Know Your English

``YOU WERE supposed to have been here an hour ago!''

``I know! I know! The special class was called off and I....''

``....your class was called off! Then you should have been here long ago. You have no excuse for ....''

``....will you please let me finish? As I was saying, the class was postponed and I....''

``....it was postponed, eh? Well, in that case, the class wasn't `called off', it was 'put off'.''

``You mean there's a difference between `put off' and `call off'?''

``Yes, there is. When you `put off' doing something, you postpone doing it. Here's an example. Since the flight from Hyderabad was delayed, the meeting was put off by a few hours.''

``The wedding had to be put off because the groom fell ill. How does that sound?''

``Sounds terrible.''

``You mean there's something wrong with the sentence?''

``Oh, no! There's nothing wrong with the example. I don't like the idea of a wedding being put off.''

``Then how about this example? Our Principal's visit to Singapore was put off by a couple of days because of the strike.''

``I am sure he was happy that the visit hadn't been called off.''

``What does `call off' mean?''

``When you call something off, you cancel it. The meeting had to be called off because the chairman had to leave for Paris.''

``When the boy realised that the girl's father had lost all his money, he called off the wedding.''

``Sounds like the kind of stuff people do in movies. By the way, you can also say, `The boy called the wedding off'.''

``I see.''

``Here's another example. The cricket match was called off because of the rain.''


``Many people want all cricket matches to be called off. By the way, do you think some of our cricket players actually took money from....''

``....let's not talk about cricket. Do you want to see the movie or not?''

``Of course, I do!''

``Then get out of that silly uniform! And step on it, will you?''

``Step on it? Step on what? What are you ....?''

``....when you tell someone to step on it, you want them to hurry up. It's an expression used in American English.''

``I see. But what is the `it' that you are talking about?''

``The `it' in the expression 'step on it' refers to the accelerator in a car. The `gas pedal', as the Americans call it.''

``And when you ask a driver to step on the `gas pedal', what you are telling him to do is increase the speed.''

``Exactly! In other words, you are telling him to hurry up.''

``When you are in an autorickshaw, you don't have to tell the driver to step on it.''

``You certainly don't. Most of the time I tell them to slow down.''

``The service at the restaurant that we went to last night was really bad. My sister kept telling the waiter to step on it.''

``Did he step on it?''

``No, he didn't. I guess he found it difficult to cope up with all the....''

``....cope up? How many times have I told you ....''

``....sorry! Sorry! The word `cope' should not be followed by `up'. You have told me that many times.''

``Exactly!''

``The old man wasn't able to cope with the pressure of the job.''

``How are you coping with your problems?''

``I am unable to cope with the heat.''

``The restaurant that we are going to is air conditioned. So step on it, will you?''

``I grow old, I grow old

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.'' - T. S. Eliot

S. UPENDRAN

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Devil-may-care