For representative purposes.
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What is the difference between ‘moral’ and ‘morale’? (P. Radhika, Chennai)
Both come from the Latin ‘moralis’, meaning ‘proper social behaviour’; today, however, the two words are very different, not only in terms of meaning, but also pronunciation. ‘Moral’ can be used both as a noun and an adjective. When you talk about the ‘moral’ of a story, you are referring to the lesson one can learn from it — for example, most of us know that the moral of the ‘Hare and the Tortoise’ is slow and steady wins the race.
Even as a kid, I never enjoyed stories which had a moral in them.
When used as an adjective, the word is frequently used to mean ‘correct’ or ‘ethical’ — you are making a distinction between right and wrong and good and evil. For example, when you say, ‘The builder returned the money because it was the moral thing to do’, what you’re suggesting is that it was the right or ethical thing to do.
‘Morale’, on the other hand, has more to do with the feeling within. When you say that the morale of the team was high, what you are suggesting is that the players were feeling very confident; they were very optimistic of winning the game.
The fiery speech given by the General lifted the morale of the soldiers.
As expected, the morale of the team was quite low.
As for the pronunciation, ‘moral’ rhymes with ‘laurel’ and ‘quarrel’. The word is pronounced MO-rel with the stress on the first syllable. In the case of ‘morale’, the vowel in the first syllable is like the ‘a’ in ‘china’, while the following ‘a’ sounds like the ‘a’ in ‘father’ and ‘garden’. The British pronounce the word ‘me-RAAL’, with the stress on the second syllable.
What is the meaning of ‘run something up the flagpole’? (R. Om Prakash, Delhi)
Sometimes, when we have an idea, we do not always share it with everyone immediately. In order to determine what others think of it, we float the idea to a few people, and study their reaction. This manner of testing an idea is called ‘run something up the flagpole’. Another informal expression which has more or less the same meaning is ‘to send up a trial balloon’. The feedback that you receive from the select individuals will help you determine the feasibility of your idea. If the feedback is mainly positive, you can move forward with your proposal.
We need to run the proposed rule changes up the flagpole before finalising them.
Radha ran her idea up the flagpole several times before presenting it to her boss.
Is it okay to say, ‘At home, we don’t discuss about politics at the dining table’? (D. Rukmani, Coimbatore)
It is quite common to hear people in our country say, ‘discuss about politics’, ‘discuss about sports’, ‘discuss about the problems’, etc. In native varieties of English, however, ‘discuss about’ is considered ungrammatical — one can ‘discuss something’ and not ‘discuss about’ something. It is, however, okay to say ‘discussion about’.
We discussed the long list of problems the students were having.
There was a long discussion about the problems students have.
My father meets up with his friends to discuss politics.
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Published – February 02, 2026 08:30 am IST
