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How to use the definite article 'the'. Is it send-off or send-forth? And a commonly misconstrued idiom

Good morning KIB students.
You are welcome  to another class with King Ifey.

I realised  that the majority of the students are always on free-mode.  They can only read on Facebook and are not able to visit sites that are outside Facebook.

So today,  I decided to be a gentleman and post on Facebook and also directly on the blog. I currently have 50 people  who have subscribed to my blog. Whatever I post,  they will see it in their mailbox.

Without further ado,  let's  get down to brass tacks.

Let's  look at the use of the definite article 'the'.

There are words that usually go with 'the'.

For example

You don't  say ' Majority of the boys in the hostel smoke every night' rather you say ' The majority of the boys in the hostel smoke  every night'

When places are involved,  we say the United States or the US,  the United Kingdoms or the UK,  the USSR,  the Great Britain, the Mediterranean Sea,  the Middle East and the Gambia.

So,  a sentence like this  one below is wrong.

Majority of Nigerians travel to US and UK for greener pastures.

The right thing to say is

The majority of Nigerians travel  to the US and the UK for greener pastures.

For  the benefit of  some new readers and students  of KIB, let me still remind you of the difference  between 'send off' and 'send forth',

Let me tell this story.
When I was very young,  I always heard my parents say 'send off'.  When I was a teenager,  my teachers  would call it 'send forth'. Even in the church,  they would call it ' send forth'.

Their ideology is that you are not sending them off,  it sort of sounds derogatory.  Send forth  to them  sounds like a good thing.  Well, let me burst your bubbles,  'send forth' is not the right thing to say.

Send off means a party when people gather together  to say goodbye to someone who is leaving.

Send forth ( send somebody forth) to send someone away from you to another place.

The party is called send-off. E.g We will give her a befitting send-off.

Finally,  you don't have a deep freezer rather you have a 'deep freeze'.

Deep freezer is mostly used by Americans.  Generally,  they can be alternatively called  freezers

On pronunciation

Tete a tete  is pronounced
(tate are TATE)
/ˌteɪtɑːˈteɪt/  and not
/ tete a tete/

The class with  King Ifey is done and dusted. I will be on the next flight  to Mogadishu.

*Walks out of the class*
*realises some people love the window learning'
*peeps through the window*

Um,  that idiomatic expression is not said like this ' A bird  at hand is worth two in the bush' nor a bird at hand is worth millions in the bush.  No,  not at all.

The right thing to say is
' A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'.

Thank you,  you can share this note  and help other  people better their spoken English.

King Ifey loves you.

Toodles.

  

Comments

  1. My dear. you have really blessed me since I have come to know. Every day I vist here , I learn new things

    ReplyDelete
  2. I studied English, but I have never seen English this way. With you, everything becomes easy and fun

    ReplyDelete

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