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- Showing agreement
This phrase is often used when someone wants to emphatically agree in a
conversation. It may also be used to indicate that the speaker has heard
what has just been said and will respond to it, similar to :
A:
B:
A: ”Have you finished yet?”
B: ”Ah, yes... not yet.”
Essentially, signals that the question or statement made
is worth some aĴention, in this use.
- ”What happened”
Being a combination of the pronoun , ”how/in what way” and the past
tense of , this literally asks ”by what way did [...] happen”, but is inter-
preted to mean ”what happened” instead. It’s a short question to enquire
what happened when someone seems upset, or taken aback, or generally
like something happened that’s unusual. A more formal way to ask this,
though also more effeminate, is.
( ) - ”Why”, ”How come”
This is the combination of , ”how”, and the verb in form. Us-
ing just is technically an incomplete sentence, and implies that
it should be finished with whatever verb best describes the situation that
is being questioned. For instance, if someone refuses to help, the full sen-
tence could be
, ”why won’t you help?”, but
just saying is enough to act as question.
- ”Pleased to meet you”
This is actually the ”best cultural approximation” translation. The sentence
doesn’t actually mean ”pleased to meet you” at all, but relies on know-
ing what means. Being a noun derived from , ”agree-
able/acceptable”, this statement literally says that the speaker hopes that
