This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2116.
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Lately we have noticed that our native speaking friends and family members are opening their statements with the word question.
What function does this serve and what does it mean for connection?
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Expires at midnight on Friday. allersenglish.com slash B-L-A-C-K-F-R-I-D-A-Y. you hey michelle i'm doing great how are you how's everything i'm good yeah everything's good so um question okay um how much coffee have you had today oh i'm just getting started but i will have a lot how many how much we've talked about this all the time but right there yeah um how much do you have a day oh my gosh um two or two and a half large cups so that might be like six cups literally six measurement cups of coffee potentially a lot michelle i have a lot of coffee but sometimes i find the research that says it doesn't matter as long as you're not drinking like 25 cups you're okay i think i'm still okay maybe 25 that would be a lot yeah um i have been drinking more than usual i used to just drink one in the morning that was fine but my daughter is uh getting up at 4 30 in the morning sometimes and there's it's a she is in the other room right now and like she is waking up too early.
So that happens.
But so I've been drinking more than usual and drinking coffee more than usual.
Making sure that's clear.
You'll just have a little sound clip.
A little sound clip of me.
Right, right, right, right.
Watch out what gets clipped out of episodes, right?
No, no, no.
You're drinking more coffee than usual.
Oh my gosh.
Question.
Michelle, how are you handling that?
I mean, that must be hard, you know, getting up so early every morning.
Oh, my gosh.
You should see my apartment from between the hours of like 4.30 and 6.30.
No one should be up at that hour.
Yeah, well, you talk to her.
I'll have a chat with her.
You talk to her, yeah.
So I don't know, but I'm not handling it well.
We're all exhausted and just the coffee, the coffee.
All right, well, the coffee's coming to your rescue.
You know, today I'm excited, Michelle.
We're going to be talking about something right that we've already used this language function twice in this conversation.
I wonder if our listeners have picked up on it.
What do you think?
Yeah, yeah.
I'm excited about this episode.
This is one of those that came out of my natural speech and that I've heard other people use.
And I thought it's something that I think that people do that we didn't even realize.
And so I paid attention and I realized that's used a lot and I made a note of it.
So I'm excited.
This will be a fun one.
This is going to be good.
I love when we cover these super natural native quirks.
These are quirks that native speakers use and no textbook would pick up on this.
There's just no time in a textbook or a traditional English class.
This is real English here.
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All right.
Definitely.
All right.
Love it.
So today we're talking about a unique way that people start off asking a question.
So Lindsay, what is it?
It is question.
Question.
It's a question.
It's saying question, right?
So how did we use it in the first couple of little conversation at the beginning, right?
You asked me why.
I said, question, how much coffee do you have, have you had today?
And then what did you ask me again?
I said, question, how are you handling that?
Which I actually liked.
This is very nuanced but And maybe it's too thin to pick apart here, but I liked your use of question better than mine.
It felt more natural just because it's, I mean, I guess we'll get into this, but it's kind of bringing up a random question a little bit, isn't it?
Ah, yeah.
It's a little random and well, okay.
We'll get it.
Yeah.
We'll get it.
We'll keep you guys on the edge of your seat.
So, but guys, just to head you over to another episode, that would be good to listen to.
We have episode 2102 of All Ears English.
We couldn't agree with you more how to validate someone in English.
Yes, I love it.
I love it.
So go back and check out that episode.
So have you been hearing this more and more lately, this question, getting started?
Yeah, I have.
I have.
I just, I don't know.
Maybe it's not that it's more common.
Maybe it's just that My ears are perked up, I don't know.
Yeah, probably.
Yeah, as someone who's always looking for ideas for episodes, right?
Maybe it's just something I notice.
Right.
So, yeah, I'm not sure.
But would you say that you use this?
Yeah, I do sometimes.
And I agree.
I think it's something that's kind of in style and modern.
We should make a course that's just really in style things right now.
You know, the 10 most fashionable language trends currently.
That would be really cool, actually.
Yeah, that would.
That would.
I mean, I do hear it.
Yeah.
Yes.
So, okay.
So this isn't one of those things where you say you don't really hear it in your world, right?
Like, because sometimes I'll come to something and we're like, oh, which is fine.
We live in different worlds.
And then I'm like, did I make that up?
I don't know.
I started to second guess myself.
No, no, no, no.
This one I do hear for sure.
For sure.
Okay.
Okay, good, good, good.
Okay, yes, I thought you would.
So, I mean, basically what you do is you say question and you start the question.
Right, right.
So let's do some examples.
All right, here we go.
So question, do we start the clock now or just when the actual presentation begins?
All right, so maybe what's the context there, Michelle?
Like maybe you're rehearsing for... something for a presentation and you need to time it.
