(Dear Grammar Nazis, kindly excuse my intentional errors, for this post alone)
After writing about H for humor, I thought I would follow it up with another post of the same theme. So here it is, our very own language, customized to the needs of the Indian Soul, Inglish :Indian English.
Indians are a funny breed. Seriously funny I tell you. In the past two weeks I’ve watched more than 2 videos on how funny Indians are and how even more funny their English is. So I’ve compiled a list of certain phrases that are considered typically Indian. Not necessarily erroneous ones, just a different way of speaking.
Here you go,
- Yes I’m sure(pronounced shhuvar).
- What is this yaa?
- I told you no?
- Why are you keep on (oooon) Asking me this question?
- You also got the same phone Ah? Me too yaa. Same to same.
- Now I am Totally(Totttaly) Confused.
- Yes huh? No huh?
Why ya? - I just cannot able to take it anymore.
- I cannot cope up with him.
- You will itself speak like this means, what will others say?
- If I say go means, you will go away ah?
- Your(Yuvar) sweet name?
- A B C D E F G H(etch)I J K el em en o peeee (elemenopeee)
- Why are you silent? Tell tell.
It’s okay yaar. Tell.
Tell means tell. - What is there in this and all?
- What did I do to you? Why are you doing this to me?
- Why are you asingapadithifying me like this?(Chennaites, this one is for you :-))
- Will you please stop mokkai-pottufying?
- Please go away. Go da. Go.
- Add little(pronounced littil) salt to it. That ‘littil” is always pronounced with a lot of emphasis on the tt.
- All my sister-in-laws have come today.
- Don’t add fastly. Add oil slowly(ssllooowly).
- Hello, even I know this okay.
- Don’t put too much scene ok.
- If I get angry no, even I don’t know what I will do.
- You came back from the movie so soon huh?
Finally, I’ll leave you with an incident that my friend told me. When my friend was travelling to Bombay, he came across this conversation.
Flight Security : “Sir, your boarding pass please?”
Passenger: “No pass. Full ticket I took. Here.”
A little later, the frequent flyers were headed to the Lounge for lunch. Our passenger thought it was for all. One airport staff stopped him and asked for his Frequent flyer card. Once he told he did not have any such card, he was told that he was not eligible for the lunch at the Lounge.
The furious passenger had then said, “Here, take your boarding pass, I don’t want”
Seriously funny people no? tell me no? 🙂
As The Mind Wanders 
50 responses to “ABC Challenge #9 :Inglish(Indian-English).”
haha! good compilation ya 😉 how you thought of this ya ? 😛 nice no? 😀
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//I just cannot able to take it anymore.
Classic!!! Cannot be able to tolerate this only!! 😛
hehe..nice post on Indian English!!! 🙂
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Very Very funny ya. It is like laughing at my family only. They are always saying this you know.
This is another dialect by itself and gives a peculiar Indian feel to it. After all English isn't our mother tongue.
Well done, Ashwini.
Joy always,
Susan
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Absolutely funny !! 🙂 Very true ! We Indians have the best English possible 😉 Nice compilation Ashwini
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Tell was the most hilarious. We know our Inglish and we are proud of it naa…:)
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HaHa…We are fhunny Indians ya! All these words, I've listened quite often, particularly in Chennai. The way we literally translate and speak English (Inlipish)!
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LOL! very funny! 🙂
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I think most of them are exact translations of Tamil/hindi phrases. Besides, Indians are over-emotional, and that reflects in their talking. I too do it many times. It's a lot of fun 🙂
Destination Infinity
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Between all these ppl speaking inglish,if i improvise i am named peter!!lol!!
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you are funnnny yaa 🙂
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Hehe… this was funny. Indianised language has its own flair, more than the ya's and the na's… I like the way tamil words have been incorporated to dialogues with a -ing tag, asingapadithifying, kollumbifying, kallakify… it's hilarious and entertaining.
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Like they say, this happens wonly in India.
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That was an awesomatic of the brilliant compilation. 😉
Super ya! 🙂
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Room pottu yosichifying ya 🙂 Thank you 🙂
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Thank you Kally 🙂
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Yes, though it isn't our mother tongue, the way we give it an Indian touch is amusing 🙂
Glad you liked it Susan 🙂
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Bestest English 🙂 Thank you 🙂
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I am extremely madly deeply proud of it 😀
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Yes, I realized that most of this happens since we try and translate things word by word from our Mother tongue.
