After coming to Canada, I realized that there are many (special usage of) words which do not exist in (Canadian) English. Here is a list of few of those (I keep adding to this list): =============================================== Disclaimer - I don't mean to say that these are wrong usage, rather I feel that this is a different shape the language has taken in a different part of the world. That is why it is interesting to know about this. All the other contributors feel the same way. =============================================== * Another intesting article on Indian English (Rashmi's contribution) http://www.cnngo.com/mumbai/life/10-indianisms-652344 * In India when we say "2 into 3" it means "2 multiplied/times by 3", while "2 by 3" means "2 divided by 3" (I think most of the Indians will agree with me on this one). This is a good thing to know as I have seen people getting confused about this all the time. * "Rustication" means "temporary dismissal of a student from a university". This word is supposed to be from British English. But seems nobody uses this anymore. Most of the British people I asked were also not aware of this word. * "Dikki" refers to the "trunk" or "boot" of a car. * "House-full" Usage "The movie is house-full" which means that tickets for the movie are all sold out. * Interesting Articles on Hinglish http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1123/p01s03-wosc.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hinglish * "Pin-drop silence" means "it is so quiet that I can hear a pin-drop" (Sujit's contribution) * "Time-pass" means to "pass time" or "kill time" in Indian english, the usage is "This movie was good for time-pass" (Leigh's contribution) * "Pre-pone" opposite of post-pone Usage "Can we pre-pone the dinner?" In english, there can be only one kind of usage of this word "there no such thing as pre-pone" * "Crib" means "to complain" Usage "I kept cribbing about the computing facilities in UBC" In english, it has a very different meaning, just look up the dictionary. * "pass-out" means "to finish a degree from university" Usage "He is a pass-out of this institute" or "I passed out of this college". In english, this means that you are drunk :).