Many cities, small towns, and villages have ‘pur’ in their names in India. Jaipur, Nagpur, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Raipur, Jodhpur and uncountable places have names like this. Hence, for a lot of people who speak Hindi and other regional languages, it may become confusing to differentiate between ‘pur’ and ‘pore’.
So naturally, Singa’pore’ becomes Singa’pur’. It seems harmless until such people are responsible for the writing that goes up in public signboards! I say this because a goof-up of sorts happened with one signboard in Delhi and it caught the eye of the ambassador of Singapore to India, Simon Wong.
He shared a picture of the signboard and wrote, “It is always good to spell check first.”
Have a look at his post here:
It is always good to spell check first. 🤦♂️🤦♂️HC Wong@tweetndmc @MCD_Delhi pic.twitter.com/wv9HDECxDx
— Singapore in India (@SGinIndia) October 8, 2023
However, people online thought this was incredibly funny and began sharing jokes in the comments section. Many of them basically said hamare yahan aise hi hota hai and asked the ambassador to adjust accordingly! 😛
Have a look:
I’m from Beijingpur
— Xi jingping (Parody) (@xipingaoc) October 8, 2023
Aaj se iska naam: Singapur pic.twitter.com/sLhyNyPMci
— RS (@WithRitesh) October 8, 2023
Good advice…but then where will our smiles come from? pic.twitter.com/z8QkThKyEP
— Rakesh Ahuja (@DwnlodingMyMind) October 8, 2023
Kanpur, Nagpur, Singapur, right?!
— Padma Rao Sundarji (@prsundarji) October 8, 2023
They have written in hinglish
— மேகமலைக்காதலன் ( A true lover of Megamalai ) (@MegamalaiS) October 8, 2023
We are used to Nagpur Jaipur Raipur😃 please adjust! 😃
— அஷ்வின் காந்தி/अश्विन गांधी/Ashwin Gandhi 🇮🇳 (@PantryCar) October 8, 2023
However, after his post went viral, the spelling mistake on the board was quickly corrected.
Thank you for the quick fix. 🙏🙏HC Wong@tweetndmc @MCD_Delhi pic.twitter.com/VziXyYPpV3
— Singapore in India (@SGinIndia) October 8, 2023
These are the kind of spelling mistakes that can brighten someone’s day!