Let us admit that learning a second language is no easy matter especially if it is a foreign language. English in India, perhaps, has to be classified under this category even though it has been with us as a language of admiration and also lingua franca for over two hundred years. It is the pervasive errors in our speech and writing that force one to make such a caustic but apt observation. Anyway, the purpose of this write up is not so much to denigrate as to educate. I have chosen on a rather ad hoc basis a few typical Indian lapses for error analysis.

In India most of us seem to use the words `continually' and `continuously' interchangeably. However, generally a distinction is maintained: `continual’ means that something is going on with brief breaks, but `continuous' means that something is going on without break. It is advisable and necessary to maintain such semantic distinctions so that nuances of reality can be reported with precision and specificity.

Similarly we should be on guard when we use a word like `keep' in a sentence like `keep it on the table'. Normally this is not done in correct English. The correct expression can be any one of the following :

a) Put it on the table
b) Place it on the table
c) Leave it on the table

Depending on the situation, on the other hand, `keep' will be more correct in expressions such as :
a) Keep the book with you
b) Keep it in the cupboard

We in India are careless about the singularity and plurality of certain words. For instance, look at these words :
a) Phenomenon (sing) phenomena (plu)
b) Criterion (sing) criteria (plu)

I have observed that Indian speakers use the latter, i.e. the plurals, with a singular verb. I rarely hear `phenomenon' and `criterion' being used, as their plurals have been wrongly substituted.

Similarly the word `alphabet' suffers from wrong usage. For example : English has only one alphabet which contains 26 letters. So we can't talk about the alphabets of English. `Alphabets' is possible only when we refer to the alphabet of Sanskrit, the alphabet of Arabic and the alphabet of Latin, etc. However, nowadays a word line `data' may be used with a singular or a plural verb either with `is' or `are'. Technically speaking `data' is plural, but today since `idatum' is hardly used data in a collective sense seems to have replaced it.

Here there is no reason for anyone to feel squeamish. Ultimately it is not the dogmas of grammar that will have the last laugh but the vagaries of usage. All that is needed is that a particular use (wrong, right or different) of a word has to become repetitive. Then it gets established. The lot of a lexiographer is unenviable. He has to record it and in the bargain he may earn both bouquets and brickbats. Then it gets established and usages cannot be demolished like public buildings. One simply can't wish them away. The discards may frown and fame but changes keep happening for ever. The tide of change may be checked for a while but can't be dammed for long. A language being a sensitive feature of human life registers life's dynamism and vitality with a rare degree of promptness. In fact, language and knowledge are so closely intertwined that you cannot hold back one without reining in the other.

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