Indian English Oddities (And Ways to Fix Them) - Word Choice

This post on word choice is the second post of a three-part series covering Indian English oddities and will help you understand more nuances of the language as it is spoken by some people.

1. Encores & No-Shows

• Redundancy: Verbosity regularly features in IE. Look out for prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives, adverbs, synonyms and articles ‘a’ or ‘the’ that only add to the length of a sentence. Can you be able to come here please? (Can you come here please? or Is it possible for you to come here?)
• Word repetitions: IE tends to lean towards writing accoutrements aimed to emphasize on the fact. Check for phrases like cent per cent (100 percent). Miss Pushpa is smiling and smiling. (Miss Pushpa is a cheerful person.)
• Omission of Words: Keep an eye out for missing prepositions, conjunctions, articles and adjectives. Please do the needful. (Please send the requested files.)

2. Vocabulary Simulations

• Spellings: Watch out for homonyms (hear & here) and homophones (principal & principle).
• Indian words spelt out in English: crore, chappal. Here, a dictionary will come in handy. While some Indian English words have entered many dictionaries and are acceptable, some are simply not understood yet by a global audience.
• Morphed Words: Look out for phrasal verbs, clipped words (enthu, funda - usually nouns or adjectives), anthimeria (‘gift’ used as a verb), portmanteau (compound nouns & English and native words combinations)

3. Limited Usage

• Limited Vocabulary: I will have a cold. (I will catch a cold)
• Anachronisms:  Jargon that now seems dated can be found in IE. E.g. Dicky/dickey trunk (of car)
• Literal Translations: For this one, you’ll need to be acquainted with the native languages of India. Since it’s not possible to know the meanings of all the words  – just like it’s not possible to learn all American or British English words wherein new words are invented every day – I recommend familiarizing yourself with Indian-English literature and dictionaries. Speak slowly (softly), they're sleeping
• Words out of context: I’m going to watch a cinema (movie).
• Clichés: Native Indian writers tend to have an arsenal of commonly used phrases (‘n’ number of projects. (many projects) & idioms, outside which they’ll refuse to stray. Remember that there's a world full of possibilities where metaphors are as many as there are unused words in the dictionary.