Enter or enter into — A few days ago, a reader said that President Pranab Mukherjee, while addressing the gathering at the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has used the phrase ‘entered into’. He wanted to know whether ‘entered into’ in the sentence was correct. The phrase ‘enter into’ in the sentence is incorrect. Here is an explanation. The verb ‘enter’ is not followed by a preposition if it is used transitively. Look at these examples:
• The students should enter the examination hall only after 9 o’clock.
• Enter the names of all eligible candidates for the BEC Vantage examination.
• Would you like to enter the short story writing competition?
• Before entering politics Pranab Mukherjee was a journalist.
In the examples above, the verb ‘enter’ is used transitively and therefore it is not followed by a preposition. The verb can also be used intransitively as in the following examples:
• She asked him to come in but he didn’t enter.
• Please knock and enter.
• Though the deadline for registration was December 5 2012, you can still enter (in a contest).
‘Enter into’ is a phrasal verb and it has the following meanings: to become part of something, to participate in a discussion, to take part in an activity, to engage in. For example:
•The government should enter into a dialogue with anti-nuclear activists.
• We don’t want to enter into any more discussion on this matter.
When we say something is not an important or essential part of something else, we can use the phrasal verb ‘enter into’:
• All the demands of the striking employees’ cannot enter into our decision.
The phrase ‘enter into’ collocates with these words: correspondence, debate, dialogue, discussion, negotiation, talks, agreement, alliance, arrangement, contract, partnership, transaction, treaty, etc.
Ache or pain — Do the words ‘ache’ and ‘pain’ mean the same? According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, ‘ache’ is ‘a continuous, dull pain in contrast to a sharp, sudden or sporadic pain’ and ‘pain’ is ‘a distressing sensation in a particular part of the body’. Though the words ‘ache’ and ‘pain’ are synonymous, some parts of the body do not collocate with ‘ache’ and some other parts do not collocate with ‘pain’. For example, head, tooth, and stomach with ache and thus we say: headache, toothache, and stomach ache. These words do not collocate with ‘pain’ and so it is incorrect to use the terms stomach pain or head pain. The part of the body ‘back’ collocates with both ‘ache’ and ‘pain’ as in this example:
• Backache ranks second to cold and cough as a cause of loss of work. Individuals with chronic back pain usually suffer from physical impairment, behavioral changes, hopelessness, de-motivation and lethargy.
Both ‘ache’ and ‘pain’ are countable nouns. If someone has just an instance of stomach ache, they say: I have a stomach ache. It is incorrect to say, “I have stomach ache” omitting the article ‘a’. Here are more examples:
• I had a terrible headache yesterday.
• There is a pain in my right leg.
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk