Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - what

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. You use what in questions when you ask for specific information about something that you do not know. What do you want?... ‘Has something happened?’—‘Indeed it has.’—‘What?’... Hey! What are you doing? QUEST • What is also a determiner. What time is it?... ‘The heater works.’—‘What heater?’... What kind of poetry does he like? DET 2. 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. CONJ • What is also a determiner. 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. DET 3. 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... CONJ c darkgreen]emphasis 4. 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... CONJ 5. 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... CONJ • What is also a determiner. They had had to use what money they had. = whatever DET 6. 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. (SPOKEN) ‘Dad?’—‘What?’—‘Can I have the car tonight?’ CONVENTION c darkgreen]formulae 7. 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?’. (SPOKEN) ‘They could paint this place,’ she said. ‘What?’ he asked. CONVENTION c darkgreen]formulae 8. You say ‘What’ to express surprise. ‘Adolphus Kelling, I arrest you on a charge of trafficking in narcotics.’—‘What?’ CONVENTION c darkgreen]feelings 9. You use what in exclamations to emphasize an opinion or reaction. What a horrible thing to do... What a busy day. PREDET c darkgreen]emphasis • What is also a determiner. What ugly things; throw them away, throw them away... What great news, Jakki. DET 10. 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... ADV: ADV n 11. You say guess what or do you know what to introduce a piece of information which is surprising, which is not generally known, or which you want to emphasize. Guess what? I’m going to dinner at Mrs. Combley’s tonight... CONVENTION 12. In conversation, you say or what? after a question as a way of stating an opinion forcefully and showing that you expect other people to agree. Look at that moon. Is that beautiful or what?... Am I wasting my time here, or what? PHRASE: cl PHR c darkgreen]emphasis 13. You say so what? or what of it? to indicate that the previous remark seems unimportant, uninteresting, or irrelevant to you. ‘I skipped off school today,’—‘So what? What’s so special about that?’... ‘You’re talking to yourself.’—‘Well, what of it?’ = so CONVENTION c darkgreen]feelings 14. You say ‘Tell you what’ to introduce a suggestion or offer. Tell you what, let’s stay here another day. PHRASE: PHR cl 15. You use what about at the beginning of a question when you make a suggestion, offer, or request. What about going out with me tomorrow?... PHRASE: PHR n/-ing 16. You use what about or what of when you introduce a new topic or a point which seems relevant to a previous remark. Now you’ve talked about work on daffodils, what about other commercially important flowers, like roses?... PHRASE: PHR group/cl 17. You say what about a particular person or thing when you ask someone to explain why they have asked you about that person or thing. ‘This thing with the Corbett woman.’—‘Oh, yeah. What about her?’ PHRASE: PHR n 18. You say what have you at the end of a list in order to refer generally to other things of the same kind. So many things are unsafe these days–milk, cranberry sauce, what have you... My great-grandfather made horseshoes and nails and what have you. PHRASE: n PHR, n and/or PHR c darkgreen]vagueness 19. You say what if at the beginning of a question when you ask about the consequences of something happening, especially something undesirable. What if this doesn’t work out?... PHRASE: PHR cl 20. If you know what’s what, you know the important things that need to be known about a situation. You have to know what’s what and when to draw the line... You should come across the river with us. Then you will really see what’s what. PHRASE: PHR after v 21. what’s more: see more