King Ifey's Blog

Good morning KIB students. I think today is the best day to discuss this issue which hugely affects Yoruba people. If you are Yoruba,  you may have heard the 'H factor'. I cannot understand why it happens mostly to Yoruba people.  Whenever an 'H' is necessary at the beginning of a word,   they usually omit it. Whenever a word is meant to start without an 'H' letter, that is when you see 'H' in all its glory. These issues aren't something hard to work on. Yes they are not hard at all. You know why?  Because you can pronounce the  'H'. The problem with most Yoruba people is just 'misplacement of the /h/ sound. I understand this struggle because before I turned 13, I didn't know three sounds at all.  I didn't know /r/ , /ch/ and  /dzh/ or (J) sounds.  I always replaced them with /l/, /sh/ and /zh/ respectively.  It took me months to conquer it and it is taking me forever to maintain it. So today, I will help you with the H fa...

I love all the new students in my class. You guys are awesome by the way. 😀😀 Today. I want to give you a better expression for saying that 'you know something very well'. #Offhead? There is nothing like offhead. 'I know it off head' is wrong. #Offhand? What does offhand mean? It mean without previous thought or consideration. Just like saying 'on the spur of moment' , 'immediately', 'spontaneously'. So, do you just know something offhand? No...not at all. You can say something offhand, do anything offhand but then it seems weird to say ' I know the answer offhand'. It is normal 'to say the answer offhand'. Do you get my drift? People don't know anything spontaneously, rather, they  say what they already know, spontaneously. Now to the final expression #HaveSomethingOffPat? It means to know something or be able to do something perfectly; be perfect master of something . So rather tha...

Good morning beautiful earthlings. I've got another surprise for you today.  If you think that the grammatical blunders we are used to here in Nigeria are finished,  think again. I haven't even gone half way yet.  And as the days go by,  I always stumble upon something I never knew before. Yesterday I wrote  my 4th poem centred  on Child abuse and rape.  It's obvious  many people aren't keen at understanding poetry.  The truth is,  that's where people get to express themselves more with  tons of imageries and metaphors. I may start a class soon where we can discuss literary devices for literary appreciation. Devices  that can give you poetry and your prose the soul that it needs. Anyway,  without further ado, lets get down  to brass tacks. You don't  say I don't take him serious Say I don't take him seriously. Serious is an adjective while seriously is an adverb. The use of 'not quite long'  to sho...

Her Precious Leaf Innocence was lost at the time her life began. In the Sun, petals of hers bloomed and glistened. It was lush, it was beautiful, it was desirable. In her paradise innocence burgeoned Coursing through her to the world’s delight. A whisper in her ears Soil-tilled hands clenched her wrists. Beads of sweats rained on her. Her tiny wrists red in pain. ‘Uncle you hurt me!’ she shrieked Dazing slap flew pass her face. Silence crept in and numbed her mind. Her innocence drowned as the heaviness Of a warrior’s weight weighed her down. She felt it as it sank.  Her quest for vengeance axed. When Pity came to party to polish ‘Himself’ with her innocence Mother said ‘He is just a man. He is your uncle’ And the precious leaf that was her, Jaundiced.   Her heart she laid on burning coal Her eyes shut as lasses with  Bloody thighs and teary eyes Danced around the altar that was her heart. Into thin ...

SAMBISA WE HAIL THEE Once you were forsaken and obscure As white chalk on a white board.  Legs walked through you Yet they took you  for granted. How could we have known that you  Are the beast that now plague our souls. You  open up your mouth and Dark warriors of doom pour into the city  Raining incendiaries like fire and brimstones On the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. As little as you are Your mighty roar awake the universe  And you bask in the Belief That we now stand in  awe of you. Your river  overflows its bank And its sharks swim into the city Bisecting through abdomens and Roasting us into crisps For the scavengers' culinary delight. We fold our arms and watch Not that we cannot war.  The good monsters at the coast fought a righteous war. They did enjoy the Victor they had. What cause do you fight for?  You that swallowed our girls into your marauding self....