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Thank you:-)
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Yes. As Anu mentioned, we tend to translate word by word from what we speak in our Mother tongue and hence this funny slang 🙂
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How did I ever forget mentioning the famous 'Peter'. Thanks for reminding me 🙂
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He He. Thank you 🙂
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This 'fy-ing' language is typically South Indian 🙂 And as you say, it's really hilarious and entertaining 🙂
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Very True 😀
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Thank you 🙂
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There are several more like 'what will four people say',”I cannot be showing my teeth to all” or 'I have work over my head'.As Rajesh said they are exact translations of Tamil idioms.
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Since English is the scond language for most of us, we are bound to have our failings:) Nicely captured the essence!
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The airport scene was good. Such jokes are mostly reserved for the ubiquitous poor Sardars.
The usage or phrases that we coined in Inglish are supposed to be literal translations and that was where we erred. The spirit and essence , the meaning was seldom conveyed the way it must be.
Well, the English living in various regions of the UK are not above all this either. They have some queer pronunciation. They hardly sound like English or spoken language but like the chuckles of the bush men.
The late joker ( President) Zail Singh has been assigned a joke that only he may have coined. When asked what ASLV stands for he reportedly said said – “another satellite launch vehicle”.
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I am surprised to see similar post which I was about to post Today. After seeing yours I am thinking to do more analysis for my post. Good one. Keep going. Please forgive our Indians.
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'I cannot able to take this anymore' or 'I cannot able to understand you' is an evergreen line especially among our college lecturers.
Its refreshing to hear/read 'our' English – the comfort level is just not comparable to other accents of the English language.
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It is very amusing to listen to the desi version of English or Inglish as you rightly call it. However, sometimes hardcore Indian supporters of Queen's English are also in for some rebuff, like the one who pointed out to Winston Churchill some grammatical errors in his speech and got a terse reply , “English is what an Englishman speaks….” There are some inventive souls like the one I encountered once repeatedly uttering 'nactually' much to my confusion whether she meant 'naturally' or 'actually '.
Nice post as usual !
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I came to your blog for the first time “just abhi” and totally enjoyed it ya !
Seriously we Indians have taken the English language and have twisted it into something unique :)An American colleague says that sometimes he is not able to understand the english expressions Indians use !
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hahaahahah…..where did you get them yaa? Tell me noooo? Pls yaaa 😀
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Awesome story Ashwini! And nice obervation too.. We come across this langauge everywhere no? (intentional).. Even at work, even with top bosses around, even from our top bosses! 😀 I guess, we have accepted to live with it. We have our own Inglish and we are proud of it. Even Russel Peters is proud of it! 😀
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Exactly KP sir. Word by word translation!
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Thank you Sir :-), But I'm sure, even if it was our Mother Tongue, we would have our own versions 🙂
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You are right, the essence is seldom conveyed, the way it was originally intended to. I happened to watch a video that shows the very different dialects of English, spoken in and around UK.
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Glad that my post makes you want to think more!
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Ha ha, You got it. I've seen so many of our college lecturers use the same sentence, year after year. It was from them that I noticed and put it here.
True. Sometimes it is very difficult to follow what the other person says.
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Thank you Sir. Yes, sometimes people make up their own versions of the language and expect others to follow suit.
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Welcome to my Blog, Ruchira 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Even native speakers of the language find it difficult to understand our version of their language, right?
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I recollected everything and compiled a list 🙂
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Yes Binu. I noted down most of these phrases, when I happened to listen to conversations between people at work. 🙂
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Its really nice of you to observe this, to which we can really say Indian English Trademark. It will make the British forget their own .. haha nice one 😀 btw this is the first time i am seeing your blog. Good work. It really tempts me to ask you how you managed to create a nice one? 🙂
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Hahahaha! 😀 Ash, this was one of the most hilarious posts I have read in a long long time. I read it out load in the same accent too. 😀 Enjoyable read, wonderful observations. 😀
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Thank you Hariharan. Welcome to my Blog. Glad you like it :-).Happy to know you think it's nice 🙂
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Thank you Akshay 🙂 Nice to observe such things and write them no? 😛
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Awesome post yaa. ROFL.
In case you plan to write a post on Inglish spellings, please start with 'Congrates'.
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one of the best collections I've seen in a while.. hilarious! 🙂
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