[mayankk]

You want incomprehensible, you should check out Collin Farrell in Intermission. That brogue, you will need subtitles. And no, his appearance and accent in Scrubs cant hold a candle to Intermission.

[samaspire]

Mr. X, come in the afternoon.

OR

Mr.X, come after noon.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Either really. Context might make a difference though. You mean today? Then Come this afternoon would be specific.

[samaspire]

Talking about noons, when exactly does the afternoon start;12:01? And when does it end?

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Mr. X, come in the afternoon.

OR

Mr.X, come after noon.

Both are correct. The first syntax is more general, in that it indicates you may come in the afternoon today or any other day.
The second one seems specific to 'today'. You'd say this to someone that comes to you in the morning (when you are not available to meet people, for example).

Originally Posted by samaspire

Talking about noons, when exactly does the afternoon start;12:01? And when does it end?

Generally agreed upon as 1200 hrs to 1500 hrs.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Generally agreed upon as 1200 hrs to 1500 hrs.

I would relate it to the working day, and extend that to 5.0pm. Google define suggests midday to evening --- but then we have to run after a definition of evening!

It also suggests that afternoon can also mean after lunch. Again, with regard to the working day, appointments, promises to get things done, etc, this seems practical.

So nothing formal; nothing astronomical. Not to be used for navigation

[Thad E Ginathom]

Right. So... read this, err, ok?

The Secret to Stopping Your Ummms (BBC)

This, very simply, is absolutely the article that I have, um, wanted to ram down the err, what I mean to say is, throat of 70% of the sales presenters I have ever heard, many TV announcers and reporters, and vast numbers of other public speakers.

In fact, "Very simply," is actually an example from a sales presentation by someone I worked with, and, after the first few minutes I didn't hear any of his other words at all. I was just sitting there waiting for these two, which came thick and fast.

This is an article that can change lives. This article tells you, if not how to make people listen to you, then at least how not to put them off. And this world, that puts people ahead. It is a secret weapon. People will not necessarily realise that they listened to you more than the guy who used all the filler words, but they will have done.

It is actually advice that was given to me 40 years ago, but I thought it had become lost knowledge, hence my enthusiasm on finding it today.

For the public speakers, there is only one extra thing I can add: do not make senseless movements with your hands and arms. Do not move your hands up and down in rhythm with your speech. If you have a useful and appropriate gesture to make, make it. otherwise keep still. What do you want people to concentrate on: your hands, or what you are saying? This one I got from drama class nearly fifty years ago!

[saket77]

Brexit, Rexit and now Nexit...I am tired of these terms and such stupid usages. I am really worried where our future 'SMS lingo' generation is going. And moreso when these words are (not only) used but also devised by mainstream media.

There was a time when 'color' was 'colour' and 'authorize' was 'authorise'. Now hardly anyone knows!

We are probably moving from being a knowledge base to being a mere data base!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by saket77

Brexit, Rexit and now Nexit...I am tired of these terms and such stupid usages. I am really worried where our future 'SMS lingo' generation is going. And moreso when these words are (not only) used but also devised by mainstream media.

portmanteaugate, eh?

There was a time when 'color' was 'colour'

Color is correct in US English, and always has been. On this, and a few other spellings, I suppose we are free to choose the one that suits.

and 'authorize' was 'authorise'.

Apparently, Bringlish () originally had the -ize ending. America kept it, and British English changed to -ise, leaving people claiming that -ize was "wrong" when it came back across the Atlantic.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by saket77

There was a time when 'color' was 'colour' and 'authorize' was 'authorise'. Now hardly anyone knows!

Schools in India are much more flexible now especially when it comes to spelling words the American way as compared to the strict British way only when some of us were in school. The good thing though (in my daughter's school for example) is that the teachers explain both of them and highlight the differences

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm biased... but really, I see no wrong in following the American version of English.

What I object to is wrong versions of English such as forming new words when existing ones, err, exist, and misusing words such as acronym... generally, the MBA-people stuff.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

misusing words such as acronym... generally, the MBA-people stuff.

Well I understand exactly what you mean but its not the work of every MBA graduate. Even otherwise such acronyms or references are meant for the inner-circle of the office such that they can understand quickly what is being spoken about and should not be used outside of work. It depends really, on what kind of level the business-graduate is at, freshers who just graduated use it extensively because it seems fashionable but it sticks on and they fail to understand that such shortened words are just for convenience.

Even whist doing the MBA course I preferred to use original words like presentation instead of the famous "PPT" and assignment instead of "project". It doesn't become project until its done in real world in MY view.
The rest of business-related terms like deliverables, bottom-line, product cycles, core-competency etc will remain that.. words that make day-to-day interactions within the office easier. By and large those with the best of English knowledge in this country are usually MBA graduates from what I've seen.

Funny story - I myself counted on English to take me through the 99%ile in CAT (an entrance test for MBA), I repeatedly nailed the 95%ile+ in that section during mock tests but in actuals my story went like this > Quantitative Analysis - 91%ile, Data Interpretation - 99.8%ile and English - 78%ile I was one of the unluckiest people that year as my regular performance from Verbal section would've put me over the top.. unfortunately I had to eat humble pie that year. I scored high-95's in other tests though.

[noopster]

"PPT" and "project" are perfectly fine in my opinion. I think Thad means the kind of shorthand that often gets tossed around by managers and gain acceptance simply because they are so pervasive. e.g. "Please revert for further clarifications". I have lost count of the number of times I have explained to someone that "to revert" means to go back to an earlier position. So when a developer "reverts code" he is using the term correctly. But if he asks me to "revert" to an email he sends- he is dead wrong, he means "respond" or "get back".

There is the much abused "paradigm shift", the ridiculous process of "verbing" erstwhile nouns ("Please inbox me" is the latest horror making the rounds), TLAs (Three letter acronyms, what else ) that are typically associated with MBAs. Thankfully my B-school stint coincided with the emergence (and subsequent wild popularity) of Dilbert, so am wary of falling into the trap. The trouble is: it's a convenient shorthand, so sometimes one succumbs to peer pressure!

[Thad E Ginathom]

ha ha, you guys miss (and prove) my point. TLA is not an acronym!

English thrives on imaginative invention. Shakespeare apparently invented hundreds of words (true or myth, I don't actually know!)

But yes, I object to the making up of words by people who are too ignorant to know the real ones. There is no excuse: these days we do not even have to get up and fetch a book, as Google Define is just a few keystrokes away. I use it almost every day to check spellings and meanings.

Sorry for the MBA slur: I guess there must be a lot of MBAs around here. It is partly due to interfacation with another rant area of my life. Ask the person in the bank if they have an MBA, and the answer is probably yes. Speciality, finance and banking? No: marketing!

Now, even there, I have met a number of amazingly brilliant and interesting marketing people, including the guy who started this thread, who brought to the table great contributions to their work and to the world --- but all too many of them seem to mostly talk empty rubbish in made-up silly words.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

ha ha, you guys miss (and prove) my point. TLA is not an acronym!

I didn't say TLA was an acronym. TLA stands for three-letter acronym. Like ASS for after-sales service, VAT for value-added tax, etc. MBAs (especially bankers) are obsessed with creating more and more such ones. The "3" is not sacrosanct, you can have longer TLAs too

Edit: No offence taken, Thad. Though, strictly speaking, I am a mere PGDM and not an MBA. But that is the equivalent of this exchange from The Phantom comics:

Stewardess: Sir, you can't take that dog on the plane.
Phantom: Don't worry, Devil's not a dog. he's a wolf!