EBERE WABARA

(THE GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY, December 31) Noun: sheath; verb: sheathe.

DAILY TRUST of December 28 circulated four solecisms that bordered on carelessness:

“They equally advocated for a national conference….” Delete ‘for’ in the interest of lexical orderliness.

“Unions, others commend FG over payment of NITEL workers’ entitlements” (Leadership, December 25) ‘Commend’ takes ‘for’ (not ‘over’).

“Polls: Plateau police assures of readiness” (DAILY TRUST, December 25) Two dimensions: the word, ‘police’, admits only plural verbs. ‘Assure’ must function with ‘somebody’ or ‘oneself’. So, Plateau police assure residents of readiness.

Wrong: “Give me meat”; Right: (Give me some meat)

Wrong: “Your son has been there since”’; Right: (Your son has been there for some time).

Wrong: “You know Chidi now”; Right: You should know Chidi.

Wrong: “Adanma, wait now for Chibuike”; Right: Adanma, please wait for Chibuike.

FEEDBACK

Several TV reporters today (last Tuesday) reported that many have casted their votes. Is ‘casted’ the past tense of ‘cast’? (08034966391) No sir, ‘cast’ is ‘cast’.

With the plethora of faux pas by users of English language, can you through your column inform readers that a dictionary is not the sole authority on usage of words? Can the curfew in Kaduna be from “6 in the morning to 6 in the evening” as repeatedly read on Radio Nigeria? Is this not another goof? (Tony Ike Okoh/08097872801/PH) Yes.