hey aubrey how's it going i am great how are you today i'm great we have a really cool topic today
um we're going to be talking about some english words that are used in india that are not used
in other english-speaking countries and we're going to explain the equivalence in american
english and talk about whether or not you should use these words on the ielts exam
um this is one of those episodes that aubrey and i just can get super dorky about because it's so
fun it's really fun yeah i love it so much like i love any time when i learn something new right
yeah yes i speak english but this is new to me so if i'm able to travel to india i love that now i'm
going to understand what someone means when they say some of these things because these are things
that are said in english in india and but i've never heard them before so this is really fun
okay um so we had a comment from a youtube subscriber guys if you haven't checked out
our channel ielts energy tv go check that out guys you can see videos of all the podcasts on there
see what me and aubry look like we're amazing uh so subscribe to ieltsenergytv on youtube and guys
remember we also have a free ielts quiz for you and we made free resources to help you prepare so
go to all yours english dot com slash my score to check that out guys um all right so i'm going to
read the comment from the subscriber uh there are many words which are only used in indian english
but british speakers don't know about these words can i use such words in ielts or should i use only
these words which are used in english-speaking countries um and then he included a youtube video
for us to check out some indian english words aubrey and i did some research on our own um
so yeah the the long we'll get into examples but long story short no especially his question right
british he said british speakers don't know these words well american english speakers won't know
them either confirm right if you who is the examiner that's what you have to think about
will the examiner know these words no well it will count poorly for vocab right exactly
when it comes to both american english british english new zealand australia all of that slang
we all pretty much know it we hear it on tv we hear it on movies we hear other native speakers
use it you can use that on the exam right the examiner's going to be familiar with it
but if it's this kind of you know words that are not used by english speakers most likely
the examiner won't be familiar with it all of these we're going to talk about i had
never heard before so if i were the examiner i would not know what you meant and i would assume
you were making a mistake exactly exactly so it will decrease your vocab score guys
um i would say if you know for sure that this is a term used in a primarily english-speaking country
right um then like go for it british english american english like aubrey said they're all fine
um but let's get into some of these examples so the first one we found
was and i'm gonna put a caveat in here if we are wrong if you do not say this in indian english
we apologize in advance aubrey and i tried really hard to do the best research we could
google may have lied to us so the first example we found of something different is that indian
in indian english you might say alliance instead of what we say marriage which is very interesting
because alliance is an english word we do use it but it does not mean marriage right a marriage is
an alliance of sorts but if ever i say alliance i always think of like games strategy games where
i'm gonna make an alliance with someone and now we're on the same team right now i have your
loyalty so it it has a different meaning for sure well that word ally right it comes from alliance
right so it's like these friends that help you with stuff like that's that's an ally um it could
be more serious like we talked about uh in world war ii right the allies were the people on the
side of america and whatever um so yeah definitely a lot different than marriage uh in british
english and american english we say marriage not alliance um and here's like here's the big
danger is that this word does exist in english it just doesn't mean what you think it does
so again that really brings down the vocab score all right what's the next example aubrey yes so
i would say short sleeves for any shirt like this that has a short sleeve and in india they say half
sleeves which is interesting because there are we'll say three quarter length sleeves which seems
crazy but for a sleeve that goes to here but we never say half sleeves and some of these like um
i saw instead of shorts you might say like short pant or half pant in indian english and that's
something i heard in south africa as well so like some of these terms do exist in far-flung places
where english is used but again like you have to consider where you're at if you're taking the exam
in north america in england in australia then you need to focus on like that country's
english more than anything right they have sleeves they're going to think oh they meant short sleeves
they said that wrong totally capillary score and the next one is quite different too uh so we would
say bus stop or bus station two different things right a bus station is bigger it's a building
a bus stop is just like a bench where a bus stops um but we read that in indian english they might
say bus stand that sounds more british to me but according to the resource i read in england they
also say bus stop or bus station so bus stand i would understand what you mean but again
it is not quite right right exactly if we ever have a stand in the united states it's like
a hot dog stand like a a small food stand where you're gonna buy some kind of snack that's a stand
right right like in farmers markets right they're all like stands all the little booths that we
