The Editor, Sir:

I have been trying for years (and had at one time thought my efforts were having some success, but apparently not) to get the TV station that airs the Schools' Challenge Quiz and its more recent junior version to make a correction to something the teachers who train the children appear to tell them they should say. It is the expression 'God's willing' that they say before announcing the profession they hope to be trained for when they leave school.

When I have spoken to the person I thought was in charge of the programme, I have been at pains to point out the basis on which I have said that the correct expression is 'God willing'.

God willing

Now, I know that Latin is no longer taught in our schools, but the expression 'Deo volente' appears in my Oxford dictionary proof that it is accepted as something English speakers should know. As I have said, I have been at pains to point out, as is my Oxford, that it means 'God willing'. To add an 'apostrophe s' to the word 'God' would imply either (1) that the word 'willing' is a noun and that it is possessed by God or (2) that God's is the shortened form of God is, in the expression 'God is willing'. Neither of these is correct.

Deo volente which is rendered by some as DV, translates to 'God being willing', or put differently, 'if God be willing', or, putting God completely out of the picture, as the Oxford also offers, 'if nothing prevents it'.

I should be very happy to hear the next time I watch one of these programmes that the teachers in charge have read this letter and worked at making the correction.

I am, etc.,

MARGARET BISHOP

mhbish@cwjamaica.com