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Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
December 11, 2013
Does it have a universal application? My wife is asked how my daughter is and she says, oh she couldn’t join us because she is not too bright.
So, a friend sitting by us, says, actually, that is not correct, she is very bright, in fact there is no debate about it, she is one of the brightest people I know. Everyone laughs good naturedly but is it incorrect usage?
Perhaps if we qualified ‘ bright’ with the word ‘feeling’ then it would be more acceptable as in ‘she is not feeling too bright,’ the operative description then becoming a synonym for ‘up to speed’ or ‘well’ which is what we mean anyway.
I tried this on a few friends yesterday and they all said that the phrase had sort of inveigled its way into English and was acceptable even without adding ‘feeling.’
One of them said that everyone knows that bright means the condition of your health and has nothing to do with intelligence in this context so why make such a big thing of it.
It’s not a big thing, but is it right or wrong? Your call.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
If my call is so important to them, why don’t they answer it for 22 minutes?
How come when I want to, but something specific online is the only item out of stock.
When I get into a queue or lane going fast, the moment I get in, it becomes the slowest and refuses to budge.
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