Know your English
“Deface, efface (A. N. Ragbavan, Madras).”
“‘Deface’ means ‘to spoil the appearance of, to disflgure.’ When you deface something, you spoil its external appearance.
The wall was defaced by several slogans.
‘Efface’ means ‘to rub or wipe out.’ It means the complete removal of something.
The letters on the coin have been e
aced through constant use.
I cannot e
ace that unpleasant incident from my memory.
‘Efface oneself’ means ‘to make oneself inconspicuous or regard oneself as unimportant.
You won’t notice him in any company. He is so self-e
acing.
The noun form of ‘efface’ is effacement.’ The noun form of ‘deface’ is ‘defacement.’ The stress is on the second syllable in ‘deface’ and ‘efface.’ The ‘e’ is ‘de’ and the flrst ‘e’ in ‘efface’ are pronounced like the ‘i’ in ‘ink.’”
“Make chalk of one and cheese of another (R. Kulkarni, Bombay)”
“‘Chalk’ stands for something useless and ‘cheese’ for something of value.
When you make chalk of one and cheese of another, you treat two things or persons unequally. You favour one person over the other.
She makes chalk of Krishna and cheese of Raju.”
“Rest assured or be rest assured (A. S. N. Murthy, Mysore)”
It is ‘rest assured.’ ‘Rest assured’ means ‘be certain that…, feel certain.’
You may rest assured that your mother is ne here.
‘Rest assured’ is a formal expression. It is followed by ‘that.’”
“The Present Continuous or
Progressive Tense”
“It was mentioned earlier that verbs like smell, taste, understand, doubt, dislike, know, love are not used in the progressive. These are verbs which refer to a state of mind or feeling. There are some contexts in which these are used in the progressive tense. ‘Have’ is not used in the progressive tense when it is a ‘state’ verb. I have a job, not I am having a job. However it is used in the progressive tense when it denotes an activity.
He was having his dinner when I went to see him. It means that dinner had started and was continuing and had not ended. When ‘think’ is used in the sense of option, it does not take the progressive. I think he is a fool, not I am thinking he is a fool. When it is used in the sense of ‘plan, consider,’ it is used in the progressive. I am thinking of attending his wedding. When we go into a garden, we smell owers. The sensation of smelling happens to us. When you take a ower and start smelling it deliberately, you can say ‘I am smelling this ower.’ You use ‘seeing’ in certain contexts.
“Can you see this?”
“No.”
“I will bring it closer. Can you see it?” “Yes. Now I am seeing it.”
Some more examples:
I can’t hear you. I am hearing you now. I could not hear you earlier. There is something wrong with the phone.
You are imagining things.”
Published in The Hindu on February
25, 1992.