And so you're trying to decide when should you actually specifically start the... Right.
So that could be at work.
Maybe there's a team gathered around a table and that's how you interject, right?
Right, right, right, right.
Or question how do we log into our youtube account?
Right, i could see, maybe if we're having a team meeting and you're not sure how to log into our youtube account, you might say that randomly, like you bring it up kind of out of the blue a little bit right right right um, and then okay uh, do this one, and then we'll talk about if we feel it's like more natural.
Question why is it so tough to get tickets for this show?
Do you think yeah, Are you asking me if that last one feels natural?
It's a little bit different for me, and we'll I'll explain why in a second, but I think it's fine as well.
But I mean, I, okay.
So like, but why do we do this?
It adds style.
I think it's a signal.
It shows that here's what I think.
I think it shows that something is generally a quick question, right?
It's not, it's you.
You wouldn't say like question, tell me like, like um, tell me about like, where did you travel on your trips as a child?
Right right right, right.
It's like you're trying to communicate.
It's a transition for sure to get attention.
It's an opener and it's also a way to say i'm not gonna dominate the conversation now, i'm not gonna take it to a whole other direction for the next hour.
I just want to ask a quick question.
Right, maybe it's a little interruption, or maybe you're just showing like oh yeah, this isn't, this is just a.
It's not asked for a long, open-ended question yeah, so when i said about the tickets to the show, i mean that could be.
I mean, or like i'm imagining if you're sitting at your computer with your, with your friend, i mean, and you're trying to get tickets to a show and you're sitting together, and then you're just like question, why do you think it's so hard?
I feel like it's okay, but if it's gonna be like a whole discussion, you wouldn't say this, yeah.
Or if someone's giving um a list of instructions on how to do something and you want to quickly interject, you don't want them to stop the instructions.
They're going to continue, they're on step three, and just say question right yeah, you're just saying hey, I'm just gonna ask this and then I'm gonna pop back down and I'm gonna listen to you.
Continue to go down the list of instruction yeah, yeah.
So exactly, I think it's a quick zippy question.
But you're gonna be asking a zippy question um, or yeah, like you said lindsay, how to do something?
Yeah um, or what someone thinks should be done, like question like do you think we should use blue or blacking?
It's like the subtle art of interrupting but not interrupting right yeah yeah right, that's true yeah, Okay.
So I think our listeners are starting to get the vibe of what this does.
Guys, we need skills like this.
We need more direct ways to interrupt.
If we really need to redirect the conversation, we need little ways to interject in this way and show that we're not gonna dominate the conversation.
We need a variety of things to say.
And I think we're getting that here, Michelle.
Yes, yes, exactly.
So we're gonna talk about some similar things that you can use.
I mean, the first one is just, question for you.
Or a lot of times you might hear quick question for you.
Right.
That's good too.
So for example, quick question for you, Michelle, are you free this Sunday for recording?
We don't record on Sunday.
We don't record on Sunday.
So yeah, that's another way.
It's the same idea.
And then I wanted to bring up one special way.
And this is a shout out to my dad.
Because and he doesn't really, he doesn't know this, but I always noticed that he says this all the time
And that's one of the inspirations for the show.
I remember I wrote this down.
And then I wrote question because i heard that too, so i wanted to include this as well.
So do you ever hear somebody say like, oh?
The question is oh yeah i yeah, i could see that being like something.
Yeah, kind of.
Maybe an a slightly older generation might be more likely to say i could see my dad saying it too, or we could say it too, for sure, legitimately.
Yeah right right right, i mean, this is a little bit different um, but i wanted to include it because it's a question word.
So yeah yeah yeah um, but it's it's.
I feel like it's less to someone, it's more general, it's more like you're putting the question out into the world and whoever can answer it will answer it.
So, for example, the question is how can we get the money if we aren't there on time?
Yeah, or the question is why haven't they called back yet?
Michelle, this is a good one.
I think this actually deserves its own episode Yeah.
Dedicated to your dad.
Oh, dad.
I mean, it could be a whole other episode.
Right.
I like that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's true.
It's true.
But it's interesting how sometimes we signal in these quick ways.
And also intonation is important.
Right.
Let's talk about intonation for a second because we can't forget about that.
Lindsay, would you say like question?
No question.
No monotone.
It has to stick out.
Right.
Questions right, question or quick question for you.
It's all very it's like.
It's like bouncing.
It has to come up, it has to bounce because what it's doing is it's catching attention, catching the person's attention.
Okay, i'm going to interject now, but it's a light.
It's like lightly catching the attention.
Right, it's not yes, redirecting in a heavy way.
Quick question for you.
Question right, Okay?
Right.
Whereas the question is, is a little bit more drawn out.
