A: Hey, good to see you
B: Yeah, good to see you. How are
you?
A: I'm doing well, and you?
B: Good, thanks. Hey I
have to go now, but we should catch up over a cup of coffee.
A: That
sounds great. How about tomorrow?
B: Tomorrow sounds great.
I know a great little coffee shop a few blocks for the train station. How
about we meet there?
A: Yeah, does meeting around 2 sound
good?
B: Yep, 2-ish it is. See you tomorrow.
A: Bye
Pretty typical conversation right?? Nothing looks unusual or out of the ordinary, but if you take a closer look, the -ish kind of sticks out. What is -ish and why do we use it?
I've never paid much attention to this little add-on we English speaks use. Come to think of it I believe it is strickly American slang. The brits, to my knowledge, don't use it and the Danes certainly look at you funny if you use it.
-ish is an add-on that means about. If you were to say 2-ish a person would processes that as saying at two o'clock give or take five or so mintues. It's used any time we want to approcimate something. The carpet is a grayish colour. It's not exactly gray, but you can't really call it any other colour.
This is just another example of the odd language we use in day to day life without thinking about it. One of the joys of being in a foreign country is seeing and discovering these oh so obvious aberations of the American English language.
2 comments:
Hey Jen! It's been a while! I just found out about your blog.. apparently our blogs are being featured.. haha i didn't know! I also have a blog: http://denmarkafs.blogspot.com But it sounds like it's going ok for you! I read that you had to change families, though! Is your new family better? And where are you living? Sjælland? hope to hear from you soon! francine
Hey Francine!! Didn't know you had a blog. Things are going really good for me and I love my new family. They really are my family. I still live in Vejle on Jutland. You live in Odense don't you? If so I really want to make a trip over there. Maybe we can meet up. Jenn
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