Timothythinks

17/10/2023

17/10/2023

GRAMMAR GAFFES AND THEIR CORRECTIONS (Part 2)

Jolly evening, friends. I hope you had a fantastic day.

Prepositions can be quite tricky and confusing for English learners. Even at the advanced level, learners are always very mindful of them because inappropriate use of a preposition can change the intended meaning of a sentence. Prepositions are tiny words but slippery.

Let's take a gander at the following expressions.

1. Be AT alert for anyone acting suspiciously. ❌
Be ON THE alert for anyone acting suspiciously. ✅

To be on the alert means to be ready to notice and deal with a situation or problem.

2. Mrs Olasunmibo is TAKING us ON English.❌
Mrs Olasunmibo is TAKING us FOR English. ✅

To take somebody FOR something means to TEACH.

3. I am not IN the church committee. ❌
I am not ON the church committee. ✅

A small group of people chosen to represent a larger organization and make decisions or collect information for it sit/serve on a committee.

4. She lamented ABOUT the loss of her best friend. ❌
She lamented OVER the loss of her best friend.✅

We use 'lament over' as a verb and ' lament for' as a noun.

5. The guards were ordered to shoot AT sight of anyone who tried to escape.❌
The guards were ordered to shoot ON sight anyone who tried to escape. ✅

We say shoot AT something/somebody, but we shoot ON sight.

6. Your teachings have stuck TO my head.❌
Your teachings have stuck IN my head. ✅

stuck in one's head is an idiom. It means being heard over and over again in one's mind.

Which of the expressions stood out for you? Did you learn something new from this?

I'd like to hear from you in the comments section.

Follow Itunuayo Lawal Olasunmibo Itunuayo Lawal Olasunmibo for more educational content.

©Diction Coach

15/01/2023

Everyone loves freedom but hates to give freedom freely to others.

21/10/2022

LETTER FROM A LEKKI HERO

Dear Timothy,
How is Nigeria, my fatherland?
Are those vultures still in power?
I'm writing to you from the No 1 graveyard in Lekki.
I'm in severe pain
Agony has submerged me.
From my perpetual resting room
I'm seeing a bigger cloud
Hovering around my beloved Nation
Bigger and Darker than the clouds
I saw while in the world.
I am perceiving the stinking aroma of the pains of my countrymen and women.

Timo, my friend
Can you believe that the man that cut my life short
Was the same soldier
I was under a heavier pitter-patter because of his liberation.
Sola, my fellow senior comrade in the graveyard
Was robbed of his life by the same policeman
He went to the battlefield because of his three-square meal
Can you remember Isa, that lanky boy, with marks on his face?
He also crossed over that day
Even in the graveyard, Isa's dream, vision and plan for Nigeria are taller, greater and better than those power-drunk fellows, piloting this stationary aeroplane.
But surprisingly, Isa died at the hands of that tall, dark and black uniform man he was fighting for his liberation.

How will a man kill his protector and protect his killer?

I wept on that day
I am still weeping
My tears had formed a river of liberation at Lekki
The river will wash away the lotus-eaters.

Please, tell my son and wife
That I have not gone
But let them bid me goodbye
And search me not.
From your friend
Lekki Hero.

21/05/2022

THE PRESIDENT THAT NIGERIANS NEED IN 2023.
Things are falling apart in Nigeria. Our economy is in a state of comatose, multinational companies are relocating to other countries as a result of operational costs, obnoxious policies of the government etc. Small industries are shutting down, it is extremely difficult today to run a business in Nigeria due to the unfavourable economy that we are in as a result of mismanagement.
Life has no value any longer. Kidnapping is now assumed to be a societal norm since people can be kidnapped and stay months in the den of those kidnappers without serious efforts by the government to release them. Terrorism and banditry are at an alarming rate. Nigerians are under siege.
So as another period of politicking and electioneering are around the corner, the president we will elect must have the following qualities.
1. He must be a patriotic Nigerian: The president Nigerians need in 2023 must be a patriot and a pan-Nigerian. One that will empathize with Nigerians whenever man-made or natural disasters befall them. The empathy should go beyond mere rhetoric press releases. It won't be a president that will be comfortable while his subjects are languishing in the kidnapper's den. It must be a proactive president. A president that will lead from the front, not someone that will pretend that all is well while thousands are under siege.
2. Health: we need a healthy president. Nigeria is a country of two hundred million, so anyone elected as our president is coming to solve the problem of two hundred million people. such a person shouldn't be frail or in a dementia state. Leaving Nigerians in the hands of aides or appointees is why things are seriously falling apart. Most of those aides are after their self-interest and not the interest of the country. We need someone that can pay unscheduled visit to project sites. We need a president that can visit our higher institutions and hospitals to interact with students and patients to have first-hand information on what is happening in those areas.
3. A successful businessman/woman: Nigerians need someone who has managed his/ her company or a corporate organisation successfully. We need a thoroughgoing businessman that will be prudent in managing the remaining little resource we have.
4. A lesser corrupt person. None of our politicians is a saint, so we should choose the one with the least corrupt cases
5. A President that will be president for all. We need a president that will do away with the current trend of appointing people to various positions based on their tribe or religion. Merit and professionalism should be at the front banner.

