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Pelin
Are thee rhetorical questions?
How bad is it?
How deep is it?
How heavy is it?
How fast is it?
How big is it?
How thick is it?
2 gen 2020 19:41
Risposte · 4
1
Hi Pelin,
No, these are used literally.
2 gennaio 2020
You can't tell if a question is rhetorical by looking at it in isolation. You can't tell from the grammar. You can't tell from the wording.
It is depends on the context. It depends on the words that follow.
It is an ordinary question if the speaker wants an answer, and waits for an answer.
It is a rhetorical question if the speaker asks the question, then immediately answers it themself. The speaker didn't want an answer. The speaker wanted to make the listeners think. The speaker wanted to give their own answer.
Here is a real question:
"I see the Mariana Trench indicated on this ocean map. How deep is that?"
"It is 11,000 meters deep."
Here is a rhetorical question:
"The Mariana Trench is 11,000 meters deep. How deep is that? Well, you could put Mount Everest at the bottom of it, and then put the Burj Khalifa building on top of Everest, and it still would not break the surface."
Sometimes you can tell that a question is rhetorical because it would be a crazy question if it were literal. For example, "Are you insane?" If I heard the question "Are you insane," I would expect the speaker to continue: "Are you insane? That's the worst thing you could possibly do."
2 gennaio 2020
OK, given these two posts.
The other ones sound rhetorical, but under some circumstances could be literal.
How sweet is that?
How nice is that?
How hard is that?
How weird is that?
.
So
How bad is that? - If you just said you apple is bad inside, tone alone would determine whether you were commiserating rhetorically, or actually asking how bad it tasted.
2 gennaio 2020
these?
2 gennaio 2020
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Pelin
Competenze linguistiche
Inglese, Turco
Lingua di apprendimento
Inglese
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