Teller: Someone, not something!

I read a quote online that seems, in part, very useful for this post. The quote is: That you're the loudest does not mean you're correct! I love the quote and will have it modified thus: 

That it (something) is commonly said does not make it right. I said that in light of an extract below from a featured news report in the weekend titles of a newspaper.

"It was gathered that Sefiu, 18, filled a teller at the banking hall and was about to proceed to the bulk room to make a deposit when an elderly man asked him for assistance in filling his own teller." 

What's wrong in the extract above?

One, a teller is not something, but someone! The Oxford dictionary defines a teller as someone whose job is to receive and pay out money in a bank. So the use of teller in the extract above is out of place. Where the writer of this piece used teller, the appropriate phrase should be deposit slip. 

I suggest you read from the link below. 👇🏾

http://olabanjititles.blogspot.com/2019/02/english-lessons-lesson-1.html?m=1

Two, the verb, fill, used in two variants, the past tense and past participle, is not correctly used in the extract. Rather than use fill, the writer should have used fill in, which means "to complete a form, etc. by writing information on it." In other words, fill in means to provide information. Rather than say, fill in, Americans do say, fill out. 

So, the extract should now read: 

"It was gathered that Sefiu, 18, filled in a deposit slip [in] at the banking hall and was about to proceed to the bulk room to make a deposit when an elderly man asked him for assistance in filling in his own deposit slip." 

Let's consider another extract from a national newspaper. The major error in the extract had earlier been discussed in the post below. Why not open the link to find out how the error in the extract below can be corrected. Where the error is has been highlighted in bold typeface. 

http://olabanjititles.blogspot.com/2019/11/how-to-use-requestrequest-for.html 

 

"Although it was difficult to know who got what. Sentry learnt that the errant party henchmen actually demanded for N6 billion to facility the victory of the party's candidate but got N3 billion...."

Thank you for reading. 

Books authored by the blogger

English Simplified! 

A Text of English Sounds (the revised edition will be out soon)

Eku: A corpus of Yoruba greetings, with tales and essays.  

Short cuts to identifying grammatical names and functions is also due for release soon. 

The blogger, Olabanji O. Odurombi, can be contacted via SMS, voice call, or WhatsApp on 08037699294.