Divergent usage (Part I)

§  amount - a sum of money, such as "please refund the amount." or "the amount has been billed to your credit card." This is the same as British English usage, but may vary elsewhere.

§  as - inserted (in non-mainstream usage) before a designation: "Mahatma Gandhi is called as the father of the nation".

§  back - ago, ("Gandhi died sixty years back.", "I finished the painting two hours back.")

§  damn - used as an intensifier, especially a negative one, far more frequently and with far more emphatic effect, than in other dialects of English, as in "that was a damn good meal." As the verb 'to damn' is rarely used, most Indians are unaware of the word's original meaning and that it is considered a profanity in other dialects of English.

§  dialogue - a line of dialogue in a movie. ("That was a great dialogue!" means "That was a great line!") "Dialogues" is used to mean "screenplay". In motion picture credits, the person who might in other countries be credited as the screenwriter in India is often credited with the term dialogues. Note the usage of British spelling.

§  disco - nightclub, and "to disco" meaning to dance at a nightclub.

§  dress - (noun) is used to refer to clothing for men, women, and children alike, whereas in international varieties of English a dress is a woman's outer clothing with a bodice and a skirt as a single garment. The usage of dress as clothes does exist in international varieties but only in very rare occasions and in relevant context., e.g. schooldress. Young girls in India invariably wear a dress, which is commonly referred to as a frock in Indian English.

§  elder - used as a comparative adjective in the sense of older. For example, "I am elder to you", instead of "I am older than you."

§  engagement - not just an agreement between two people to marry, but a formal, public ceremony where the engagement is formalized with a ring and/or other local rituals. Indians will not speak of a couple as being engaged until after the engagement ceremony has been performed. Similar to the use of term marriage, a person may say "I am going to attend my cousin's engagement next month". Afterwards, the betrothed is referred to as one's "would-be" wife or husband. In this case, "would be" is used to mean "will be" in contrast with the standard and British and American connotation of "wants to be (but may not be)".

§  even - as well/also/too/either: "Even I didn't know how to do it" instead of "I didn't know how to do it either." This usage of even is borrowed from native grammatical structure.

§  equipments - plural for equipment: "Go to the place to define equipments" where typically "equipment" is used as the plural form. Other words are pluralized with an 's' too.

§  gentry - generalized term for social class - not specifically 'high social class'. The use of 'good', 'bad', 'high' and 'low' prefixed to 'gentry' is common.

§  goggle or goggles - sunglasses

§  graduation - completion of a bachelor's degree: "I did my graduation at Presidency College" ("I earned my bachelor's degree at Presidency College"), whereas in the UK and US it refers to completion of higher degrees as well and additionally school in the US.

§  hero - a male actor, especially of a movie; a person who is often a protagonist. Thus, "Look at Vik; he looks like a hero", meaning "he is as handsome as a movie star." Heroineis the female counterpart.

§  itself - often used for more general emphasis in the sense of Western English "even", as in "they were playing cricket at night itself."

§  kindly - please: "Kindly disregard the previous message."

§  marriage - wedding, and vice versa. Indian languages do not distinguish between the two terms.

§  metro - large city (i.e. 'metros such as Mumbai and Delhi') This is a shortening of the term metropolis. This can be confusing for Europeans, who tend to use the word to describe underground urban rail networks. However, following the popularity of the Delhi Metro, the word metro now tends to be used to describe both the metropolis and the underground rail network.

§  music director - a music composer for movies.

§  mutton - goat meat instead of sheep meat (lamb).

§  non-veg - (short for non-vegetarian) is used to mean food which contains flesh of any mammal, fish, bird, shellfish, etc. or eggs. Fish, seafood, and eggs are not treated as categories separate from "meat", especially when the question of vegetarianism is at issue (milk and its products are always considered vegetarian). E.g., "We are having non-veg today for dinner", whereas the native varieties of English would have: "We are having meat today for dinner". Figuratively, a "non-veg joke" is a joke with mature content.

§  only is used to emphasize a part of speech preceding it. For example "He is coming only" instead of "He is coming", "He was at the meeting only" to emphasize that he was nowhere else but the meeting, "She only is not coming" to mean that everyone is coming except her.

§  paining - hurting: "My head is paining."

§  see instead of watch ("He is seeing TV right now"). Similarly, to see may be used as an imperative to mean to watch ("See that very carefully.") Most Indian languages do not distinguish between the two verbs.

§  shirtings and suitings - the process of making such garments; a suffix in names of shops specializing in men's formal/business wear.

§  SMS - a single SMS message, "I am going to send him an SMS to remind him." Similarly, to SMS: "Let me SMS him the address."

§  solid - great or exceptional ("What a solid idea!" means "What a great idea!").

§  timings - hours of operation; scheduled time, such as office timings or train timings, as opposed to the standard usage such as "The timing of his ball delivery is very good."

§  trainings - to indicate multiple training programmes.

what say - As in "What do you think?" or "What say you?".