All people who care about words have their own bêtes noires. Indeed, some would call them pet hates and say one of their biggest was the use of French phrases when a perfectly good English alternative exists.
A friend who occupies high office at the Daily Mail in London finds the practice particularly annoying when used by fellow journalists. As an occasional offender, I would be more contrite if he promised faithfully to stop his reporters using lazy tabloid clichés in English.
But he has a point, and a very good one if we take the word of Henry Watson Fowler, the author of a classic work on the language, Fowler's Modern English Usage. The book was revised by Sir Ernest Gowers three decades after Mr Fowler's death in 1933, but I am sure the sections on what Mr Fowler called Gallicisms remain much as they were when first written.
From time to time, I disagree with the preferences of Mr Fowler. I do not, for example, adopt the "-ize" endings he recommends for such words as organise, recognise and realise. However respectable the authorities in his support, I feel comfortable in my choice of "-ise" and apply it consistently. On the other hand, his disdain for Gallicisms is proclaimed so strongly that it is impossible to ignore; I will in future recall his words with a wince whenever I consider allowing the merest hint of French to intrude when writing or speaking in English.
Having accepted that to urge abandonment of all Gallicisms would be absurd because there are thousands of English words that were once French, Mr Fowler says the wise man adopts them only when he is satisfied they are Gallicisms no more but have been assimilated in the English language. He adds: "To use Gallicisms for the worst of all reasons - that they are Gallicisms - (or) to affect them as giving one's writing a literary air, to enliven one's dull stuff with their accidental oddities; above all to choose Gallicisms that presuppose the reader's acquaintance with the French original: these are confessions of weakness or incompetence."
I sincerely hope anyone who has ever dropped quelle horreure, c'est la vie or "pretentious - moi?" into conversation or correspondence feels suitably chastened.
For a few of Mr Fowler's own examples, we must turn back a few pages to the entry for French words. There, too, there is a sharp rebuke for those of us weak or incompetent enough to break Fowler's law. The display of superior knowledge, we are told, is not merely as vulgar as the display of superior wealth but an even greater vulgarity because "knowledge should tend more definitely than wealth towards discretion and good manners".
Only fools, the author goes on, could believe it commends them to the English reader to decorate their writing with incongruous use of jeu de mots for play on words, robe de chambre instead of dressing gown, bien entendu to mean of course, au contraire for on the contrary and the phrase he appears to find most objectionable of all, sauter aux yeux for something that catches the eye unexpectedly.
Mr Fowler estimates that the chances of a reader or writer truly belonging to "the select few to whom French is second nature" are perhaps 10,000 to one, and that the use of such terms is therefore inconsiderate and rude.
And there lies our only possibility of escape from his contempt. The British, and other speakers of English, are notoriously bad at learning foreign languages. But Mr Fowler died a long time ago. Times have changed and more and more of us are at least making an effort. Even if I had not given the translations, I doubt whether many readers of The National did not know, or were not able to guess, the meaning of each quoted example of Mr Fowler's - whisper it - bêtes noires.
Colin Randall is a contributing editor to The National and may be contacted at crandall@thenational.ae
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MATCH INFO
Burnley 0
Man City 3
Raheem Sterling 35', 49'
Ferran Torres 65'
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
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SPECS
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End of free parking
- paid-for parking will be rolled across Abu Dhabi island on August 18
- drivers will have three working weeks leeway before fines are issued
- areas that are currently free to park - around Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Maqta Bridge, Mussaffah Bridge and the Corniche - will now require a ticket
- villa residents will need a permit to park outside their home. One vehicle is Dh800 and a second is Dh1,200.
- The penalty for failing to pay for a ticket after 10 minutes will be Dh200
- Parking on a patch of sand will incur a fine of Dh300
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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'The Lost Daughter'
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson
Rating: 4/5
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Emergency phone numbers in the UAE
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
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Specs – Taycan 4S
Engine: Electric
Transmission: 2-speed auto
Power: 571bhp
Torque: 650Nm
Price: Dh431,800
Specs – Panamera
Engine: 3-litre V6 with 100kW electric motor
Transmission: 2-speed auto
Power: 455bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: from Dh431,800
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Schedule:
Friday, January 12: Six fourball matches
Saturday, January 13: Six foursome (alternate shot) matches
Sunday, January 14: 12 singles
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
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