nauru

Just out of curiosity,

1. Why do pakistani and indian people always say "give an exam"...

"give gre"
"give the SAT"
"give it again"

...whilst in the west they say "take an exam" "take the gre" "take the SAT"?

2. In pakistan and india would you "give a dump" or "take a dump"? I suppose the first one makes more sense in this case, but I'll leave that for discussion.

3. Also, why do so many people - westerners especially - misspell definitely as definately? The root word is finite, so I don't see how anyone could routinely mix this up. Even spelling it phonetically, the word sounds like de-fi-nit-lee. I think it's the one of the most common genuine spelling mistakes (as in not a typo) on CC; even people with good spelling in general are doing it.

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And yeah yeah I know this seems like a topic that could easily fit in the cafe forum. But I think there are more pakistanis and indians in here who can answer the first two questions. So it is posted here. Thanks!

aritct

because its a common error that has rooted itself deeply into the Indian/Pakistani society.
The real reason for the error is most likely the mis-translation from Hindi to English.

Correct Hindi = "Exam de rahe?" = "Are you giving the exam?" (wrong English)

Wrong Hindi ="Exam le rahe ? " = " Are you taking the exam?" (correct English)

and as for misspelling in the west, remember that American English is a bit different from British English. (for example 'honour'/'colour' is spelled as 'honor'/'color' in America )

andell

The misspelling isn't really because of different spelling styles between American English and British English. "Definitely" is spelled correctly only one way..."definately" is actually pretty much a phonetic mistake, since the word sounds like "de-fi-naet-ly" when spoken quickly; the "naet" part is just assumed to be spelled "nate."

issacnewton

well ya....if we r to convert words directly from ''hindi'' into english...then....
this would b the way it will b done.....
N about definitely............its a simple error of sound!!!
ppl hear definitely as ''def-ina-te-ly'''n it does not sound as ''def-ini-te-ly''.so there goes the error!!.......

bruno123

Most of the differences between British and American spelling have to do with the spelling reform introduced by Daniel Webster by the time of the US independence from Britain. Typical classes of differences (that extend to similar words) include:

honour x honor

realise x realize

organisation x organization

centre x center

defence x defense

mediaeval x medieval

modelling x modeling

enrolment x enrollment

dialogue x dialog

etc...

In addition, there are several other miscellaneous differences affecting isolated words (e.g. "plough" v. "plow", "draught" v. "draft", "artefact" v. "artifact", etc.).

BTW, Brits usually say "to sit an exam", rather than "to take" or "give" an exam.

nauru

Heh, good answers folks. But anyone care to address number 2? hehe or do you all take yourselves too seriously for that!

issacnewton

Hey,who on earth wanna ''take'' a ''dump''???

aaron56

umm.. everyone!