October 16, 04:04 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 Senior Minister of State for Education and Law Ms Indranee Rajah noticed that it had "become trendy to use adjectives as nouns" lately.
In her Facebook note "Excuse My Bad - a grammar twerk", she said that recent Plain English Speaking Awards and Inspiring Teachers of English Awards got her "thinking about English, its usage and teaching".
She first heard about “my bad” from her junior lawyer a few years ago. She noted that it was the Millennials’ equivalent of the time-honoured “Mea Culpa” or “My fault” and has gained popularity here recently.
Ms Indranee also noticed the trend of using adjectives as nouns for our favourite pop songs - “Beneath your Beautiful” by Labyrinth and Sande; and Jessie J’s “Excuse My Rude”.
Like a savvy Entertainment Weekly columnist, she gave her views on “twerking” and Miley Cyrus, explaining that the word was "apparently a combination of twisting and jerking".
She spoke approvingly of the word "twerking", noting that it can be deployed interchangeably without offending grammar rules. The “-ing” component allows it to multi-task as a verb (she was twerking on the dance floor), a noun (twerking is a dance move) and an adjective (twerking dancers).
Ms Indranee concluded that Singaporeans should aspire to speak proper English at will, as language is the key to comprehension and communication.
She also urged English language educators to “teach our children well” and give them "the access key to knowledge" and "the means to express themselves and influence others".
Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin agreed with Ms Indranee.
He demonstrated her example of a unique Singaporean characteristic "to segue from English to Singlish and back without missing a beat" by posting in both Singlish and English.
Singlish
English
Top photo from here.
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