Know Your English

Dead ringer

“Good morning, sir.”

“Good morning, Lalith. Beaming because we have won the World Cup?”

“I am happy, sir. What is the meaning of the word you used?”

“Which word?”

“Beam.”

“Oh, to beam means to smile happily.”

“Yes, sir, I was beaming. I enjoyed the last shot—a ‘sixer’—from Dhoni. I have a friend who looks like Dhoni.”

“Ah, you have a friend who is a dead ringer for Dhoni.”
“Dead ringer?”

“Yeah, dead ringer is a person who looks exactly like another person.”

“Sir, what is the difference between die and dead?”

“Die is a verb. It tells what happened. He died in an accident. Dead is an adjective. It tells us that a person or a thing is no longer alive.”

“Sir, do things also live?”

“Well, a language lives for example.  Some languages die—that means the language is no longer spoken by people.”

“Oh.”

“Dead can also mean not working. He lifted the handset, and found that the line was dead.”

“Yeah, Sumaidh’s mobile was not working because the battery was dead.”

“Oh, that’s a good example. Dead has another meaning—already used. He opened the match box to find that all the sticks are dead. When you say dead bottle or dead glass, you mean a bottle or glass someone has finished drinking from in a bar or a restaurant.”

“Sir, what is the meaning of in the dead of the night?”

“In the dead of the night means in the middle of the night. He heard the door creaking open in the dead of the night”.

“Hm.”

“We can use the word dead with the meaning completely. It was dead quiet before the bowler bowled the last ball. When Dhoni drove it for a six, the crowd became boisterous.”

“Sir, what’s the meaning of boisterous?”

“Boisterous means noisy with a lot of energy.”

“Why, sir, even the streets were boisterous.”

“Indeed. Let me close with the dead hand of something. The dead hand of the politicians often send investigating agencies against a dead end. The dead hand of something means a strong or powerful influence which slows or stops someone’s progress. A dead end is a street with no way out. A dead end is also a situation where no more progress is possible. A dead end job is one with low wages and no chance of progress.”

“That was informative, sir. Thank you.”

my experience at veta

I thought that learning to speak English was boring; that was till I enrolled in a course at Veta. Rajgopalan's classes are not just amusing, but amazing. His timing, and the way he brings across subtle differences in usage were eyeopeners. Here's an example: what is the difference between 'find time' and 'get time'?


 If you find time to do something, you allot some time from a busy schedule to do something. Don't bother, I'll find time to reply to your text message.


If you get time to do something, you have time available to you to do something.Whenever I get time, I read.