could save yeah totally different um all right this next one is also awesome aubry can you tell
us about the next one yes so in india they would say trial room and we say a fitting room where you
would try on clothes it makes sense to say try i'm taking this clothing and for a trial totally but
i still as the examiner i might struggle to now wait what are they talking about i definitely
would use fitting room if you want to talk about the place where you try on clothes in a store
yeah um because the first the first uh connected idea that comes to mind if i hear a student say
trial room i think you mean court a courthouse you know like a courthouse exactly because a trial
the primary definition for that for us is like the whole process in court where you are in front of a
judge maybe you committed a crime or something like that's a trial right so totally different
connotation in our english but i like it i mean it does make sense we just don't say that you
guys um another really classic example that i would understand because i've heard it before
um replacing mr with sir or replacing uh miss or mrs with ma'am like i hear a lot of students from
that region not just india but the surrounding areas as well say like ma'am jessica right like
that's not we don't really say that that's not a title we use right exactly and if we
use sir as a title it means they're knighted in england right sir elton john we can call
him sir because he was knighted by the queen but nobody else gets that title sir paul mccartney
i love that they are nights knighted um yeah guys so we say sir but not how you're saying it in
indian english right it's not um it's not a title like that like if i'm being polite to someone
older than me and i don't know their name i i say sir still i try to be very respectful um and i'm
like oh sorry sir right if someone's older than me but it's not if i know their name i don't say sir
yeah that's right it is interesting too and every now and then i'll hear like a kid say hey mister
and then if it's mike it'll be like oh that's not as polite let's say excuse me sir or maybe in old
movies you should be like hey mister what's up i was just like i'm picturing like like newsies
you know like if you're some kid selling papers in the 1930s in brooklyn you're like hey mister
want to buy some gum like i don't know the more polite is to say excuse me sir can you help me
hey mister that sounds so weird guys don't say that um so another example and this is interesting
because familial relations uh in india the connections to family are much stronger than here
right um and i know in a lot of countries calling someone brother and sister does not necessarily
indicate family or auntie auntie is like an older friend woman of the family in a lot of countries
but again in american english and british english those relations are not how we we
don't say that right so we read in india you might say cousin brother for example instead of
cousin um so again like that is incorrect yes exactly right and this can be really tricky
religion becomes involved too a lot of people will say brother or sister for someone who's
part of their religion have you heard that this is something to keep in mind to recognize about
your culture and recognize the examiner may not be familiar with your culture your religion and
so to be sure to use those familial titles that the examiner will be familiar with right exactly
familial familiar those are that's a great minimal pair um okay we have two more great
examples for you so in english we say uh pinky promise or pinky swear i still do this because
it's funny but it's mostly kids do it so if you want somebody to promise something like
i will take you to the airport and you don't quite believe them you're like pinky swear and then and
then you like do this pinkies that's a pinky swear or a pinky promise so um in india some
people might say mother promise which would sound completely incorrect to me if i'm an examiner i
would have no idea what that meant right exactly so you can either just say promise if you want to
emphasize how much you really mean it you can say either i really promise or like you said i pinky
promise or i swear or i swear yeah i say that if i like really want to indicate i'm serious yeah
interesting which is kind of idiomatic it's weird slaying because swearing is also cursing i don't
swear i don't really swear but i swear i will do this because swear also means promise english okay
last one uh what's the last example aubrey yeah so after someone does something for you we would
say no problem don't worry about it something like that and in india they say mention not
like you'll say don't mention it but we wouldn't say mention not that's delightful it is delicious
i like that i might don't say that i like it but don't say it so again guys um use your
common sense all right if you think it's something the examiner won't be familiar with or won't know
don't say it don't write it okay um you have to be strategic here don't be stubborn and be like well
this is how we say it you have to say it's correct like no i don't um so guys just keep the examiner
in mind when you're choosing your vocab and if we are wrong comment on the youtube channel guys
this is episode 1176 and we'll be on ielts energy tv on youtube don't be mad we're trying our
best but do leave a comment to kindly teach us something and remember go to alliesenglish.com
my score and take our free ielts quiz guys you get your estimated ielts band score in five minutes
all right awesome aubry thanks so much this was super fun yeah it's really fun i'm excited to
read the comments on this i would love to tell us other words that are used we should do a follow-up
we should do a part two that'd be cool yes leave more in the comments and we'll follow up on it
all right aubry well have a good rest of the week and i'll see you next time you too bye-bye