Know your English

"HAVEN'T YOU finished reading that article yet?"

"Give me a couple of minutes, will you? Tell me, how do you pronounce p..r..e..c..o..c..i..o..u..s?"

"Has that word been used in the article?"

"You bet. The author has used it several times."

"I see. Well, the `e' in the first syllable `pre' is pronounced like the "i" in "sit", "bit" and "pit"; the following `o' is like the `o' in `so', `go' and `no'.''

"The final `ious' is like the `ious' in `precious' and `ambitious', I suppose?"

"Exactly! The `c' in the second syllable is like the `k' in `kit', `kin', and `kiss', while...."

".... the final `c' is like the `sh' in `ship', `sheep', and `sheet'. I had already guessed that. But tell me, what does the word mean?"

"Why don't you try and figure it out? How does the author use the word?"

"Well, he says that Jennifer Capriati `burst onto the world tennis scene as a precocious 14-year old'."

"So what do you think the author is trying to say?"

"That 14-year old Jennifer was very talented?"

"That's right! The word is normally used with children. When you say that a child is `precocious' what you are implying is that he/she is very clever or talented at something. The kind of talent that you would expect to find in an adult, but certainly not in a child."

"In other words, the child is mature beyond his/her years. Is that what you are saying?"

"Well, I guess you could say that. Here's an example. Nobody wanted to play chess with the precocious five-year-old."

"Devayani had precocious talent for music and dance."

"Though as a five-year-old, Saritha displayed precocious talent for tennis, her parents refused to send her to coaching camps."

"Were you a precocious child?""Me? You must be joking. I don't think anyone in my family was precocious."

"Didn't you say that your cousin Suresh was precocious? I remember you....``

"...I definitely didn't say that."

"But you said that he was a wonderful pilot. And I also think...."

"I probably said that he is rash. He is one of those who flies by the seat of his pants."

"Flies by the seat of his pants? What does that mean?"

"When you say that someone is doing something by the seat of his pants, what you are implying is that he is doing something instinctively. He is not doing things according to any well thought out plan.''

"No thinking involved, eh? Then, can I say, our Chief Minister has no clue what he is doing. He is flying by the seat of his pants."

"I don't think so. You see, our poor Chief Minister is not doing anything, actually. He is merely a mouthpiece for somebody else. Somebody else is running the State for him. Try this example. The electrician that the company sent had no clue what he was doing. He was merely flying by the seat of his pants."

"Most traders don't know what is happening in the stock market. Many of them are flying by the seat of their pants."

"That's a good example. The expression can also be used to mean, `by sheer luck and very little skill'. My cousin got through school by the seat of his pants."

"If I get through, it will probably be by the seat of my pants."

"That's what your cousin Shanthi said. But she ended up coming first in the university. By the way, how is she? She's married to a stockbroker, isn't she?"

"Not anymore. She divorced with him some six months ago.''

"You don't `divorce with' someone. You divorce someone. For example, she divorced her husband six months ago."

"If it hadn't been for her parents, Usha would have divorced her husband long ago."

"I am sure she would have. I still don't understand how she puts up with that husband of hers."

"Not all marriages are made in heaven, you know. But tell me, is it wrong to say, `divorce with'?"

"Yes, it is. You cannot say `divorce with', but you can say, `divorce from'. For example, she got a divorce from her husband six months ago."

"Ramakanth received a letter from his wife saying that she wanted a divorce from him."

"That's a good example. By the way, the `i' in divorce is not pronounced like the `ie' in `tie', `die', and `pie'. It sounds like the `i' in `bit', `hit', and `kit'. The stress is on the second syllable."

"I see. Tell me, can ...."

"....and, one needn't always get a divorce from someone. One can also get a divorce from something. For example, I can say, you must divorce yourself from the strange ideas that your friends have put in your head."

"Nandita feels that many of our politicians are divorced from the needs of the people."

"That's a pretty good example. Venkat is unable to divorce fantasy from reality."

"I agree with you completely. It's surprising to see so many marriages ending in divorce these days. Do you think your marriage is doomed for failure?"

"Difficult to answer the question right now because I am not even married. But I can assure you that it will not be `doomed for' failure."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because you cannot say `doomed for', that's why. Something can be `doomed to' fail, but not `doomed for'."

"I see. The idea that the Principal came up with was doomed to fail."

"All her short stories are doomed to oblivion."

"My father firmly believes that anything I start is doomed to fail."

"That's because you never think things out. You fly by the seat of your pants."

"Oh thank you, Prophet of Doom!"

* * *

Men are simple things. They can survive a whole weekend with only three things: beer, boxer shorts and batteries for the remote control" — Diana Jordan.

S.UPENDRAN

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