“You’re late! You should have been here half an hour ago. What happened?”
“Sorry about that! I ran into an old friend of mine at the supermarket. Manjunath.”
“Manjunath! Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. Isn’t he the chap who used to come up with birdbrained schemes to get rich quickly?”
“Birdbrained schemes? Does it mean crazy schemes?”
“When you say that something is a ‘birdbrained scheme’, you mean that it’s a stupid scheme. Our politicians often come up with birdbrained schemes.”
“How about this example? The Minister’s birdbrained answers left the audience wondering how the man managed to get elected.”
“That’s a good example. The word ‘birdbrain’ is frequently used in informal contexts with people as well. My former boss was a real birdbrain.”
“Meaning that he was stupid. Like your boss, my next-door neighbour is a birdbrain too. Was your boss grumpy like my neighbour?”
“Grumpy? Definitely not! If you ask me, he was always in good humour.”
“Good humour? Do you mean to say that your boss cracked a lot of jokes and kept people entertained?”
In good humour
“The expression ‘in good humour’ has nothing to do with one’s sense of humour. When you say that Revathi was in good humour, you mean that she was in a cheerful mood.”
“In other words, you’re talking about the mood of the person and not whether he’s capable of being humourous or not.
Jayanth is always in good humour. I’ve never seen him get upset about anything.”
“Unlike his sister, whenever Kailash’s friends tease him, he takes it all in good humour.”
“My cousin Nagesh has been in good humour ever since he got engaged to Remya.”
“There’s a delicious bit of gossip going around about that. Apparently...”
“Delicious bit of gossip? Don’t we normally use the word ‘delicious’ with things that we can taste or smell? We can talk about a delicious cake, but can we...”
“That’s true, but the word ‘delicious’ can also be used to talk about something that gives you a lot of pleasure.”
“In other words, something that is pleasing or enjoyable can be called delicious.”
“That’s right! The baby gave a delicious smile before nodding off to sleep.”
“The songs in my favourite hero’s latest film were delicious. How does that sound?”
“Sounds great! Someone said that the movie was a delicious comedy about the world of football.”
“Talking about sports, tell me, which is correct? Is it ‘India win’ or ‘India wins’ the first one day international? In some newspapers, it’s ‘wins’, and in others ‘win’. I’m a bit confused.”
“Actually, both are correct. It all depends on how you view the team. If you think of the team as consisting of several individuals, then you normally use a plural verb — are, have, were, etc. If, on the other hand, you think of the team as being a single unit, then you use a singular verb. For example, Arsenal hasn’t been doing well this season.”
“But I can also say, Arsenal haven’t played to their potential this year.”
“You certainly can. India have/has a good chance of sweeping the one day series.”
“Every time you say something like that, we always end up losing the next match.”
* * * * *
Sports are the reason I am out of shape. I watch them all on TV. — Thomas Sowell
The author teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. upendrankye@gmail.com
