Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ in questions when you ask for specific information about something that you do not know.
What do you want?...
‘Has something happened?’—‘Indeed it has.’—‘What?’...
Hey! What are you doing?
QUEST
•
What is also a determiner.
What time is it?...
‘The heater works.’—‘What heater?’...
What kind of poetry does he like?
DET
2.
You use ~ after certain words, especially verbs and adjectives, when you are referring to a situation that is unknown or has not been specified.
You can imagine ~ it would be like driving a car into a brick wall at 30 miles an hour...
I want to know ~ happened to Norman...
Do you know ~ those idiots have done?...
We had never seen anything like it before and could not see ~ to do next...
She turned scarlet from embarrassment, once she realized ~ she had done.
CONJ
•
What is also a determiner.
I didn’t know ~ college I wanted to go to...
I didn’t know ~ else to say.
...an inspection to ascertain to ~ extent colleges are responding to the needs of industry.
DET
3.
You use ~ at the beginning of a clause in structures where you are changing the order of the information to give special emphasis to something.
What precisely triggered off yesterday’s riot is still unclear...
What I wanted, more than anything, was a few days’ rest...
CONJ emphasis
4.
You use ~ in expressions such as ~ is called and ~ amounts to when you are giving a description of something.
She had been in ~ doctors described as an irreversible vegetative state for five years...
CONJ
5.
You use ~ to indicate that you are talking about the whole of an amount that is available to you.
He drinks ~ is left in his glass as if it were water...
CONJ
•
What is also a determiner.
They had had to use ~ money they had.
= ~ever
DET
6.
You say ‘What?’ to tell someone who has indicated that they want to speak to you that you have heard them and are inviting them to continue. (SPOKEN)
‘Dad?’—‘What?’—‘Can I have the car tonight?’
CONVENTION formulae
7.
You say ‘What?’ when you ask someone to repeat the thing that they have just said because you did not hear or understand it properly. ‘What?’ is more informal and less polite than expressions such as ‘Pardon?’ and ‘Excuse me?’. (SPOKEN)
‘They could paint this place,’ she said. ‘What?’ he asked.
CONVENTION formulae
8.
You say ‘What’ to express surprise.
‘Adolphus Kelling, I arrest you on a charge of trafficking in narcotics.’—‘What?’
CONVENTION feelings
9.
You use ~ in exclamations to emphasize an opinion or reaction.
What a horrible thing to do...
What a busy day.
PREDET emphasis
•
What is also a determiner.
What ugly things; throw them away, throw them away...
What great news, Jakki.
DET
10.
You use ~ to indicate that you are making a guess about something such as an amount or value.
It’s, ~, eleven years or more since he’s seen him...
ADV: ADV n
11.
You say guess ~ or do you know ~ to introduce a piece of information which is surprising, which is not generally known, or which you want to emphasize.
Guess ~? I’m going to dinner at Mrs. Combley’s tonight...
CONVENTION
12.
In conversation, you say or ~? after a question as a way of stating an opinion forcefully and showing that you expect other people to agree.
Look at that moon. Is that beautiful or ~?...
Am I wasting my time here, or ~?
PHRASE: cl PHR emphasis
13.
You say so ~? or ~ of it? to indicate that the previous remark seems unimportant, uninteresting, or irrelevant to you.
‘I skipped off school today,’—‘So ~? What’s so special about that?’...
‘You’re talking to yourself.’—‘Well, ~ of it?’
= so
CONVENTION feelings
14.
You say ‘Tell you ~’ to introduce a suggestion or offer.
Tell you ~, let’s stay here another day.
PHRASE: PHR cl
15.
You use ~ about at the beginning of a question when you make a suggestion, offer, or request.
What about going out with me tomorrow?...
PHRASE: PHR n/-ing
16.
You use ~ about or ~ of when you introduce a new topic or a point which seems relevant to a previous remark.
Now you’ve talked about work on daffodils, ~ about other commercially important flowers, like roses?...
PHRASE: PHR group/cl
17.
You say ~ about a particular person or thing when you ask someone to explain why they have asked you about that person or thing.
‘This thing with the Corbett woman.’—‘Oh, yeah. What about her?’
PHRASE: PHR n
18.
You say ~ have you at the end of a list in order to refer generally to other things of the same kind.
So many things are unsafe these days–milk, cranberry sauce, ~ have you...
My great-grandfather made horseshoes and nails and ~ have you.
PHRASE: n PHR, n and/or PHR vagueness
19.
You say ~ if at the beginning of a question when you ask about the consequences of something happening, especially something undesirable.
What if this doesn’t work out?...
PHRASE: PHR cl
20.
If you know ~’s ~, you know the important things that need to be known about a situation.
You have to know ~’s ~ and when to draw the line...
You should come across the river with us. Then you will really see ~’s ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v
21.
~’s more: see more