(Audrey) Sighting signs with hilarious misspellings is a common tourist game in India. You don’t have to look hard to figure out that trouble with English—particularly English spelling—is exceedingly common in this country. Usually I just chuckle and move on. But what really gets to me is when the spelling has gone state-wide, perpetuated on a government level. My case in point—Delhi buses.
Thousands of public buses roam the roads in Delhi every day. They are largely painted alike (there are about 4 design variants), and most say on the side “propelled by clean fuel”. You would think that given that it’s on every bus, city-wide, they would get the spelling of this phrase correct. But then you would be mistaken. Not only is the word “propelled” frequently misspelled, but in just about every variation you can manage. See my montage here, collected over the past few weeks—
You would think the Delhi authorities would just get a stencil with “propelled by clean fuel” carved out and then spray paint it over and over.
May 24, 2010 at 7:27 pm |
[...] English but somehow fall short of the mark grammatically, in terms of spelling, or otherwise (e.g. here and here). India continues to present amazing examples on this front, such as the below sign that I [...]