- Where does the use of why as an interjection come from?
"why" can be compared to an old Latin form qui, an ablative form, meaning how Today "why" is used as a question word to ask the reason or purpose of something This use might be explained from a formula such as "How does it come that " If you meet an old friend of yours, whom you never expected to meet in town, you can express your surprise by saying: Why, it's Jim! This why in the
- Why . . . ? vs. Why is it that . . . ? - English Language Usage Stack . . .
I don't know why, but it seems to me that Bob would sound a bit strange if he said, "Why is it that you have to get going?" in that situation
- Difference between how and why - English Language Usage Stack Exchange
The questions How? and Why? only have similar answers where the reason for something is the cause This is the case for a question like "Why is the boy so big?" — he has eaten a lot, or he has a growth hormone disorder, etc For a question pair like Why did you go to the stadium? How did you go to the stadium? the answers are quite obviously different
- Why it is vs Why is it - English Language Usage Stack Exchange
8 1) Please tell me why is it like that [grammatically incorrect unless the punctuation is changed Please tell me: Why is it like that? The question: "Why is [etc ]" is a question form in English: Why is the sky blue? Why is it that children require so much attention? Why is it [or some thing] like that?
- etymology - Why is muscle cramp called a “charley horse”? - English . . .
The history told me nothing why an involuntary, extremely painful spasm, is named after a horse called Charley Charley in the UK is often spelled Charlie, a diminutive of Charles, and it's also used to call a foolish or silly person Who was Charley; was it the name of a horse?
- What is the purpose of using the word why in why, thank you?
Why is used here as an interjection According to Merriam-Webster: —used to express mild surprise, hesitation, approval, disapproval, or impatience <why, here's what I was looking for> In my experience, the extra why in Why, thank you is used mainly to avoid appearing too abrupt in one's thankfulness
- Why do word beginnings with X take a z sound in English?
Why the voiced z won out over the voiceless s is not clear to me Modern French mostly uses gz , as in xénophobie, but I don't know the history of how the modern French pronunciation of word-initial x became established
- word usage - Why do shameless and shameful have overlapping . . .
Why do these opposite words actually cross-over in so many areas? Have the implicit definitions of these words changed converged over time? Additionally, why does the meaning of “shameful” seem to change depending on the tone of the surrounding text?
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