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Many people use words that are not in any English dictionary (although when a new word comes into common use, it can be added to an official dictionary). Here are some examples.

Prepone

This is supposed to be the opposite of Postpone, but there is no such word. You bring forward a meeting, not prepone it.

Updation

IT outsourcing companies love this word. The verb “to update” cannot be turned into a noun. Use two or more words to describe what

Softwares

Software is a collective noun, like the weather. It is never plural.

Upto

This word is very popular in India but it is not correct. It should be two words, up to.
Do you know of other examples?

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When your car gets a puncture (increasingly called a “flat tyre” in the non-American parts of the English speaking world) in India, you open the “dicky” (“boot” in British-influenced countries), (“trunk” in America) and get the “stepney”.
What’s a stepney? No, not some suburb of London or Adelaide, but the spare wheel (and its fully-inflated tyre). Try to search for it in Google and at least in Australia, you’ll not find the Indian meaning of stepney, namely, the spare tyre. Even the car-related results are simply car dealerships and service stations in Adelaide. (The definition in the Urban Dictionary is most unkind and we won’t go there.)

Origin of “Stepney” as a spare tyre

The explanation is that a mechanic in Llanelli, Wales had a shop on Stepney Street and he was the first to sell spare tyres when cars did not come with them. The coat of arms of Llanelli Borough Council (not the current city’s coat of arms) even had a spare tyre on it!
For an excellent article on its origins, please visit the entry for Stepney at World Wide Words.

 

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When you talk about a building or some other fixed enclosed space, it is “the premises”. It is never “the premise” or “a premise”.
e.g. “She entered the premises.”
A railway compartment is never “premises”. A building or a hut is “premises”. 🙂
That’s all.
There is a singular “premise” but it refers to something that is a given, to support a point of view.
e.g. “She based her argument on the premise that the incident occurred before the law was changed.”
 

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I saw a concocted, unnecessary word – “vends”, used only in North India. It probably means “vendors”, which is the word to be used if communicating with educated people outside India.

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I still hear Indians saying, “What is your good name, sir?” (Sometimes, it is “sirji”.)
Stop translating from your Indian language, such as Hindi – “aap ka shubh naam kya hain?”
Although you were brought up to be polite in India, you are going to confuse foreigners, who don’t have good or bad names.
If you don’t want to say, “What’s your name?”, just shake hands and say “Hi, my name is Monnanda Appaiah Deviah” and they will respond with their name, or their jaw will drop and say “I beg your pardon?”.

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The alphabet is a collection of letters, e.g. The English/Roman/Latin alphabet contains 26 letters.
Incorrect: “Marathi uses the Devanagari script and contains 52 alphabets.”
Correct: “The Marathi alphabet uses the Devanagari script and contains 52 letters.”
Here is a typical error, in this case made by one Aditi Phadnis in the Business Standard.

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Indians are again the only people who “revert back” when they intend to “reply”. Why, oh why?
To revert means to return to its previous state. Try as I might, I cannot revert back to being a baby, or a 21-year-old. 😀
Correct: I will reply to you next week.
Incorrect: I will revert next week.

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Only in India are criminals still absconding; everywhere else, they have absconded or are at large. Confused?
Google this phrase “is absconding” (in quotes). The writers are nearly always from India or in India. Here is a recent article that is guilty of using this phrase.
http://www.moneylife.in/article/stockguruindia-allegedly-dupes-2-lakh-investors-of-over-rs1000-crore/15461.html
The sentence is, “According to these investors, the company’s managing director is absconding.”
They should have written, “According to these investors, the company’s managing director has absconded.”
Or, “According to these investors, the company’s managing director is in hiding.”
 

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The British left India in 1947, but much of the English phraseology still used in India is possibly over 100 years old, if not more. While there is nothing wrong with that — Americans also use a lot of words left by the British in 1773 and abandoned later in the UK — you need to be aware when you are using outdated language, particularly when writing on a paid basis for a Western audience. How you speak or write in India is up to you.

Advocate

An advocate in the West is an impartial product champion who will say good things about a product without any prompting. In the US, the legally qualified professional is called a Lawyer and in British-influenced countries, this is a Solicitor and/or Barrister.

