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Showing posts with the label british english

What's Up in British English?

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  The apparently simple question, 'What's up?' can cause confusion British and American speakers of English.  An American colleague of mine used to greet me every morning with question 'what's up?'.  I would reply 'Nothing' or 'I'm fine.'  After the third time I realised that for her the question was an all purpose greeting, as in the film title  What's Up, Doc   To these British ears it meant 'What is the problem?' or 'Is something wrong?'

What is a 'big ask'?

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A 'big ask' is an informal idiom describing goal/task that is difficult to complete. It has migrated from British/Australian the discussion of sport into more general English.