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ADVANCED ENGLISH
- Thread starter jeffli
- Start date
Check Dulanz's post in the 3rd page of this thread.
What are you on about?
What are you on about?
"What are you on about?" means 'what do/did you mean?' or 'what are you
talking about?'.
I've seen lot of Native English speaking people use this term instead of 'what
did you mean?' or 'I didn't get you'.
Urbandictionary.com definition
What are you on about?
"What are you on about?" means 'what do/did you mean?' or 'what are you
talking about?'.
I've seen lot of Native English speaking people use this term instead of 'what
did you mean?' or 'I didn't get you'.
Urbandictionary.com definition
what are you on about?
Meaning "what do you mean?"
It is a shortened version on "what are you going on about?" or "what are you talking about?"
Usually used when someone is not making sense for extended periods of time or if you feel
like you've missed something.
Can be lengthened to show complete and utter confusion.
eg.
what the fuck are you on about?
what, exactly, are you on about?
what the fuck are you on about, exactly?
what the fucking hell are you on about you fucking cock? how's about you learn to fucking
speak english?
ex:1
knobhead: dude. i totally just pwned that n00b. i asdfghjkl; the ask;nfw. fo shizzle my nizzle
dizzle.
awesome: what the fuck are you on about?
ex:2
knobhead: so, tomorrow, then?
awesome person: what?
knobhead: we can go and you can meet them, yeah?
awesome person: what are you on about?
What are you on about?
"What are you on about?" means 'what do/did you mean?' or 'what are you
talking about?'.
I've seen lot of Native English speaking people use this term instead of 'what
did you mean?' or 'I didn't get you'.
Urbandictionary.com definition
I've seen people in films from 50s use this
say this to their women while sucking on big fat cigars
It's not an obsolete term. I have few nutty friends about 13,14(age) from UK in my fb and even they use this so often in their comments and chats.I've seen people in films from 50s use this
This has another meaning if we are talking with the people who are high. Then 'what are you on about?' means 'what type of drug are you on about?' . I think that's the case you are describing. Otherwise it simply means 'what did you mean?'. May be it is coming from old time but still very colloquial in UK.
By the way I don't watch movies from 50s and still know that it is a very colloquial term. Even there's an internet slang as WAYOA to refer this. Guess there wasn't internet at 50s.
"On about - What are you on about? That's something you may well hear when visiting the UK. It means what are you talking about?"
-http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml-
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It's not an obsolete term. I have few nutty friends about 13,14(age) from UK in my fb and even they use this so often in their comments and chats.
This has another meaning if we are talking with the people who are high. Then 'what are you on about?' means 'what type of drug are you on about?' . I think that's the case you are describing. Otherwise it simply means 'what did you mean?'. May be it is coming from old time but still very colloquial in UK.
By the way I don't watch movies from 50s and still know that it is a very colloquial term. Even there's an internet slang as WAYOA to refer this. Guess there wasn't internet at 50s.
"On about - What are you on about? That's something you may well hear when visiting the UK. It means what are you talking about?"
-http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml-
it may be time for me to move on to more recent films then
btw, what on earth you doing talking to 13 year olds ?
and, you should say, 'I've A few nutty friends'
anyways, I always gathered that what you on about is more likely to mean, 'what are you trying to say' or 'where are you going with this talk', rather than what do you mean.
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it may be time for me to move on to more recent films then
btw, what on earth you doing talking to 13 year olds ?
and, you should say, 'I've A few nutty friends'
anyways, I always gathered that what you on about is more likely to mean, 'what are you trying to say' or 'where are you going with this talk', rather than what do you mean.
hehe Most of them are females. All are jailbaits, not like Srilankan kids.
I'm sure it means 'what did you mean?', but not much different with the what you have suggested anyway. I searched it and asked a few native people for its meaning when I saw it first sometime ago. So I'm positive about its meaning.
-"and, you should say, 'I've A few nutty friends' "-
Thanks for helping pal.
As I know, 'few' in "I've a few friends" and "I've few friends" has different meanings and both are grammatically correct.
I've a few friends == I have some friends (positive)
I've few friends == I do not have many friends (negative)
I don't have many friends from UK anyway. But I guess it would be better if I used 'a few' being positive here as my intention here is not to worry about the amount of friends. Thanks for correcting!!!
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you may be correct on that, I'm no expert
and I'm sure you meant it in a 'positive' way
anyways, you are on the right path with all the UK buds cos chatting with native english speakers is a hell of a way to improve yours. I kinda did the same back in 2005/6, with different intentions of course
meh I kinda miss those days, prodigits, flick chat and all...every now and then I stop to wonder what became of all those people, they musta all grown up and shit...being 18 and chatting on a cheap mobile phone beats Facebook and all for me..
you may be correct on that, I'm no expert
and I'm sure you meant it in a 'positive' way
anyways, you are on the right path with all the UK buds cos chatting with native english speakers is a hell of a way to improve yours. I kinda did the same back in 2005/6, with different intentions of course
Heehehe I wasn't positive or negative really about mentioning the amount of UK friends here. Just wanted to make the point.
