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submitted 3 months ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

Brits ofen say "You alright?" As a substitute for "Hi."

Pretty jarring when you're not used to it. Id think "God, I must look like shit if they're genuinely checking on my welfare!"

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

Yeah Tom Scott did one of his linguistics videos about that, he had a word for it but some questions aren't really questions they're basically just rituals, though rephrased a different way makes them genuine questions, and when you have major dialects of the "same" language like British and American English, we use different ones. "Are you alright?" is basically a noise of greeting in Britain and an expression of genuine concern in America, while "How are you?" is the reverse.

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Chinese version 你吃了吗 or variations on that, although it's not used so much anymore. Literally means "have you eaten", except it doesn't really require an answer. I imagine it came up in that video, but it's a good one.

[-] batmaniam@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Literally means “have you eaten”, except it doesn’t really require an answer.

Grandmothers in every culture

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this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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