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Friday 25 August 2017

THE HIGH FIGURE OF DEFINITIONS OF FIGURE: GO FIGURE!

English can be a strange language undoubtedly. And that's probably one reason why the media in Kenya often makes a mess out of communicating even simple information. Sometimes though, what the local press publishes can deceptively look wrong.


It appears, for example, that I can't figure out some of the numerous meanings of the word figure.

At first glance, I was so sure the headline for the above article:
"Clan factors to figure in contest for speaker"
 ...was not making sense. The correct version, I immediately thought, should have been:
" Clan factors to feature in contest for speaker" 
I now know the figure of various definitions of figure is quite high.

It can be a noun, verb and even figure of speech.

Go figure!

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