Chaitaneysh, D R. A star is born'—is this correct? By itself, as given, the sentence is not possible. A star is born every five minutes (or every minute) would be correct grammatically. It expresses a natural truth — a fact about astronomical bodies.

As a statement made on the occasion of the birth of a star, the statement is not possible. It is like saying, when you are in the delivery room witnessing the birth of your child “Look the child is born.” I have no idea what the midwife or the doctor says on such occasions. Perhaps they say, “Thank God. It is out.”

Born is a peculiar word. It is usually found in the passive, as in, he was born on Independence day/on the February 16 1980, etc. There is no corresponding active form. His mother bore him on Independence day is not possible. Bore is usually found as in She bore (gave birth to) two children, a boy and a girl. She bore him two children.

The point is: There is no way you can use either bear or bore to indicate that a child or a star or whatever has come into existence at a present time (or moment of speaking). So this means that you cannot say: “A star has been born.”

To conclude: You can say a star is born every five or ten minutes.(An iterative sense). A child is born (comes possessed) with all his potentialities in embryonic form.

To express the idea of an event taking place at the moment of speaking, you have to use such paraphrases as: ''look a star has come into existence / been formed/has emerged, etc.''

Born can be used only when indicating the point of birth / origin in the past. Vindhya was born on Christmas day in 1964.

Translating to English

Questioning an ordinal on more than one occasion I have received this question from readers.

How do you translate into English a sentence like: neenu ninna thandege eshtaneya maga? The short answer is: There is no way to frame an idiomatic question in this case. Suggested answers from readers: What is your rank/order among your father's children? are simply not English. The same problem arises when you try to frame a question on: Ram is his father's second son for which the answer is: Second (son). Here, too, the answer is the same as before. There is no word in English parallel to eshtaneya.

Business English

There are several aspects to Business English but here I want to touch upon one aspect which came to my notice when I landed at the Johannessberg International Airport. The Arrival lounge is full of 'money changers'. One of them had this sign prominently displayed. Making money is tough. Changing it should not be. I went to the counter and told the man sitting there: 'Hey, look. It's tough for me to make money. But it is easy for you to change it.' He doubled up with laughter and turned back to look at the sign hanging behind him.

Scores of banners bearing this legend hang over the drive before the Arrival gate. Your business needs you. Let's take care of your banking. What this means is: you make the money. We will take care of it.

Another bank in Gaborone has this sign. Money speaks many languages. We understand them all. That is: No matter who makes the money (an Englishman, Chinaman, or a Zulu) we are after it.

The Banker has his interest firmly in vew. But the way he puts it you think he is doing you a service.

Have you noticed this sort of advertisement in Bangalore?

The writer can be contacted at ksyadurajan@yahoo.com