Know your English

"HI I see that the house next door has now become an office. It has a nice name too. Silent World."

"Silent World, indeed. It's a misnomer."

"A what?"

"M..i..s..n..o..m..e..r. The first syllable sounds like the word "miss", while the second sounds like the word 'no'.""The final 'e' is like the 'a' in 'china', I suppose? But what does the word mean?"

"It means that something has been given the wrong name or designation."

"A wrong word has been used to describe something. Is that what you are saying?"

"I guess you could say that. For example, Silent World is a misnomer for the office next door. It should be called 'Noisy World'. It is anything silent."

"Calling Agarkar an 'all rounder' is a misnomer."

"That's a pretty good example. But the stress in 'misnomer' is on the second syllable. Here's another example. 'First class restaurant' is a misnomer for the run down place we have down the street. And do you know..."

"...what's the matter with you today? Why do you look so grumpy?"

"Haven't you told me a million times that I always look grumpy?"

"Not this grumpy. Something go wrong with the presentation you made yesterday?"

"You're smarter than you look. But yes, the presentation went down like a lead balloon."

"Went down like a lead balloon, eh? Is that another way of saying that your presentation flopped?"

"That's right. When you say that something went down like a lead balloon, it means that it was a total disaster. It failed to be funny."

"You tried to make a funny presentation? That was a big mistake. You have no sense of humour. Everyone knows that. Your jokes always go down like a lead balloon."

"They do not. Nobody has ever told me that my...."

".... remember the play you wrote a couple of years ago. You thought it was really funny. But nobody else did. It went down like a lead balloon."

"Well if you keep insulting me like that, you will go down like a ton of bricks."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to insult you. But you ...."

"...Oh never mind. I guess it's about time I forgot all about the presentation."

"Your presentations are usually good. At least that's what you claim. What went wrong this time?"

"I just didn't have time to prepare. I'd spread myself too thin, and...."

".... spread yourself too thin? You certainly don't look it. If you ask me, you have put on weight."

"Spreading oneself too thin has nothing to do with putting on or losing weight. When you say that you have spread yourself too thin, what you are implying is that you are doing too many things at the same time."

"I see. And if you are doing too many things at the same time, then it isn't possible for you to focus on anything in particular."

"Exactly!"

"Many of the students in my class have spread themselves too thin."

"Bala is teaching five courses this semester. I am afraid that he has spread himself too thin."

"I make it a point never to spread myself too thin."

"You are a completely different case. You make it a point to work as little as possible. Now then,...."

"...o.k. Grumpy, did you ask the people what they thought of your presentation?"

"I did try to sound out a couple of people, but they weren't very...."

".... `sound out people'. That's an interesting expression."

"When you sound someone out, you...."

"....I think I can guess the meaning. When you sound someone out, you probably try and find out what he/she thinks about something."

"Excellent. That's exactly what it means."

"Suresh was keen on knowing what Suparna thought of his new movie. He wanted me to sound her out."

"That's a good example. My boss is planning to bring about big changes in our company. He wants me to sound everyone out."

"...this presentation that you were making was for some private company, right?"

"That's right."

"Are you going to get paid for it?"

"Get paid for it? You must be joking. The poor owner is running it on a shoestring budget."

"A shoestring budget? What does that mean?"

"When you run something on a shoestring it means that you running it at a very low cost. You are running it on a small or inadequate budget."

"I see. And does this...."

"....let me give you another example. The ...."

"....let me try. My cousin started a restaurant on a shoestring budget."

"My uncle's company was able to produce high quality material on a shoestring budget."

"That's great! What's the company called?"

"Shoestring!"

* * *

``Water is composed of two gins - oxygin and hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water."

- A student in U.S.A.

S. Upendran

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