How to pick words

[Miss Mae]

Wouldn't increase sound better?

Workers can expect something unusual next year--a pay rise.

[Joe Carillo]

You stumbled on what's apparently a sentence in British English. "Rise" is chiefly British English usage that means "an increase especially in amount, number, or volume." The Filipino ear is, of course, more attuned to the American English "increase" because the Philippines uses the American English standard.

[Miss Mae]

Uh-okay. Thank you.

[Miss Mae]

Is the preference of the Philippines for American English also the reason why off was used in the following headline?

A Chinese cargo ship sank off Cagayan early Sunday, resulting in the death of one crewmember while another went missing, the Philippine Coast Guard and Chinese embassy officials said.

[Joe Carillo]

No, the use of “off” in the sentence below has got nothing to do with a preference for either American English or British English:

“A Chinese cargo ship sank off Cagayan early Sunday, resulting in the death of one crewmember while another went missing, the Philippine Coast Guard and Chinese embassy officials said.”

The word “off” in that sentence is being used not as a preposition but as an adverb in the sense of at sea “away from land” or “away from shore.”

[Miss Mae]

Thank you for your patience.