Sunday, April 27, 2008

Crazy English

One source of amusement for me is my nose for errors on signboards and public notices. Every city in the world has its share of goofs. If you watch out for these, you will never get bored. You can always extract a chuckle from what you see around you.

The one on the left below is from the city of Bangalore. It took me a while to decipher the cryptic message, until a burly man with black oil on his hands and face walked up to me and said, "Sir, you want puncher work or wallkenosing, we are experts. Just tell us what you want to do, and we do it for you!"




No, he wasn't offering to punch some one's nose for me - he was looking at the tyres of my car as he spoke, and it dawned on me that he was speaking of 'vulcanising' and 'fixing punctures'.

This one's from Canada
The picture on the right is one that I took in the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club, Rothesay, NB, Canada. The confusion between you're and your is a common one around the world. I think the reason is simply that they are homophones.

Read "Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss

1 comment:

aashish pillai said...

Dear sir
I have been reading your articles since I was a kid in English Daily Free Press. Much of what I write today is partally owed to you , then some to the free press then to my teachers and parents. I request you dear sir to go through some of my poems on www.aashishpillai.blogspot.com/
with lot of love and respect

Ashish Pillai