English for Today by Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (Dr GAB)
A CHAT or A GIST?
A chat is an informal conversation or talk conducted in an easy familiar manner:
We had an interesting gist last night. ✖️
We had an interesting chat last night. ✔️
Note that when the chat is about matters that are not important, it is called chit chat and it doesn’t attract the article “a”:
We had a chit chat for almost an hour. ✖️
We had chit chat for almost an hour. ✔️
Although it is used in Nigerian English to mean chit chat, gist is the substance or general meaning of a speech or text or the real point of an action:
It was difficult to get the gist of his presentation. ✔️
Submissiveness was the gist of his long talk. ✔️
GAB
