Mind your steps!
Broken idiom alert. This sign at the National Skin Centre pharmacy says: CAUTION! Tripping Hazard. Mind Your Steps! I think in the US we’d be more likely to say “watch your step” rather than...
Tagged: Singlish
Prices are subjected to service charge and tax
The menu at Tim Ho Wan, a nice restaurant for dim sum, says: All the prices shown above are subjected to 10% service charge & 7% GST. It should say ‘subject to’ and not...
Dengue warrior
It would be hard to overstate the extent to which I hate mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are deadly serious. But this banner is still funny. For one thing, that warrior, with his Roman helmet, looks really...
Pesky conjunctions
The same taxi had two signs prohibiting eating and drinking. One said “no food and drinks” and the other said “no food or drink”. “No food and drinks” is wrong. It assumes that the...
“Have you left your valuables behind?”
This warning from the Singapore Police, spotted in a toilet stall in Cineleisure at Orchard is semantically equivalent to “Have you left all of your valuables behind?” Although it is a somewhat plausible question,...
“Please Watch Out For Your Belongings!”
This warning, spotted in The Clementi Mall, makes it sound like the belongings themselves are dangerous, like a sign that says “Beware of Dog” or “Watch Out for Falling Rocks”, though admittedly neither of...
Pesky ‘with’
When I read this: Dumex, proudly nurturing Singapore babies with global expertise and experience. I thought, Wow, Singapore babies have global expertise and experience? The preposition ‘with’ is ambiguous. It could mean ‘having’ (which...
Object dropping
Singlish: “Do you like horror movies?” “I don’t like.” The object is obvious, therefore there’s no need to express it. Sometimes you even get subject dropping, too: “Do you like horror movies?” “Don’t like.”...
Business hours
Common messages relating to business hours are often distorted here in Singapore. Sometimes the sign says ‘business hours’, sometimes it says ‘operating hours’, sometimes it says ‘operation hours’, sometimes it says ‘opening hours’. I...
I also don’t know.
In Singapore, the answer to a question will often be “I also don’t know.” The implication is that the asker doesn’t know and that the answerer is thus the second person who doesn’t know....