Evening Rain Fleeing wind holds the glooming clouds Folding herself along the skyline light breezy bed sheet on their stormy noise No windvane to direct the ways of my emotion. The rain is here let me dance to the tune to the splattering tune of the ground and space in one.  Creating a rain dance from the melody of the rain gods. Listening to the roof as it wails droplets of tears. So the dews will find their way into me through  the window. Giving my heart to love and grooves in psalms They will sing their evensong in the nave of my heart And wash my eyes' heart to watch The angels creating wind tail of fairytale. Of rain that leaves the leaves dancing to wetness. I'll roam the street of muse in the sublime moment I'll station my cross on the hills of drenched despair I'll dance the pagan dance of love and rain And kneel in the mud with my knees knit  to the splashing waters amidst the cold breeze and shivering. Love must find her way into hall of ...

Why are their countries  that seem like they have proper names but are still stuck with  A definite  article ? Why is it the Bahamas,  the Philippines, the Gambia,  the Congo,  the Sudan,  the Lebanon, the Netherlands,  the Hague, the Maldives and the Yemen. The truth is,  I never knew any rule prior  to now.  I have searched for rules and realised that some countries  that were previously referred to with a definite  article like 'The Ukraine', lost it over time. Some  scholars opined that  the reason why these names are like this is because the place names are related to a geographical feature like a group of islands (Bahamas) a river (Congo), a desert (Sudan) or mountain range (Lebanon). Even Ukraine means 'borderline' and to really specify that it is a country,  one is expected  to write it like this 'the Borderline', Since they seceded from Russia,  they have  asserted ...

Good morning KIB students.  Today,  you will get your grammatical emancipation from forgetting to add the definite article 'the' in front of some countries. The other day,  I mentioned a few countries we always  talk about here in Nigeria and how most people forget to add definite article in front of them. The basic confusion that arose was,  why do they really have a definite article in some and not in others? So,  let's get down to brass tacks and understand why that is so. Some countries are just proper noun E.g  Canada, Nigeria,  Ghana,  South Africa,  India,  China,  Japan. These countries don't have a definite article. Countries that have definite articles in front of them always have common nouns in them. 1.The Dominican republic 2. The United States of America or the US 3. The United Kingdoms or the UK 4. The Marshal Islands  5. The northern Mariana's island 6 The United Arab Emirate...

I present to you one of Nigerian's finest up-and-coming gospel artiste. He has  many songs to his credit,  but the songs I want you all to listen to are these three. Truth Potter and Emimimo. These songs have this indescribable beauty and quality  about it.  They are all beautiful ballads with awesome digital sounds that's makes me even wonder who produced the songs. GUC has, in his voice,  a sword that pierces the soul. Download Truth here The song titled Truth will make you fall in love  with jesus. GUC's voice reminds of Jonathan Mcreynold in this song, although  his voice is stronger in texture than Mcreynold's voice. His song is quite as inspiring as Jonathan Mcreynold's.  Download Potter Here. Potter has been my favourite due to the flute that reminds me of Chinese Epic film of people falling in love and fighting war in some vast desert like that. LOL. When I listen to Potter,  I see an angel playing ...

THE BIRTHDAY WISH                                                           Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy 'I wish... I wish... I wish Mum would stop being Daddy...' That was my wish this morning. I had wanted to say more but found it difficult to continue. No, I could not continue, not with the myriad eyes starring at me in open mouthed wonder. They looked at my face then turned to look at mum's face. She also was bereft of words. A spontaneous silence descended on our household this morning and one could easily hear the footsteps of a passing angel. Suddenly, mum recovered from the momentary shock she had been experiencing and with a frown on her face shouted: 'Funmi, get into your room now! Get into your room this instant I say!' Experience has taught me that obedience is a faithful saviour whenever mum gets infuriated as she ...

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 Mid...

Good morning KIB students. I do hope you had a beautiful night rest. A few days ago,  we learnt that food eaten in between lunch and dinner is called high tea,  tea meal or simply 'tea'. What did you have for tea?  I had biscuits and peanuts for tea.  She had jollof rice for tea. Okay let's get down to brass tacks.  We know the word 'Partner',  right? In British English,  you can say 'partner somebody or partner with somebody.   In American English,  it is still the same thing. Here are a few examples. 1.I partnered Chioma at the last dance. 2. She partnered me 3. For me to prosper I need to partner her 4. She was partnered by Emeka. 5. You have to partner someone at the moment. The same thing with 'emphasise'. 'Emphasise on' is wrong both in The UK and the US.  native speakers say  'emphasise something' 1. He emphasised the need to be healthy 2. He emphasised the reason why he couldn't make it. Finally,  when ...

