Learning to say it right!

Once upon a time, a good friend of mine taught me the niceties of ‘saying it right.’ In our every day conversations and in formal interactions, we use a lot of idioms and idiomatic expressions. These idioms are meant to be used the way they are except with some alterations to align the syntax of our expressions. That friend of mine made me more conscious of the words I use and I thus developed a knack for checking virtually every word or phrase or idiom I use. In our conversations, while we may succeed in passing across our message however we put it, it’s far more gratifying when you put it in more accurate grammatical expressions. Let me share some of my findings:

1. We often hear: ‘More grease to your elbow.’

More accurately, it is: ‘More power to your elbow’ or ‘more elbow grease.’

2. We hear: ‘You can’t eat your cake and have it.’

More accurately, it is: ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it.’

3. ‘A word is good enough for the wise.’

More accurately: ‘A word to the wise’ or ‘a word to the wise is enough’ or ‘a word to the wise is sufficient.’

4. ‘He who wears the shoe knows where it hurts.’

More accurately: ‘He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.’

5. ‘Behind every cloud there’s a silver lining.’

More accurately: ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.’

6. ‘Half education is dangerous.’

More accurately: ‘A little learning is dangerous.’

7. ‘A problem shared is half-solved.’

More accurately: ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’ or ‘a trouble shared is a trouble halved.’

8. Lend me your pen / I will borrow you some money.

More accurately: Borrow me your pen / I will lend you some money.

(You borrow something from somebody while they lend it to you.)

It goes on and on. We all learn everyday. Wise men never stop learning. A word to the wise, my friend!