Can a change in the way we speak change our behavior? The capital of Brazil, Brasilia, thinks so: they’ve outlawed the use of gerunds such as “doing”, “studying”, etc. because this verb form is associated with an inefficient government:

The governor of the Federal District of Brazil, José Roberto Arruda, has ordered regional public employees to abolish the use of gerunds, a measure that he defines as a “nice” message against inefficiency.

Upon defending the decision, Arruda said that he has lost patience with some members of his own government who are always “doing”, “getting”, “studying”, “sending” or “preparing” but never finish their work or establish ways to finish it.

Local government calls the use of gerunds “a plague”, which only serves to make excuses for unsolved problems.

Meanwhile, one Brazilian university professor says that Arruda’s measure only shows that he is “profoundly ignorant about the Portuguese language“, since the gerund is a verb category that cannot be eliminated from use.

Via / 20 Minutos