I'm so glad to have a few friends from UK but actually I wish I had more friends from UK.After I posted something I see my mistakes sometimes. Even in above reply you can see, I said 'I asked from' and I corrected it later. When I saw mistakes I correct them. But there are errors and mistakes that I can't catch myself. So it's a pleasure to have someone like you to show me errors and mistakes of my posts. Otherwise I can't improve my English. I used to chat with lot of foreigners. But there weren't many native speakers.
Heehehe I wasn't positive or negative really about mentioning the amount of UK friends here. Just wanted to make the point.
After I posted something I see my mistakes sometimes. Even in above reply you can see, I said 'I asked from' and I corrected it later. When I saw mistakes I correct them. But there are errors and mistakes that I can't catch myself. So it's a pleasure to have someone like you to show me errors and mistakes of my posts. Otherwise I can't improve my English. I used to chat with lot of foreigners. But there weren't many native speakers.
while reading posts, I spot my grammatical errors too, But I usually could careless
don't let such tiny errors worry you my man, nothing's beautiful if they aren't flawed. now that you've asked for it, there's a few other things I noticed,
When I saw mistakes I correct them - if you speak in past tense, you gta go like 'when I saw mistakes I WOULD correct them' or 'when I see mistakes, I correct them'
I used to chat with lot of foreigners - it either should be A LOT or LOTS of foreigners
while reading posts, I spot my grammatical errors too, But I usually could careless
now that you've asked for it, there's a few other things I noticed,
When I saw mistakes I correct them - if you speak in past tense, you gta go like 'when I saw mistakes I WOULD correct them' or 'when I see mistakes, I correct them'
I used to chat with lot of foreigners - it either should be A LOT or LOTS of foreigners
Thanks a lot really helpful!! I (should I add 'would' here too)normally search in internet to be certain, when someone said me something. But now I'm too sleepy for that and have to call it off. I think you could be really helpful to me in future. You have already pointed out 3 important points that I failed to be accurate. Thanks a lot!! Hope you will help in future too!!!
I normally search internet - not very natural
I would normally search internet - natural
but it gets the idea thru anyway.
You have already pointed out 3 important points that I failed to be accurate
- you have already pointed out 3 important points that I had failed to be accurate ON/about
most things we say in English are in correct grammar and all, but it is the use of the language that distinguishes native speakers from us. it usually shows in our use of words like 'the' or had. a native English speaker(as evident in films
) would rather say 'I had/have failed' than I failed.gn then, the pleasure's all mine.
I normally search internet - not very natural
I would normally search internet - natural
but it gets the idea thru anyway.
You have already pointed out 3 important points that I failed to be accurate
- you have already pointed out 3 important points that I had failed to be accurate ON/about
most things we say in English are in correct grammar and all, but it is the use of the language that distinguishes native speakers from us. it usually shows in our use of words like 'the' or had. a native English speaker(as evident in films
gn then, the pleasure's all mine.
Yeah. I'm dozing off pal. Raining too. wanna hit the sack now. I'd wanna continue our chat when I woke up. It seems my English is improving through the chat with you here.
Gnite!!
Thanks a lot pal!!!
You really helped me a lot today with my English. That's what I expect from this thread for myself and it didn't happen before.yeah it certainly seems so
You really helped me a lot today with my English. That's what I expect from this thread for myself and it didn't happen before.
think nothing of it
You should rather self study it though, that's more help than you could ever get.whenever I'm bored, stuck in a bus, waiting for sleep, I look up words and idioms in my phone dictionary..
I usually don't remember them in the next minute though.also, needless to say, watch films, good films with lots of dialogues. try to think in English, have conversations with your self in your mind, this may involve the risk of you developing an imaginary friend and winding up in the loony bin though.
think nothing of it
whenever I'm bored, stuck in a bus, waiting for sleep, I look up words and idioms in my phone dictionary..
also, needless to say, watch films, good films with lots of dialogues. try to think in English, have conversations with your self in your mind, this may involve the risk of you developing an imaginary friend and winding up in the loony bin though.
Since OL time to until now, 99% of what I've done to improve my English is self studying. It's good to be positive about something we study by ourselves, but we miss the potential of learning new things and catching our errors and mistakes when we keep self studying. But most of the time we don't have a much choice here. Thinking in English is dramatically helping me to improve my English out of the other things you have said.
Actually I don't take facts even you have said just as the way you said without getting them verified by myself somehow. But it takes time with other works to do and have to call off sometime. Studying English in a country like Srilanka is not that easy. So the help of people like you to correct my mistakes and errors is really appreciable.
