L
et’s face it, that clichés are
expressions that have lost their
original impact because they
have been overused are not in
contention any longer. There are several
of them including idioms, proverbs and
anecdotes that we heavily depend on to
bring to life our feelings to the under-
standing of the reading and listening
publics. No doubt such words or phras-
es do make their impact; vividly paint
pictures of that which we intend to
convey. Little wonder successful writers
and poets leverage on them to spice up
the written words to the delight of the
reader and keep them reading.
One of such words that readily come
to mind to the literate and sophisticat-
ed man in the street is the expression
“Golden Opportunity” an idiom that
conveys the idea of one missing what
can be said to be an excellent chance
of getting at something or attaining
certain desires one has been longer for.
Popular as the phrase appears to be and
bandied about by just everyone to reg-
ister opportunity missed in the course
of life adventure is treated as hackneyed
expression that can no longer stand the
test of the time. It is now good for the
museum of old statements that have
become blunt and unfashionable.
When the temptation knocks to speak
about missed opportunities simply
look for alternative phrase or better still
go for the synonyms that can equally
make you sound good and stand out of
the pack of those who recycles ‘golden
opportunity’ to state either their regrets
or fulfillments. I will however recom-
mend to you ‘golden chance’ in place of
‘golden opportunity’ at least to sound
fresher, if at all you can’t draw from the
plenty of synonyms that can replace
‘golden.’ These days the media whether
print or electronic media prefers
straightforward and to the point words
or expressions to avoid ambiguity
and make clearer our ideas and so the
less we seek to entertain with flowery
language the simpler we write or speak.
That is the way to go now.
In our English lesson today, we
continue with pronunciation of words
where the ‘t’ or ‘d’ is silent or put in the
silent mode when we are asked or given
the chance to voice them aloud in a
gathering of people; it could be that it’s
your turn to speak. For example, the
word ‘soften,’ ‘Wednesday’ a day of the
week, ‘castle,’ ‘listen,’ ‘bristle,’ and ‘wres-
tler’ are pronounced without involving
the letter ‘t’ and ‘d.’ In other words, the
letter ‘t’ is silent when verbalizing any
of these words. The word ‘soften’ is
simply pronounced ‘sofen’ omitting the
‘t’ sound.
The most abused and misused in all
of these is the day of the week ‘Wednes-
day’ which is verbalized with all the
three-syllable voiced ‘wed-nes-day’
by a number people, wrong though.
Some spoken to on this often contest
it strongly that they have to speak and
water it down to the understanding of
the locals, but just as the purists and
masters would disagree on this I too feel
betrayed at the flagrant and deliberate
abuse of English pronunciation, espe-
cially by those who should know. There
are no two ways about it you either get
it right or you are wrong. The Standard
English is never compromised. Learn it
and know it.
‘Wednesday,’ the third working day
of the week is correctly pronounced
‘Wenzday’ reducing it to two syllables
only, dropping the ‘d.’ Next time you
are bound to call out the word shorten
it to two-syllable word ‘Wenzday’ not
‘Wed-nes-day’ as even the most learned
would mouths it.
‘Castle,’ like the proverbial building
castle in the air when we dream big
but lack the wherewithal to realize
that ambition we are simply building
castle in the air. ‘Castle,’ pronounced
‘casel’ silencing the ‘t,’ according to the
dictionary interpretation, is a large
fortified building or group of buildings
of the medieval period. Europe of the
olden days pride itself of harbouring
most of the castles then in the world.
Similarly, the two syllable words ‘listen,’
bristle,’ and ‘wrestler,’ omits the letter ‘t’
when pronouncing them. The words
are correctly pronounced ‘lisen,’ ‘brisle,’
and ‘wresler.’ Anything else smacks of
illiteracy. Be literate in the spoken and
written word.