FOR BIAFRA Home, is here; Where twenty nine elders laid their heads on the pillows of clay, And gave up their ghosts as gifts of starry apparitions to the atmosphere. We share the spectre of their last breaths and feelings in the clouds, Through every mountains’ fog and dewy mist on some jocund green leaves. Home, is here; Where countless graves spit forth scarlet springs; Now, there is a red sea, At the backyard of our villages, Flowing from the broken pots of our damsels; A symbolism of lynched aspirations, Hacked hopes and marred futures in the embodiment of inspiration. Home, is here; Where we share our particles of smiles, Near graves decorated with genocide, Writing the names of countless bones, On the frame of our heart posts. With countless candles of smiles, Lit with stars of laughter. We will brighten our home, Found on the solace of death, As home is also life after tomorrow, So I come home; With love dedicated to the lost particles of smiles ...

Good evening  KIB students. Thank you for coming to class. Please,  without further ado lets get down to brass tack. Someone said that an On Air Personality,  disputed the fact that 'thinking outside the box' is correct. The OAP said it is 'thinking out of the box'. King Ifey says that both of them are correct. The ' exact same thing' may seem like tautology, but then it is used in standard English for emphasis. Just the same way 'extreme end', 'little bit' and 'plenty big enough ' are all allowed in English. Finally,  the meal eaten in between breakfast time and lunch time is ' brunch while the meal eaten  in between lunch time and dinner is called? Well,  if you Google it,  you would find lunner,  linner and dinch. I guess people use these terms in various part of  the world. To be very precise about what the meal is called in British English lets look at the word 'Teatime' Teatime is the time in the late afternoon...

Good morning KIB students. I immensely appreciate your support to the growth of the blog. Let's get down to brass tacks, shall we? 'Chosed' is not standard English. The past tense of 'choose'  is 'chose' and the past participle is 'chosen'. I have talked about 'talkative'.  It seems a lot of people haven't  really understood its usage. 'Talkative' is an adjective and not a noun. It is wrong to say that someone is a talkative. The girls in my class are talkatives. Well it is also wrong. Angry is an adjective,  right? The same way you cannot say he is an angry.  The same way you are not to say 'he is a talkative' This,  in Linguistics,  makes what is known as syntactic noise. Because angry and talkative are adjectives, they should be expressed like this. He is angry He is talkative She is an angry lady She is a talkative lady If you are talkative , then you  can be a journalist. Everyone on KIB is talkative, ...

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Good morning KIB  earthlings. Lets get down to brass tacks. Let's look at the use of verbs. Yesterday someone brought a statement to me and enquired if it were correct. 'many a fellow knows the truth' Many a driver ploughs this road daily' 'Many a teacher doesn't know how to  English'. All these sentences are correct. According to Oxford dictionary, Many a: ( formal: always used with a singular noun and a singular verb) means a large number of something. E.g many a young person has experimented with drugs.   So,  don't pluralise anything in the sentence because there is an 'A' already. 'Many a teachers like to flog their students ' is wrong. 'A great deal' How do you use 'a great deal'? A great deal takes a singular verb. E.g A great deal of bananas is planted in the north. 'A great deal' takes a singular verb.  Finally,  the pronunciation of impasse is /'ampa:s/ Not (impas) It's not Enem...

Good morning KIB students. I'm glad to see more people in class today. Most of you had cut class to go see Facebook reality show. It came in different episodes. Very interesting I must say. You all went there to savour the juiciness of the 'meet and greet' tale. Anyway,  thank God you are here now. Let me give you the scoop. Let's get down to brass tacks. Let's look at these three irregular verbs. Cast Broadcast Forecast. I am yet to hear anyone use the tenses of these verbs correctly. Even media personalities usually make these grave mistakes you are about to read. 1. He casted them in to a lake of fire 2. It need to be casted away. 3. They have finally broadcasted the news to everyone 4. When is it going to broadcasted? 5.  It's has been forecasted that it will rain tonight. 6  meteorologist have forecasted that there would be a massive flood  tomorrow. Only 5 and 6 are correct here. Cast and broadcast remain the same always. Their past tense...

An awe-striking song 'Ajoro by Icon' has been rocking the  internet since its official  release  on MTN music+, 12th of July. 

