • 24 Feb

    Syed Nazir Razik, Entreprenuer" Fact of the matter is "1 Comment • Share • 28 Nov

    Sanjay Mundra It seems here no one looking homely brideShare • 11 Aug

    Vikram Purohit, Common ManSome from my college professor :1. Open the doors of the window and let the fresh atmosphere comes in.2. I have 2 daughters and both are girls.3. Meet me when I am empty.4. Take hajaar (thousand) litres of water.Share • 29 Dec

5 Answers Collapsed (Why?)

 Unverified Name:    ByAnon Two 3 votes by Bert Cattoor, Manan Shah, and Stephen McInerneyIndian: "Until now".  Meaning: it never did and still doesn't do something.English: "Until now". Meaning: it used to do something but has now just changed to something

else.Result: Un-met expectations, frustration, missed software deadlines.1 Comment • Share • 30 Jul

 Downvoted:    Jayesh Bhoot, Indian, Eco-Friendly, Rationalist, At... (more) "Most ofly", implying "mostly of".

This was the first phrase that led me to delve into proper usage of English.This might be a relatively rare term even in India. I heard it from two of my cousins. So I present it here. In their defense, they were educated in non-English medium, and have learned enough English to be able to express their thoughts.1 Comment • Share • 6 Jan

    Parag Coolkarni, Drowning in Information, Starving for... (more) 2 votes by Chandra Mohan and Madavapeddi SumanrupeeShare • 16 Jul

    Rajat Chamria 1 vote by Arvind PaiRegular Spelling is what Indian's speak :)

While everyone's quoting snippets of  how Indians speak incorrect English, I thought it would be worth  mentioning that American's are no Heroes.

English is a language  of slangs. There are no fix rules these days. As long as it makes sense  to the listener, everything is valid.

Via some friend

3+ Comments • Share • 4 Jan

 Needs Improvement:    Neil Ghosh, Amateur astronomer, Software EngineerI know some of the Indian version of the English are not correct and awful but lets give some liberty. For. example in what universe petrol is gas as referred in USA ?