| query | convention You say ' W___ ' to express surprise .You say ' What ' to express surprise . What! You want Saturday off as well? 'We've got the car that killed Myra Moss.'—'What!' |
|---|---|
| word | what |
| full-definition | pronoun You use what in questions when you ask for specific information about something that you do not know . What do you want? What did she tell you, anyway? 'Has something happened?'—'Indeed it has.'—'What?' What are the greatest sources of conflict in the Middle East? Hey! What are you doing? What time is it? What crimes are the defendants being charged with? 'The heater works.'—'What heater?' What kind of poetry does he like? conjunction You use what after certain words, especially verbs and adjectives, when you are referring to a situation that is unknown or has not been specified. You can imagine what it would be like driving a car into a brick wall at 30 miles an hour. I want to know what happened to Norman. Do you know what those idiots have done? We had never seen anything like it before and could not see what to do next. She turned scarlet from embarrassment, once she realized what she had done. I didn't know what college I wanted to go to. I didn't know what else to say. ...an inspection to ascertain to what extent colleges are responding to the needs of industry. You use what at the beginning of a clause in structures where you are changing the order of the information to give special emphasis to something. What precisely triggered off yesterday's riot is still unclear. What I wanted, more than anything, was a few days' rest. What she does possess is the ability to get straight to the core of a problem. You use what in expressions such as what is called and what amounts to when you are giving a description of something. She had been in what doctors described as an irreversible vegetative state for five years. It's part of the fashion for what could be called 'retrotainment'. You use what to indicate that you are talking about the whole of an amount that is available to you. He drinks what is left in his glass as if it were water. He moved carefully over what remained of partition walls. They had to use what money they had. other convention You say ' What? ' to tell someone who has indicated that they want to speak to you that you have heard them and are inviting them to continue . 'Dad?'—'What?'—'Can I have the car tonight?' convention You say ' What? ' when you ask someone to repeat the thing that they have just said because you did not hear or understand it properly. 'What?' is more informal and less polite than expressions such as ' Pardon ?' and ' Excuse me?'. 'They could paint this place,' she said. 'What?' he asked. convention You say ' What ' to express surprise . What! You want Saturday off as well? 'We've got the car that killed Myra Moss.'—'What!' predeterminer You use what in exclamations to emphasize an opinion or reaction . What a horrible thing to do. What a busy day. What ugly things; throw them away! What great news, Jakki. adverb You use what to indicate that you are making a guess about something such as an amount or value. It's, what, eleven years or more since he's seen him. This piece is, what, about a half an hour long? |
| cefr-level | A1 |
Tags: oxford5k::cefr-level:a1
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