Hello KIB students.  Yesterday everyone thought I stirred up the hornet's  nest about brisket bone and biscuit bones on  the Nigerian 'internetspere' For your information,  the argument began from Nairaland not from KIB. Let's get down to brass tacks. Remember that here on KIB, I try to teach UK or British English not US or American  English.

Fantastic morning to my KIB students.  Do you ever think  ideas of what to teach you daily will soon disappear into thin air?  Well it won't happen anytime soon. Do you need the scoop for the day?  Then let's get down to brass tacks. A person who  repairs vehicles is known as an auto-mechanic to car-mechanic  to technician. Those that are fond of pronouncing mechanics as 'mekniks' should know that's wrong. Mechanics is pronounced 'mikanik. A place where cars are repaired  is called a Garage or an  'automobile repair shop ', not a mechanic. Garage is pronounced as. /ˈɡærɪdʒ/ (GArij ) or  /ˈɡæra:(d)ʒ/ (GAraaj) Americans say.  /ɡəˈra:(d)ʒ /gaRAAJ) Finally,  the idiom for today is 'play the field'.  What does it mean to play the field? It means to indulge in a series of sexual relationships without committing oneself to anyone. Obviously a lot of guys like p...

Hello KIB students.  I hope you kipped well . We have something vital to learn. 1.Elbow grease 2.More elbow grease 3.More grease to your elbow. These three expressions are usually used by Nigerians when they want to praise someone and say that they hope the person continues to have success. The truth is,  'elbow grease' is the only recognised English expression among the three and it doesn't depict 'praise at  all. So,  the question is,  what exactly is 'Elbow grease'? Elbow grease means Hard work especially when you are cleaning; hard scrubbing. Strenuous physical effort.  Elbow grease , according to Wikipedia,  is an idiom for working hard at manual labour . It is a figure of speech for humorously indicating nothing else but manual work is required. Here are examples. When someone is scrubbing the floor and it  still doesn't look clean, you can say. Hey,  more elbow grease please. The d...

My beautiful KIB students, today,  you will be happy learning the correct way to express yourselves. Nigerians have a way of changing typical English expressions to suit them. Someone still had to argue with me that the English expression 'Better the devil you know than the devil you don't "  is so wrong and does not make sense.  He opines that angel should be there.  He forgets that English can be quite illogical to our Nigerian minds. Lol. People say things like. 'He has not even proposed talk more of walking down the aisle with me' 'He does not have a car,  talk less a house" Well these two expressions or collocations are not common in British and American English. Here are the universal conventional English collocations for Nigerian English's  'Talk more of' and 'Talk less of',  #LetAlone 'Let alone' is  used to indicate that something is far less likely or suitable than something else already mentioned. E.g ...

Good morning beautiful students  of KIB school.  I am glad to see your beautiful faces.   Before I get down to brass tacks on today's class,  let me give the correct English expression for this Igbo word.  Atita Nwa ngwere. 

Katriel Okojie is a Nigerian musician who is based in Canada working in the vineyard of God.  She has released her debut song titled 'lost with out you' I can't even start to tell you how wonderful the song is.   I am so glad that someone somewhere in Canada is making Nigeria proud. 

#ComeToClassWithKingIfey #WrongEnglishWeSpeak  Good morning beautiful earthlings of King Ifey's blog(KIB). You all are officially KIB students😀😀. Welcome to the permanent site.  You can rest assured your spoken English will get an unprecedented make-over right here on KIB. Alright let's get  down to brass tacks.  Today,  we are looking at the idiom Rest assured What does it mean

#ComeToClassWithKingIfey #WrongEnglishWeSpeak Hello everyone. I hope you had a good night rest?  I feel very rejuvenated this morning and I haven't even worked out. LOL. Anyway,  let's get down to brass tacks. Today,  something about your spoken English will either change or   you completely give up on English. But please,  don't give up on learning,  okay? Even if you decide you don't need 'better spoken English' just know it okay? I'd hate  of you  disgrace yourself by trying to correct people who speak the right English  only because you locked your mind against learning better expressions. Remember,  English is not a logical language. Keep everything logical to yourself and learn the best native speakers use their words. Let's look at #borrow #lend Nigerians have murdered this  particular word, 'borrow'. We undressed it and wore it a different outfit. Hardly do native speakers understand  it when we use ...