I am sure many will be pleased if broadcasters, as well as many others who appear or are heard on the local media, would brush up their Maltese and English, our two official languages, among others, and start using the right words, expressions and pronunciation.

For example, ‘first of all’ in Maltese, is not l-ewwel nies, which loosely translated means ‘the first people’, but l-ewwel nett. Għalfejn is better used for ‘whereto’ and għaliex for ‘why’. Also, one does not say – well, maybe some do though it is not correct – kont ġo programm for ‘I was on a programme’. In Maltese we say psikjatra and not sikjatra, psikologu and not sikologu. Nor do we say qa nieħu but ħa nieħu, and we say insurance and not inxjurjans.

As for English pronunciation “can’t” is not ‘Kent,’ ‘gas’ is not ‘guess,’ ‘patrol boat’ not ‘petrol boat,’ ‘cabinet’ is not ‘kebinett,’ ‘alleluia’ not ‘allelulia’ and ‘Worcester (sauce or not)’ is not ‘worchester (sauce)’ but ‘wooster’.

This is only the tip of the iceberg but it helps if others could put in their bit as well by contributing and not just siting pretty and criticising; it will help even more.