As an Indian, I am sad that the world will lose out on short to-the-point words/phrases such as "please do the needful", "i have a doubt", "prepone" and many others :( We are like this only.
This one is problematic when used with non-Indians.
When an Indian says they have a doubt, they mean “I have a question and seek clarification on one point”. Someone not familiar with this Indian English idiosyncrasy will instead interpret it as “I’m not convinced that what you’re saying is true”, potentially even casting aspersions on your integrity. The question that follows will normally clear things up enough that it’s not disastrous, but it will still tend to leave a bad taste in the hearer’s mouth. It took me quite some time to really get used to it.
Thanks for sharing. Another interesting part is how similar the word "dúvida" is to Hindi's word for "doubt": "Duvidha" which itself is derived from Sanskrit!
You are correct. Indian English uses “doubt” to mean “question”, rather than lack of belief as is its standard English meaning. Different dialects use words differently, and there’s generally not much you can do about it. At least in this case the concepts are relatively similar, unlike by/into which normally mean multiplication/division, but are inverted in India.
You're right. "I have a doubt" means "I have a question".
We used to have "doubt-solving sessions" in coaching centres.
Everytime one of the students would ask "Sir, I have a doubt" I would
always snigger within that the student was insinuating something
sinister or nefarious about the instructor's character.
I always found it hilarious.
exactly, it stands for "I have a question" :) It stems from the school/coaching system where you are encouraged to ask questions as you figure out say a problem set in dedicated "doubt clearing" sessions with your teachers/instructors. That carries over to the workplace where you are more likely to hear this phrase when someone has a question in a technical discussion or similar, from my observations.
This just seems like a tautology, as--from your description--it sounds like this is what I'd call a "q&a session", and so it may as well have become a "doubt clearing/solving session" because the teachers/instructors themselves also/already were taught that terminology... I'm wondering where it started, as, in English, the word "doubt" (especially as a noun) frankly almost never comes up, and if someone simply didn't learn it, they'd be fine?
This one is problematic when used with non-Indians.
When an Indian says they have a doubt, they mean “I have a question and seek clarification on one point”. Someone not familiar with this Indian English idiosyncrasy will instead interpret it as “I’m not convinced that what you’re saying is true”, potentially even casting aspersions on your integrity. The question that follows will normally clear things up enough that it’s not disastrous, but it will still tend to leave a bad taste in the hearer’s mouth. It took me quite some time to really get used to it.