The seven-letter word, ‘counsel’, to put it plainly, is a legal term often associated with the law or the lawyer, or one who gives advice. Call them the counsellor, and you are absolutely correct. Or the verb form, counselled, counselling is acceptable in the English lexicon. What is disturbing about it, is the misuse, or the tendency for the speaker or writer to pluralise the word, ‘counsel’, when there are more than one counsel, ‘counsels’. You will be wrong to write or speak ‘counsels’. One thing we know about the language widely spoken around the world, as we noted from the outset, is that apart from being eccentric, or odd, the standard must be observed to the letter.
And how do we achieve this? The answer is to read wide and consult the necessary reference books available, such as the dictionary from time to time to familiarize yourself with the ten thousand commonly used words to avoid making, what the English masters and purists refer to as silly and embarrassing errors you will never recover from, especially when the arm chair critics would decide to critique your work or essay. Equip yourself with the right tool or tools. In this case, good reference materials, even with the new media, the internet, at the click of a button gives you many options to fall back on. But you must be selective of some of these social media platforms in order to play safe. Some of them can be misleading, and booby trap capable of injuring your reputation as a skilled or creative writer.
Nothing is as repulsive and demeaning, when someone, sometimes with high hopes, picks up an author’s book and encounters unpardonable mistakes in grammar, especially in spellings, punctuation marks, among other errors of fact. As I normally advise my students, never be in a hurry, go through your work or write up painstakingly, double check, as we say in the newsroom, but bearing in mind that you have certain deadline to meet. Don’t rush to release it for public consumption until you are sure errors are corrected. Better still, give your work or essay to an editor or someone knowledgeable enough to read through it and make necessary corrections. Having been informed about the futility of pluralizing the noun, ‘counsel’ I belief that the misnomer, ‘counsels’ would never cross your mind again. Never too long ago, I was taken aback when some journalists used the phrase, ‘counsels’ to imply more than one lawyer arguing a case in court.
Whether singular or plural, it remains ‘counsel’. No added-‘s’. Breaking it down further, and according to the 21st Century Chambers dictionary, the word ‘counsel’ is to advice, consultation, discussion or deliberation. It also talks about a lawyer or group of lawyers that give legal advice and fight cases in court. Another disturbing trend is the notoriety which the over flogged and un-English statement, “much people are expected”, for instance, has gained grounds with time. Call it another Nigerian coinage and abuse of the language, and you are not far from the truth. The expression, wrong though, “much people” has suddenly become an uncountable noun, whereas, the opposite is the case. As we were taught, even in elementary school, the word and the noun, ‘people’ is countable. It can also be pluralized, ‘peoples’.
The correct usage therefore, is to write and speak, “many people” to prove that ‘people’ is a countable noun. The abuse and misuse of the language have become recklessly rampant that it now takes somebody with an eagle eye to separate the grains from the chaff. It is generally accepted that no one is above making mistakes. Agreed, that is the more reason you should employ the services of a proofreader, as the newspapers and other publishers do, to check scandalous errors that might likely surface. Never take chances with anything that the audience or public space is the target. Before I round off the week’s lesson, take note that the expression, ‘giant of Africa’ often used to describe Nigeria’s role as Africa’s big brother no longer makes sense. I would explain and rationalize it in detail in the coming week.
