what?の英語

発音

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /wɔt/
• (英国発音, General New Zealand) enPR: hwŏt, wŏt, IPA^(key): /ʍɒt/, /wɒt/
  • (NYC) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɒt/
    • (wine–whine merged)
  • 韻: -ɒt
  • 異形同音異義語: Watt, watt, wot (all only in 英国用法, 豪州用法, New Zealand, New York City accents with the wine–whine merger)
  • (Canada, 米国発音) enPR: hwŭt, wŭt, IPA^(key): (without wine–whine merger) /ʍʌt/, (with wine–whine merger) /wʌt/
    • (Canada, 米国発音, 弱勢) IPA^(key): (flapped) [wʌɾ], (glottalized) [wʌˀ]
    • (強勢, in accents without the wine–whine merger)
    • (強勢, in accents with the wine–whine merger)
    • (弱勢, flapped, whine-wine merged)
    • (弱勢, glottalized, whine-wine merged)
  • 韻: -ʌt

限定詞

what

1. (interrogative) Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.

   What colour are you going to use?

   What time is it?

   What kind of car is that?

2. (relative) Which; the ... that.

   I know what colour I am going to use.

   That depends on what answer is received.

3. (relative) Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.

   He seems to have lost what sense he had.

   What money I earn is soon spent.

4. Emphasises that something is noteworthy or remarkable in quality or degree, in either a good or bad way; may be used in combination with certain other determiners, especially 'a', less often 'some'.

   This shows what beauty there is in nature.

   You know what nonsense she talks.

   I found out what a liar he is.

   1. Used to form exclamations.

      Synonym: such

      What nonsense!

      Wow! What a speech.

      What some lovely weather we've been having!

      What beautiful children you have.

      With what passion she sings!

      • Little Red Riding Hood, traditional folk tale

        “Oh Granny, what big eyes you have,” said Little Red Riding Hood.

使用する際の注意点

In cases where both "what" and "which" are possible, with similar meaning, "what" is preferred for open-ended choices, while "which" is preferred for choices from a closed group or set. For example, "Which one of these do you want?" not "What one of these do you want?".

As used to begin an exclamation, what and such are largely interchangeable, with a few exceptions:

• Nouns modified by such need not appear at the beginning of the sentence: She sings with such passion.
• such requires that the noun phrase it modifies be gradable in some way. Such a disaster! is acceptable because a disaster may be minor or major in degree, but Such a movie! is not (except with the unusual meaning that the movie under discussion has especially "movie-like" qualities).

how is another word used at the beginning of a sentence to form an exclamation (How quickly he ran!), but it modifies different syntactic elements (verbs, adjectives, adverbs, かつ certain determinatives).

代名詞

what

1. (interrogative) Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.

   What is your name?

   Ask them what they want.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     The gym is across from … what? — The gym is across from the lounge. — Across from the lounge. Right. Thanks!

2. (fused relative) That which; those that; the thing(s) that.

   He knows what he wants.

   What is amazing is his boundless energy.

   And, what's even worse, I have to work on Sunday too.

3. (fused relative) Anything that; all that; whatever.

   I will do what I can to help you.

   What is mine is yours.

4. (relative, nonstandard) That; which; who.

   'Ere! There's that bloke what I saw earlier!

   • 1902, J. M. Barrie, The Admirable Crichton:

     That’s her; that’s the thing what has stole his heart from me.

   • 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:

     For, it is a name what strikes fear in the heart of anyone what hears it.

副詞

what (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) In what way; to what extent.

   What does it matter?

   What do you care?

2. Used before a prepositional phrase to emphasise that something is taken into consideration as a cause or reason; usually used in combination with 'with' (see what with), and much less commonly with other prepositions.
   • 1787, Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, Letters on the Study and Use of History: A Letter to Sir William Windham, page 83 [1]

     In short; what by the indiscretion of people here, what by the rebound which came often back from London, what by the private interests and ambitious views of persons in the French court, and what by other causes unnecessary to be examined now, the most private transactions came to light [...]

   • 1815, Rev. Mr. Milne, letter reprinted in The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, Volume 23, page 82. [2]

     The Chinese of all ranks, and in every place, received my books gladly, and listened with patience to what I had to say about the true God.—So that what from opportunities of attending to the object of my Mission among the Chinese—what from seasons of religious instruction to Dutch and English—what from intercourse with gentlemen of education and knowledge of the world—what from occasions of stating clearly the object of Missions, and of endeavouring to remove prejudices against them—and what from the view of a highly cultivated country, happy under an enlightened and liberal government, I have much reason to be satisfied with this journey [...]

間投詞

what

1. An expression of surprise or disbelief.
   • 1605 William Shakespeare, King Lear

     What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

   What! That’s amazing!

2. What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.

   What? I'm busy.

3. (Britain, colloquial, dated) Clipping of what do you say? Used as a type of tag question to emphasise a statement and invite agreement, often rhetorically.
   • 1991 May 12, "Kidnapped!" Jeeves and Wooster, Series 2, Episode 5:

     Chuffy: WHAT? No, no, no, no, no. My casa is your casa, what?

   It’s a nice day, what?

4. What did you say? I beg your pardon?

   — Could I have some of those aarrrrrr mmmm ...

   — What?

5. Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.

   I must have been, what, about five years old.

別の表記

• wha

同意語

• (口語 British interjection): what-what, wot
• (what did you say?): come again, pardon; see also Thesaurus:say again

名詞

what (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 whats)

1. (obsolete, uncountable) Something; thing; stuff.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book VI, canto IX, stanza 7:

     They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed / Such homely what as serves the simple clowne, / That doth despise the dainties of the towne […]

2. (countable) The identity of a thing, as an answer to a question of what.
   • 2005, Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (page 493)

     The emphasis on the interplay between the hows and whats of interpretive practice is paramount.

3. (countable) Something that is addressed by what, as opposed to a person, addressed by who.
   • 2012, "We Are Both", season 2, episode 2 of Once Upon a Time

     Regina: What are you?

     Rumplestiltskin: What? What? What? My, my, what a rude question! I am not a what.

発音

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /wʌt˨/

what

1. (Singlish) Emphasizes the truth of an assertion that contradicts a false assumption held by the listener.

   — Too bad there aren't any libraries nearby.
   — The National Library is a five-minute walk from here what.

   • 1978, L. C. Cheong, Youth in the Army, page 142:

     Most things come from Europe what.

   • 2007, yansimon52, soc.culture.singapore, Usenet:

     […] they can't be the same what?

参考

• leh, lor, hor, meh, mah

参照

• Low, Ee Ling; Brown, Adam (2005) English in Singapore: An Introduction, →ISBN
• Kuteva, Tania; Rhee, Seongha; Ziegeler, Debra; Sabban, Jessica (2018), “On sentence-final “what” in Singlish: Are you the Queen of England, or what?”, in Journal of Language Contact‎^[3]

派生語

アナグラム

• HAWT, Thaw, Wath, hawt, thaw, wath