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Re: FRIDAY FUN: Snow day!

Subject: Re: FRIDAY FUN: Snow day!
From: Sandy Nicholson <sandy -at- ambertext -dot- co -dot- uk>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 19:59:39 +0000

Bryan Sherman wrote:

... I exclaimed "Gotcha!" At which point he looked very confused. I apologized, explained I was trying to be good and not use slang, but that "gotcha" was short for "I got it" which is slang for "I understand" at which point he started to laugh.

:o)

Interesting, though: as a Scot, I had always assumed that `gotcha' was short for `got ya' = `got you' = (in that context) `[I've] understood you'. I wouldn't actually use the expression myself in that context, but _might_ conceivably use the word informally as a noun - a `gotcha' being a potential snag or pitfall in some procedure (very relevant to technical writing!). And there's another potential US/UK difference in there (while we're at it): Bryan's `I got it' is perhaps normal, or at least acceptable, US usage, but it sounds very odd to British ears: in the UK, we'd have to use the perfect tense (`I've got it'), unless we were actually talking about something that had happened in the definite past.

Turns out that in Nagoya (where he was from) there is a word that sounds dead-on to gotcha that means broken glass and is slang for I don't understand...

I won't pretend that I don't understand `dead-on to' (I guess it means `exactly like'!). The moral of the tale (for me) seems to me that I shouldn't be too hasty to add the word `gotcha' to my everyday vocabulary. Thank you, Bryan, for warning me of the dangers of US English. :o) :o)

Best wishes,
Sandy

Ambertext, 2/Gf Bruntsfield Crescent, Edinburgh EH10 4EZ, Scotland
+44 (0) 131 447 9257 http://www.ambertext.co.uk/ sandy -at- ambertext -dot- co -dot- uk
Sole proprietor: Alexander J Nicholson
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References:
Re: FRIDAY FUN: Snow day!: From: John Posada
Re: FRIDAY FUN: Snow day!: From: Sandy Nicholson
Re: FRIDAY FUN: Snow day!: From: Bryan Sherman

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