IF WE FAIL TO GET IT RIGHT IN 2023, NIGERIA MAY LIKELY SINK.

30/04/2022

THE VOICE OF OUR FOUNDING FATHERS
I heard it
clearly!
in my deepest dream
loud firmly voices
telling me angrily angrily

They were
our founding fathers
speaking from their grave

Child!
why is the white
in the Nigerian flag
so dirty, so bloody and so stinking

I wake
listen painstakingly
to hear the horror
voices again

But fear
to sleep again
denied me
the second chance
to hear
those painful voices again.

30/04/2022.

22/03/2022

CONGREGATION OF VULTURES.

Those vultures are congregating again
As members of white garment churches
With beautiful wings
Like that of Ark Angel Michael
And well barbed hair
That is shining like immaculate white

Congregating from the North and the South
The two false foundation of our captivity and enslavement
With their heir
And buzzing gullibles
That celebrate leftovers

Congregating to sing praises
Of our dead nation
Murdered under their watch
With a decorated golden coffin
To delude us that it will rise again.

(2023 elections).

21/03/2022

MY FLOURISHING GARDEN
What a charming garden!
Clothed with roaring beauty
That its shiny leaves charm the eyes and minds of men
The garden is the greenest on earth
With fertile land like Butchart Garden in Canada
Its glittering beauty pierces the eyes
And romances the mind
The power of her beauty has conquered the souls and bodies of great warriors
And scholars in the marshals art
The garden has cute flowers
With thunderous fragrance
That attracts flies from far and near
The garden is serene
With eloquently arranged flowers
That magnate the heart of every passerby.

If it is windy
The Angelic voices
From those vivacious flowers
Sooth the mind and the body
Oh, It is a garden created by God, Himself!

Is suitable for all weather,
In the winter
The coldness becomes warm
Decorated with snows and beautiful drizzling
With scently leaves
And sweet fruits
That can make a bird
Not to differentiate between the night and the day
Her flowers are more ravishing than the Aphrodite

In the summer ,
Her flowers glitter like a morning star
And her calmness
Is like a mountain top.

I adore my garden
It is better than the garden of Eden
Her amazing fruits
Are sweeter than the caraboa mango
Her leaves do not wither
But ever green and alluring
Like a garden at the bank of a river

The love I have for my garden
Is for all seasons
Even if nature withers her leaves
I will cherish her more
Even if her scent fades
It won't cease to be my garden
Even if it bears no more fruit
I will become her fruit

My precious green garden
Will you remain till the crossover.

28/02/2022

War beget war
War is sorrow
War is hunger
War is doom
War gives birth to orphans
War creates widows
War is afflictions
War is pain
War is DEATH
peace has no alternative
Demons justify wars with beautiful rhetoric
War is war.

28/02/2022

PREGNANT NIGERIA

Heavy and dull as a rainy season weather
With constant lightning and thunder
That mounts fear in the minds of the wonderers
As people thinker deeper whisper about the weather
The morning roar dancing sun kindled hope
But the tittering rain dashed the hope
The rain rained reign like the regime of Harold
With damped darkness deadly pour
And swoop swoosh sword of Damocles
Fear worry tension sick death ruling
Since the weather is cold cool chilly freezing
Like water in the fridge
Shrill and piercing voice of the rain sounds like a report of a gun
Which makes people to run this and that
Unquiet disquiet rules
With fierce ferocious fetid peace
Who knows what it will give birth to?
If these silent noise worries war linger
That puts us in a worry ferry sorry state
Everyday everywhere funny evil tales stoned out
How long will these funny evil tales linger?

28/02/2022