Like the question is, yes, but maybe we'll save that for a whole episode for another day.
It could be a great episode because that one gets into asking lots of questions, right?
We'll think about that one another day.
I love it.
Okay.
All right.
Sounds good.
Yeah.
Do we have a role play for this one today?
Let's do it.
So here we are, co-workers.
All right.
Hey, Michelle, quick question for you.
What's the password for the general company account?
Oh, it's foxtrot601.
Okay, thanks.
Sure thing.
Question, are you free for happy hour tonight?
Sure.
Amazing.
The question is, where should we go that isn't already booked?
I'll think about it.
Nice.
Nice.
Happy hour.
Fun.
Fun, fun.
All right.
So I started off by saying, hey, Michelle, quick question for you.
So... it's positive.
It's, it's not going to dominate.
It's just, it's, you know, it's polite, but it's casual at the same time.
It's good at work because we're coworkers here.
Yeah.
Right.
Or, and this is just that you're just asking something quick because I, it just, it, it really is a quick question because they're gonna, uh, yeah, I'm, the answer is one word.
Right.
Foxtrot 601.
I made that up.
Yeah.
And so in the context, we could have already been in another conversation talking about something else.
Or I could be reaching over.
Maybe we work in cubicles next to each other.
I could be reaching over saying, hey, quick question for you.
Right.
Right.
You're like, roll your chair over.
Yeah.
I imagine that.
Right.
I don't know.
Yeah, I do miss that about working in an office.
I remember yeah, I always talk to you about wow.
Sometimes during a meeting I would go and meet with my work brother.
And I remember just like rolling around the room to his cubicle.
We had like an open concept.
Yeah.
Yeah, so fun.
Yeah, you know, roll on over.
Things have changed with the pandemic.
I mean, you take the good with the bad, right?
There's it's a it's a trade off what we have now working from home.
There are so many good things, but there are things we miss from being in person.
Yeah.
For sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
So you said quick question for you.
And then I changed the subject.
Maybe my my I've been thinking about this.
And then you came over and I'm like, Oh, yeah, now that you're talking to me.
Yeah, question.
Are you free for happy hour tonight?
Yeah.
And that's kind of fun, because sometimes when you extend out an invitation to someone, you might feel a sense of what, if they say no, I'm going to feel a little rejected.
So this kind of makes it a little more casual, a little more random.
I don't know.
It's just an opener for an invitation potentially too, right?
Yeah.
It's a fun way to introduce the topic.
I mean, I could have just said, sure thing.
Are you free for happy hour tonight?
But it's an opener, like you said.
It's kind of don't know.
It's a nice like and we're off, and we're off.
And then you said amazing, the question is, where should we go that isn't already booked?
And here we're pulling in.
The question is and we'll come back to that another day but what you're saying here is, here's the problem we might face.
Right, this is something we've been maybe working on before.
It's a some kind of a thing.
It's a bigger decision, a decision that we'll have to make and work out.
Yeah.
So it's different, but I had to throw it in there for that.
Yeah, totally.
Oh, another episode idea for our listeners.
That's why you guys should go ahead and just hit that follow button.
So you don't miss these episodes.
These gosh, this fall, we've had some awesome episodes.
Um, just make sure you hit follow.
We have, we done one yet, Michelle on amazing, like saying amazing as a response.
Amazing.
Period.
Amazing.
So common right now.
I don't know.
That is common right now.
That is common.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm seeing that in my business emails back and forth with companies, when I'm emailing them even.
Yeah, just friends, it's everywhere.
So I think that would be a great episode to do.
Yeah okay, all right, all right.
I love it's so fun.
These episodes was just about really one main word.
It's really good.
Yeah, we get really pinpointed, we get really specific.
What, what about this one today?
What would, what would be the takeaway today, Michelle?
Well guys, this is a fun way to introduce a quick question.
Again, these are things like quick yes or no questions.
How do you do this question?
And then, of course, we introduced another thing, which was the question is.
But try these out today.
And again, as we say all the time, you don't want to use it for every question you ask.
Like if you're at work and he's like, Lindsay, question.
Oh, Lindsay, question, question, question.
I think that would work. drive you batty.
Or the question is, if you do that all the time, you might start to be the source of an idea for another Seinfeld episode if you're not careful.
Right.
That's true.
That's where these things come from, these quirks, things that people don't realize that they're doing.
They do, yeah, over and over or something.
Yeah, for sure.
But we've talked about that a lot this fall.
So guys, go back if you missed some really fun episodes about Seinfeld.
So All right, Michelle, we are out of here for today.
Guys, hit follow on the podcast and we'll be back soon.
Have a good one.
All right.
All right.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
Bye.
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