"...ask the ask"?!?

[SamBones]

I'm writing this while in a conference call. Someone has replaced the word "question" with the word "ask". The person has actually used this sentence...

Someone will need to ask the ask, where do we go from here?

And more, talking about the questions we need to ask about a project...

What's the ask here?

I almost laughed out loud. Do people like this hear themselves? Do they talk like this normally? Or is this just meeting-speak for them?

 

[johnherman]

Well, somewhat related. I've had to counsel some of my coworkers from the Indian subcontinent who put in their e-mail: "Please send your queries to me". More than once, he has received requests from people who have problems with their SQL. <sigh>

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advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity

 

[SamBones]

Oh, that's funny. They asked for it.

 

[kwbMitel]

I've heard of "verbing" nouns and I'm not a fan.

"Nouning" Verbs is too far, especially when there is a perfectly suitable word.

On a side note, has anyone else noticed that people seem to be dropping the -ly off of adverbs?

Living dangerous instead of dangerously



**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[johnherman]

Yeah, I need to socialize that, for sure.

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advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity

 

[Olaf Doschke]

He asked too much. Someone should axe him.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[ChrisHirst]

It makes me wonder they have to walk the walk and talk the talk while asking the ask?

Or could that result in them falling the fall?

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[SamBones]

Hmmm, I'm sitting in another conference call and someone is using "ask" with a slightly different meaning. The person is a programmer/developer, and it's being used in place of "specifications or requirements". Something like that.

The ask for this change was to just auto-populate the form fields from system XXXX.

The context seems to be, somebody "asked" him to change the program, so everything within that "ask" defines the "ask".

Is this really stupid, or am I just being an ask hole?

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Task perhaps (ask mark shout point ask mark)

 

[guitarzan]

Nouning a verb??? What an epic fail!

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Please refer to the FAA

 

[SgtJarrow]

Is this a culture thing? A slang-speak, so to say? Maybe your speaker doesn't have a "professional" switch or thinks the audience is receptive to that usage.

In my professional community I wouldn't expect to hear that manner of speech, but outside of where I work I probably would - depending on the crowd.

Not defending anyone, just an alternate suggestion to someone's speech. I am sure I am guilty of throwing too many military terms in my professional speach, stemming from my background and personal community. Only had one person call me out on it in 15 years.

Robert "Wizard" Johnson III
U.S. Military Vets MC
CSM, CSPO, MCPD, CCNA, CCDA, MCSA, CNA, Net+, A+, CHDP
Senior Database Developer

 

[ChrisHirst]

What an epic fail!

You know, that phrase, each and every time I see it (and unfortunately, it is a LOT). Produces the same effects as 'Nails on a blackboard' does.

Four short words, just four, and fifty percent of them are being used incorrectly and inappropriately. Though maybe we should be grateful for small mercies and acknowledge that at least they usually get the 'an' usage correct.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[IPGuru]

"Please send your queries to me"

actually that is not too bad after all a question is a query
coming form the Indian sub-continent i am supposed it did not read "Please send your doubts to me".





Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[johnherman]

While a question may be a query, the word query is not often used in that manner in American English. Query has become associated with the writing of SQL, Structured Query Language. Using the word "query" to mean "question" should be avoided (in my humble opinion). There are other words in Indian English that can cause confusion when used in America. For instance, "intimating" something to someone.

And yes, I do hear the use of "doubts" more frequently in Indian English.

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advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity

 

[IPGuru]

The word query is not often used in that manner in American English

That could be the problem, on the right side of the pond in English English it is not unreasonable usage



Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[Olaf Doschke]

For the formal request for questions I'd rather expect inquiries than questions or queries, but I agree the query in SQL existed before databases and SQL, so it's current strong association to databases is not necessarily making it wrong to talk of queries in other contexts.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[johnherman]

It may be the right side of the pond, but Brits don't drive on the right side of the road. We wonder why they say "schedule" the way they do when we all pronounce "school" the same. And if you realize that American English uses the Z when the Brits use S, you can't help but come to the conclusion that American English has taken the Queen's English to higher levels of evolution.

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advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity

 

[ChrisHirst]

the word query is not often used in that manner in American English. Query has become associated with the writing of SQL, Structured Query Language.

Only to a programmer or IT techy-type.

To the 'real people' query just means asking the ask, in the same way that;

'theory' means an 'good idea' rather than 'an observed effect or condition that has been fully tested and verified as a true and sound principle',

or

'nothing' means 'absence of anything' rather than 'something that as yet, is not identified or proposed as a candidate for an observed effect or condition'.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[SamBones]

...you can't help but come to the conclusion that American English has taken the Queen's English to higher levels of evolution.

Evolution?!? What an interesting "theory". Actually, it's more like we've taken our hands off the steering wheel allowing English to careen uncontrolled wherever momentum or the odd cultural pothole takes it.