Know your english

“Wow! Nice T-shirt! Did you buy it when you went shopping yesterday?”

“That’s right! I bought several yesterday.”

“You bought several T-shirts? Really? I thought you hated going shopping.”

“I do! But believe it or not, I splurged on shoes and clothes yesterday.”

“Splurged? Does it mean you spent a lot of money on clothes and shoes?”

“That’s exactly what it means. The word ‘splurge’ is normally used to mean to spend freely. When you splurge on something, you spend extravagantly. You buy yourself something that is pretty expensive.”

“I see. Can I say, many Indians splurge on jewellery?”

“You certainly can! Nowadays, young couples splurge on trips to foreign countries.”

“Yes, that’s true. If I had money, I'd splurge on a car!”

“One can also say ‘splurge out’. I’m planning to splurge out on a motorcycle.”

“Splurge out on a motorcycle? Is something wrong? You’re usually very careful when it comes to money. Today, you’re ready to splurge on things that you ...”

“Let’s just say I’m in the mood to splurge. I made a killing in the stock market last week.”

“What are you talking about? You made a killing?”

“When you say that you made a killing, you mean you made tons of money in a very short period of time. In other words, you ...”

“You made a huge profit on something. My uncle made a killing when he sold his old house in Nagpur.”

“Looks like your favourite star’s movie didn’t make a killing at the box office.”

“That’s not surprising at all. Saw the movie a couple of days ago, and I found it absolutely boring. It’s the story of a rich man who decides to adopt a child because he has no issues. The child ...”

“The word ‘issue’ is frequently used ...”

“I know that it’s frequently used to mean ‘child’. In the movie, the father has no children. He has no issues, and he decides ...”

“When used to refer to a child, ‘issue’ is an uncountable noun. You don’t say, he has no issues, but issue.”

“But a lot of people say ‘issues’ to refer to children.”

“It’s wrong. For most native speakers, this use of the word ‘issue’ is limited to legal contexts. In everyday conversation, they prefer to use ‘child’ or ‘children’.”

“I see. How about this example? The king died without an issue.”

“It should be ‘without issue’. The king died without issue. You can be very specific as well. The old king died without male issue.”

“Talking about kings and children, how do you pronounce h..e..i..r? I’ve heard ...”

“There is a tendency among some people to pronounce it like the word ‘hair’. The correct pronunciation, however, is ‘air’. Raj knew that he was the heir to the family fortune.”

“The young man claimed he was the heir to the throne.”

“Good example. Unlike ‘issue’, we can use ‘heir’ in the plural. The old man’s heirs were disappointed because he had left all his money to charity.”

“Sensible thing to do, I guess.”

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