Keep, Replace, or Quote: A Three-Step Word Check

How to check if an English word is standard is a lookup, not a culture war. Take one doubtful word from tonight's email, composition or report. Look it up. Check a real collocation. Then keep it, replace it, or put it in marked dialogue. Do this to one word. A list of “banned Singlish” will not teach the habit.

Standard here means Singapore Standard English in writing

Singapore English is commonly described as two related varieties. Singapore Standard English follows standard grammar and widely listed vocabulary and is the expected form in school writing and most workplace documents. Singlish is the colloquial variety many people speak with friends. It is a systematic variety, not “broken English”. The writing target tonight is still Standard English unless the task asks for local voice.

Particles such as lah, topic-comment patterns, and missing verbs belong to the colloquial side. Local proper nouns that name real institutions — HDB, MRT, MOE — are not particles. They can stay in Singapore writing when they name the thing you mean.

A three-step check on one word

1. Look the word up in a learner or standard dictionary. If it is labelled informal, slang, or dialect, treat it as unsafe in unmarked formal writing.
2. Check a collocation. Search the word in a sentence from a newspaper or a coursebook. If you cannot find a standard sentence that uses it the way you used it, you do not own the word yet.
3. Decide: keep it in unmarked writing, replace it with a listed synonym, or quote it inside dialogue or a cited local voice.

A dictionary miss is not proof the word is illegal. It is a reason to replace it in formal writing tonight. Do not argue the dictionaries in the script. The reader of a report or a situational letter did not ask for a linguistics essay.

When a non-standard word can stay

• Keep it in quotation marks when a character is speaking, and the rest of the narration stays standard.
• Keep it when the teacher or manager asked for local colour and you can mark it as speech or example.
• Replace it in reports, emails to officials, exam narration, and any letter that names a formal reader.
• Replace particles such as lah, leh and meh in unmarked narration. They almost never belong there.

O-Level writing guidance commonly allows Singlish in marked dialogue and requires Standard English in narration. Workplace presentations to mixed or senior audiences follow the same split. Informal team chat is a different room.

FAQ

What if two dictionaries disagree?

In formal school or work writing, replace the word with a listed synonym. Do not argue the dictionaries in the script. Disagreement is a replace signal, not a research project for tonight.

Are words like HDB or MRT standard?

Local proper nouns that name real institutions are acceptable in Singapore writing. They are not Singlish particles. Use them when they are the accurate name. Explain them once if the reader may be new to Singapore.