Mangled metaphors, scroowy sayings

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 12:09 pm

the lynx wrote:spoil

"Switch spoil already."

"Don't spoil the machine!"

But the veggies and fruits don't spoil here, "they bad already".

And no, not gone bad. Just "bad already".

"Don't spoil the market!" used when I said I would pay a part-time cleaning lady a $5 tip for 2 hours of work.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 1:09 pm

Fortan wrote:Sign on machine in my office: Once on, cannot off....
The constant use of the word actually. Recently we had an introduction by a new travel agency and I ended up counting the girl presenting, using actually more than 50 times in 30 mins.

Actually, that's not too bad.

Wd40 · Post by **Wd40** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 1:12 pm

Q: can or not?
A: can oredi, ma

Q: Makan oredi?
A: Haven

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 1:14 pm

Mixed metaphors are common on any of the "Voice of the People / Voice of Singapore" websites.

I often think that it is done deliberately though

I think the worry is that if your "England is too powderful" you are not True Blue Singaporean.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 1:24 pm

Fortan wrote:Sign on machine in my office: Once on, cannot off....
The constant use of the word actually. Recently we had an introduction by a new travel agency and I ended up counting the girl presenting, using actually more than 50 times in 30 mins.

'- Off the light
- Huh?
- OFF the light!!'

--- 'Actually'. Oh how I hate this word here

How it slowly spills out one protracted syllable at a time - 'Well, Ekt chew er lee ... '

It's been mentioned here before. It has a technical linguistic position/use similar to > 'Kind of/well sort of/you know/like', it serves as an 'I'll pause here while I think, but please don't try and interrupt me' place-holder.

Fortan · Post by **Fortan** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 2:10 pm

The plural thing is killing me..... "I will go to the pubs but only have one drinks".... As well as "It is very well maintain" or "unblock view"

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 2:25 pm

Fortan wrote:The plural thing is killing me..... "I will go to the pubs but only have one drinks".... As well as "It is very well maintain" or "unblock view"

'Yah right, Singlish very well cook ah?'

rajagainstthemachine · Post by **rajagainstthemachine** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 4:09 pm

Aunty? one curry pups ta pau ah!

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 6:52 pm

rajagainstthemachine wrote:Aunty? one curry pups ta pau ah!

- 'What pum ah?'
- 'Pumdoo'
- 'Pub doo ah'?

[At the petrol station].

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 10:04 pm

Wd40 wrote:Another Indian favourite is prepone. I can bet, 9 out of 10 Indians don't know that prepone is not a word in the dictionary

I just did a search on this site. 2 uses of the word and both by Indians

Edit: Just realized that the word has been added to the dictionary

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/repor ... ly-1353503

Am with you on the 9 out of 10, and I've heard prepone a thousand times since living here.
Add to that:
- very less
- updation (as in, ve must perform updation on the spreadsheet)

And no, the rest of the world is not ready for any of these three.

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 10:14 pm

So, while many of the posts here do in fact have examples of messed up English, that is nothing new for this forum.

I still haven't seen any of the many mixed sayings and clichés re the OP, except my poor example of one.

Stuff like "Don't put all your eggs in your pocket", or something like that, where they get half of it right..

Crikey there are tons of these out there!

ecureilx · Post by **ecureilx** » Wed, 08 Oct 2014 10:55 pm

orientate?

heard that?

Post by **nakatago** » Thu, 09 Oct 2014 5:53 am

For a country that prides itself that "everyone speaks English," they sure get a long of things wrong...and no, it's not the accent. They're so proud of it but everybody knows their English can be so ridiculous it's not funny anymore wrong.

You know who don't have English as an official language but speak it properly? The Dutch! Aside from their English accent being more intelligible than most Singaporeans, as soon as they realize you don't speak Dutch, they will speak to you in English and they will NOT tell you to "say so lah" or to "correct" you if your English does not conform to theirs.

I don't speak perfect English nor claim than I'm better than most people but it's just annoying how a lot of Singaporeans are so high and mighty about their English skills and then you end up with things like "revert" and "shift" from these very same people and when I say people, I mean particular individuals.

/rant over

About Indian English, I just find it quirky (prepone--it's so funny but it does make sense if you think about it) and the accent can be thick at times but at least I haven't had an Indian berate me if he doesn't understand how I speak English.

Post by **nakatago** » Thu, 09 Oct 2014 5:58 am

ecureilx wrote:orientate?

heard that?

Aussies use it too, apparently.

I just keep using "to orient" and its conjugations to save a syllable.

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Thu, 09 Oct 2014 8:24 am

nakatago wrote:
ecureilx wrote:orientate?

heard that?
Aussies use it too, apparently.

I just keep using "to orient" and its conjugations to save a syllable.

I have heard it, and another word with '-tate' only from one Irish and a number of English persons, I don't recall hearing it from a Singaporean.

SINGAPORE EXPATS FORUM
Singapore Expat Forum and Message Board for Expats in Singapore & Expatriates Relocating to Singapore

Mangled metaphors, scroowy sayings

Who is online