Alphabet

The Alphabet is the set of letters from A through Z. It is not a synonym for letters.

Appear

Indians appear for an exam; New Zealanders sit an exam.

Back

An Indian will say, “I went to London five years back“; others will say, “I went to London five years ago.”

Bifurcate

Indian roads can be bifurcated (split into two roads). Elsewhere, they fork.

Community

An Indian might be thinking of his sub-caste when he refers to his community.

Cousin Brother/Sister

In the West, they are simply cousins. You have to determine their gender using all available clues.

Drawing Room

You’d be hard pressed to find a drawing room in the UK today, but you’ll find a lot of living rooms. Australians watch TV or entertain guests in their lounge rooms, while Kiwis do likewise in their lounge.

Encounter

Sometime after 1980, Bombay policemen stopped having shootouts with criminals; they had encounters (which was also a convenient excuse for disposing of people).

Eve Teasing

In the West, we call it sexual harrassment, plain and simple. Call a spade a spade. Shame on the Indian news media for still using this gross understatement.

Executive

In India, a junior staff member is an Executive; in the West, a very senior manager is an Executive.

Expire

Indians expire; everyone else dies.

Flyover

For many years, Bombayites were proud of their first flyover at Kemp’s Corner and all the others that followed. You might get a blank look in the West if you talk about flyovers, as the freeways, tollways, turnpikes, or motorways have lots of underpasses, overpasses, on-ramps, off-ramps, etc within a short distance. They don’t have culverts, either. A road is a road; it goes up, it goes down; it goes above other roads; it goes under roads. Get over it.

Godown

In India and in Singapore, you store goods in a godown, but the rest of the world does so in a warehouse.

Hotel

Be clear that you are not referring to a cafe or a restaurant. This is indeed a confusing word even in the West. In Australia, a hotel can be a large pub that also offers accommodation, or it can be a multi-storey building where you can rent a bedroom and drink in its bar.

House Full

Indian movie theatres might put up a House Full sign; in Australia, the notice will read Full House.

Issue

A court case in India might refer to the issues of a couple. Elsewhere, a similar case would refer to children.

Kindly

When you say, “Kindly (do something)”, it might be taken as sarcasm, as in “Kindly go away”. Say, “Please (do something)”.

Lakh

Whether you spell it as lakh or lac (yikes), a Western reader won’t understand it. If you place a comma after the fifth digit (1,00,000), you’ll confuse them. Just talk in millions and place a zero after the sixth digit.

Miscreant

In the West, a miscreant is referred to as a troublemaker, vandal, or criminal.

Mofussil

In Chennai they not only use the word mofussil to refer to the countryside – the interior – the outback – up country, but they built the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus.

Mugging

Indian (or British public  school) students say they are mugging for an exam; elsewhere, rote learning (or learning by rote) is frowned upon.

Native Place

Indians come from somewhere, which they refer to as their native place, although sometimes this is where their ancestors came from. In the West, you move around so much that nobody really cares where you or your ancestors were born. At best, that was your home town.

Non-Vegetarian

In the West, people who eat meat are just people; others who don’t eat meat are vegetarians or vegans (Indians who are vegetarians should ask for the local definition of either term, as it is not consistent. Some Western vegetarians eat fish or eggs).

Number

Asking for “10 numbers” of something is incorrect English — it is not even Indian English. Just ask for 10 of something — I think we can figure out that 10 is a number.

Office

Westerners go to work. They don’t all work in an office (although many/most Indians who speak English probably do).

Peg

Whether you have a peg of whisky or a shot of whisky, it tastes just as good.

Placement Agency

In the West, you might find a placement agency, but there are many more recruitment agencies.

Residence

Indians live at their residence; others live at home.

Revert

When Indians reply to a letter or telephone call, they revert. In the West people reply, or get back to the caller. To revert means to return to the original state or condition.

Sharp

Indians rarely manage to turn up on time for an appointment (usually owing to heavy traffic), so they need to add this word, as in “6 pm sharp”. Elsewhere, “6 pm” means “6 pm” and not a second sooner or later.

Sofa Cum Bed

You might get a nervous giggle if you inserted cum in sofa bed in Australia.

Tubelight

Don’t look for a tubelight in Australia. Ask for a fluorescent tube.