I was just hammered

Posted by Bruce Kahl on March 16, 2004

In Reply to: I was just hammered posted by Sathyaish on March 16, 2004

: Yes, you are right. I wanted to tell him that I am on extention 108 which is shared by other people too.

:
: : : I was just corrected on a usage I do not think is wrong. I was just being liberal. Kindly advise.

: : :
: : : From: Harinder Singh
: : : To: Sathyaish Chakravarthy

: : : Dear Sathyaish
: : : I didn't know people stayed on telephone extensions. That is a very funny usage? Going by all the established English norms, it is an incorrect usage. English is a language that is constantly evolving; and it is ideal to be tolerant of novel usages; but this usage is too far-fetched to be treated correctly.
: : : Thanks
: : : Harinder
: : : -----Original Message-----
: : : From: Sathyaish Chakravarthy
: : : Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 4:37 PM
: : : To: Harinder Singh
: : : Dear Harinder,
: : : I stay on a shared extension 108. However, I would personally come up to you for the errors I think I spotted.
: : : Regards,
: : : Sathyaish

: : Don't worry about it - I can find fault with the reply too! The phrase isn't familiar to me, but what did you want to tell him? I'm on extension 108? You can reach me on extension 108? Or perhaps; I share extension 108 (with so-and-so)?

Your saying that you are on extension 108 is perfectly good English.
Here in the US we say that all the time.

In fact, many times I will call someone and the receptionist tells me that "Mr. Smith is on the phone" which sounds painful at first but we all know what she means.