Hi this is Ceema, welcome back to yet another very interesting lesson on, expressions with
“what”. Well what is one of the most common WH question, right? But you can't always use
a ‘what’ in order to ask a question because sometimes using it in a phrase can mean something
totally different. Of course it is a question but there are various ways you can use it
in expressions and phrases that you are now commonly going to use when you speak English.
I've got a few expressions for you the first one I’ve got is ‘what's the catch?’.
Well what does this expression really mean? Now sometimes you are told things or you know
people try to sell you things for prices that seem to be too good to be true. So when something
that you are told or you are you know you are sold rather sounds too good to be true
that's when you will ask ‘what's the catch?’. Nowadays a lot of people sell a lot of Internet
packages you know for phones at very cheap prices and they tell you that look for ten
pounds you are going to get unlimited internet with unlimited minutes. Now that sounds like
a very good deal but perhaps there is some kind of an underlying problem there is something
that you are not quite aware of as far as that deal is concerned. So you may ask what's
the catch because maybe the unlimited internet that you are sold is not really unlimited
it could come with speed restrictions it could come with a cap of using a certain amount
so the deal is not as good as you think it is so therefore the deal is too good to be
true that's when you say what's the catch in response to something that you feel is
not quite right, okay?
Now moving on to the next expression we have a question which is ‘what's the drill?’
So sometimes when you are introduced to something you want to know the rules and procedures
pertaining to whatever it is that you are introduced to, right? So say for example you
are you know new to a company and you speak with some of the fellow employees and you
want to know what are the rules and procedures to go about getting leaves you know getting
your holidays in place so you can ask what's the drill in other words you are saying or
you are asking what are the rules and procedures to go about doing something it could be anything,
okay?
And then we have another very, very common expression okay it's a question that says
‘what do you say?’ Now let me tell you when you say it fast in spoken English it
sounds more like ‘Whaddyasay’ so when you're actually talking
you know this is the way it's going to be pronounced okay so you say what do you say
so when do you use this question or this expression what do you say? You use it when you are asking
for someone's opinion, their decision or what they feel about something okay so when you
want to know about someone's decision so you tell your friend we'll watch a movie, go for
lunch and then we'll hang around at my place, what do you say? So you want to know whether
your friend thinks that it's a good idea or not so you want to know your friends decision
about whether we should do whatever it is that I have planned out so that's what you
say you say what do you say okay that's the way you actually pronounce it when you're
talking in spoken English.
Now the next expression is again a very common one it says ‘what goes around comes around’
okay? So this is another quote or another way of saying that whatever you do comes back
to you. You know as children we were always taught that if you did good, good things will
happen to you if you were bad you know bad things would probably happen to you right?
So what goes around comes around is just another way of saying that whatever you do comes back
to you so you better be a little bit good.
Okay and the next question or an expression using what is, ‘what do I owe you’. Okay
now this is something or a question that you use when or is another way of saying what
is the amount that I have to pay so you know maybe you're you are in a bar and you've ordered
a drink and you ask the bartender so what do I owe you? Or what do I pay? What is the
amount I have to pay? A more informal way of saying that is, what's the damage? That's
what people normally use these days so what do I owe you is just another way of saying
what is the amount that I require to pay okay
And this is again a very common expression which says ‘What's Eating her’ how can
something eat a person well this is an expression that you use when you are trying to ask what's
bothering someone? So what's eating her is another way of saying what's bothering her
okay so you can see you know your friend she's quite upset, she's probably crying, she's
angry you know, she's not very, she's not feeling very good and you and your friend
are talking about that friend who was upset so that's when you say, ‘what's eating her?’
‘What’s bothering her?’ ‘Why is she so angry?’ ‘Why is she so sad and upset
and angry?’ So that's another way of just saying what's bothering or what's kind of
causing her some kind of problem okay?
And the next expression is ‘what are you getting at?’ Now let me tell you there are
some people who keep talking in circles, what does that mean? You know they kind of talk
about everything but the actual point that they're trying to make so when you have someone
like that and you want them to just stop and you want to ask them what is your point that's
another way of saying what are you getting at okay so what are you getting at is another
way of saying what's the point well what's the point you are trying, what's the point
you are trying to make okay so when someone keeps talking about probably everything in
the world and you want them to come straight to the point that's when you will just stop
them and say, ‘Wait, what are you getting at? In other words you say what is your point
what is the point you are trying to make okay?
Now the next expression with the word what is ‘what's done is done.’ This is a very
final statement which actually goes to show or goes to say that the past cannot be changed.
Now so your mother keeps you know complaining about the expenses that you've incurred by
going into a hotel which is a little bit more expensive than you thought you would have
had to pay for so you get a little fed up and you're saying that okay what's done is
done the past cannot be changed so we don't go over that again and again and again right
because what's done is done okay we can't change that anymore.
And moving on to the last expression with this very common word is a question that says,
‘What's with?’ or ‘What's the deal with?’ Now each of these mean a little different
what's with is another way of saying what's the problem so you see your boss a little
bit angry and you tell your friend what's with Mr. Ruppert why is he so angry? In other
words what's, what's the problem with your boss but when you say what's the deal with
something you're asking about the status of something so maybe you are working on a project
at work okay and you want to know the progress or how much of that project has been completed
so that's when you say what's the deal with the presentation what's the deal with the
project okay so what's with is used to talk about you know what's the problem with someone
but what's the deal with is another way of asking what's the status or what's the progress
about a certain thing that you're trying to do.
Well that's it from me on this lesson on expressions with ‘what’ I'm sure you will be able
to use these expressions almost every single day. Well I'll be back with some more lessons
but until then this is me saying, take care.