Questions tagged [subcontinental-english]
Questions related to the English language as it is spoken and written across the Indian Subcontinent in the South-Asian countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
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Can "doubt" sometimes mean "question"?
I often see questions on Stack Exchange sites which I presume are written by non-native English speakers who use the word "doubt" in place of the word "question". Is this a case of misunderstanding ...
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Is "prepone" being used outside India?
Prepone is a great word - it's the opposite of postpone. When you prepone a meeting, you change its scheduled time so that it occurs sooner than originally planned. Has this usage spread beyond India? ...
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What is wrong in "Please don't pluck the flowers" and other phrases used in the Indian subcontinent?
In the Indian subcontinent, especially India, there are many English words or phrases which are not a part of dictionary or not used in other parts of the world.
The first one is "Please don't pluck ...
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Can 'revert' be used as a synonym of 'reply'?
I am a native speaker of American English, and I have only ever heard this usage of the word revert from one person. This person is not a native English speaker (he is from India), so he may just be ...
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"What day is it today?" vs. "What day is today?"
Which of the following is grammatical?
What date/day is it today?
What date/day is today?
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Indian-English usage of "Kindly"
I have noticed that the word "Kindly" is used a lot by some Indians speaking English as a second language. Does anyone know the origin of this?
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Can "casted" be the past tense of "cast"?
'The Hindu,' an Indian daily, reports:
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely casted his vote at Chimanbhai Patel Institute opposite Karnavati club.
Does the verb cast have a form as ...
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What does "small small" mean in Indian English?
There is a type of 'double adjective' expression in colloquial (mainly spoken) Indian English, which is a reflection of usage in many (Indian) subcontinental languages, example: "small small"...
user20865
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Is the term "would-be" just an Indian usage or universal?
I've noticed that Indians use the term would-be in place of fiancé/fiancée. Usages like "Meet my would-be" and "This is my would-be" are common in introductions. I used to wonder if this is just an ...
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Why has the word "thrice" fallen out of common usage?
I'm an American living in America, but my workplace has a lot of immigrants from India here. They all use "thrice" very commonly, which is wonderful to my ears! Thrice is such a delightful word.
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What is the origin and extent of the Indian English usage of "only" to emphasize something?
I live in southern India, and for a long time I've been curious about this phenomenon that I've observed.
Indian English uses the word "only" in a special way. It's used to emphasize things. Sort ...
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Indian English: What usage is allowed for "doubt" (meaning "question")?
I have a doubt about having a doubt. I learned from this question that in Indian English the word doubt is used to mean question, that is, as a countable noun. If my understanding is correct, the ...
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Is writing the pronoun "i" in lowercase a feature of Indian English?
The Rule
The personal pronoun “I” is always capitalized in English, regardless of its position in a sentence. This is an orthographic convention that every native speaker should know.
Whenever I ...
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“May I know your good name?” [closed]
"May I know your good name” is a typically Indian way of honouring another person by asking their name using an adjective like sweet, good, beautiful, et cetera. Of course there won’t ever be any bad ...
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Is "give an exam" grammatical for "writing the answers to exam"?
Amongst North Indian Students, the phrase "give an exam" is very popular. These students use the phrase to describe the act of writing the answers to examination questions.
The reason being, in Hindi,...
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