The Queen’s dead but the English Language is not: common mistakes by Cameroonian English speakers

Compiled by Hans Ngala

The English language has evolved over time to have variations and linguists even speak of “Englishes” such as North American English (spoken by Americans and Canadians), West African English (spoken in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone) as well as Australian English and of course the original – British English.
However, regardless of where English speakers live, the language has certain immutable rules that must be followed when using it.
Here are 9 common, everyday mistakes Cameroonian English speakers make when speaking (or writing) the Queen’s language:

1- Confusing “am” with “I’m”

“I’m” is the contracted or shortened form of “I am” while “am” is rather used to start sentences that are questions, but not declarations. Hence it is wrong to say “Am invited to his birthday party”. Rather say “I’m invited to his birthday party”.
If you must start the sentence with “am”, then it has to be a question.
E.g. “Am I invited to his birthday party?”
“Am I making sense?”
“Am I looking good?”
You cannot say “I’m I looking good?”

2- Confusing avocadoes with pears

Pear fruits are not common in Cameroon. Pear is a yellow or green fruit, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Pear has tiny seeds similar to those of an apple while an avocado usually has a much larger seed and tastes slightly butter-ry. So there is no similarity between both.

3- Referring to coins as ‘cash’
Cash refers to physical money in the form of both bills (banknotes) and coins as opposed to cheques. Hence, it is wrong to selectively refer to coins as cash.

4- The plural for ‘test’ is ‘tests” not ‘tesis’
Some Cameroonians invent a word – ‘tesis’ to be the plural for ‘test’ and this is wrong. The plural for ‘test’ is ‘tests’.
E.g. “We were ordered by the doctor to do a number of tests”.

5- Don’t take things ‘personal’
This expression is wrong as it is supposed to be “Don’t take things personally”.

6- Confusing ‘I missed your call’ with ‘I saw your missed call’

The first sentence is the correct one but Cameroonians often use the second one when they actually mean to use the first. Here’s the explanation: when someone is calling you, the call is not registered as ‘missed’. You only see it as ‘missed’ when you fail to answer it and it is registered under your call logs as ‘missed call’. So you in fact mean to say “I am sorry I missed your call.

7- Saying ‘stuffs’ instead of ‘stuff’
Some Cameroonians erroneously add ‘s’ to ‘stuff’ in an attempt to pronounce the plural. However, the plural for ‘stuff’ remains ‘stuff’. It is not ‘stuffs’.
E.g.
‘I asked Donald to buy me some foodstuff’ not ‘I asked Donald to buy me some foodstuffs’.
‘I am going to take my stuff from my aunt’s house’ not ‘I am going to take my stuffs from my aunt’s house’.

8- ‘Lacking behind’ and ‘lagging behind’
The first one is wrong and the second is right.
E.g. ‘You need to sit up, you are lagging behind’ is correct but not ‘lacking behind’.

9- Round up’ and ‘round off’
Sometimes some Cameroonian English users mix up these two phrasal verb expressions.
‘Round up’ means to arrest while ‘round off’ means to finish or conclude.
Hence ‘round off’ should be used like this:
‘Please just give me 2 minutes let me round off (finish) with this assignment’
But don’t say ‘Please give me 2 minutes let me round up with this assignment’.
‘Round up’ which means to arrest can therefore be used in this context:
‘The police rounded up (arrested) 5 suspects for questioning’