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There are many different ways to ask people to repeat what they have just said. For example:
I've ordered them according to my understanding of their level of formality. I'd classify interjection "huh?" as the least formal and phrase "I beg your pardon" as the most formal. Apart from the formality that you decide to imply, are there any other factors involved when you choose which one of these phrases you will use? |
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A more accurate order of formality (least to most) would be:
There are of course many more variations on these. A few of these are a lot more common than offers, in particular pardon and sorry which may be used in anything from casual to formal speech. Huh? or even what? are often considered quite rude unless you are speaking casually to a peer/acquaintance. As mentioned in comments, several of these phrases are more commonly used ironically than directly/literally, most notably "Excuse me?" or "I beg your pardon?" - either is used to express disbelief or indignity. |
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I prefer Apart from that, I use |
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You could also use the more drawn out, but seemingly more formal (to me):
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A small addition to the earlier answer of Noldorin, for which I agree, is that some phrases may lead to an impression that you did not like what has been said and that you want the speaker to rephrase it or even change it allover. The following phrases give me that feeling:
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It may be worth adding here that an expression derived from military radio communications has been creeping into the broader language, at least in America:
It is spoken as a question (i.e., with a rising intonation) and is a terse and unequivocal request for clarification. |
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Huh is a word that I would use in the most comfortable family-friend enviornment-if I used it. Professional, the business world deserve a better response- Excuse me, I didn't understand what you said. Pardon me. Would you mind repeating that. I truly think this subject ties in with- parenting, school, church, being politically correct, professional, and just maybe not being uneducated. There is a time for all things, for some anyway, huh? |
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Well, since you asked about "other factors"... I realize I'm probably in a decided minority here, but personally I find asking people to repeat things to be a very socially awkward activity (verging on rude). My own conversations tend to be very "in the moment" things. If you ask me to repeat something, most likely the "moment" is gone and it will no longer make nearly as much sense or be nearly as clever as when I originally said it. So basically you are asking me to put (now) dumb words in my own mouth for your benefit. I really don't like this, and will often politely refuse. Now there are some situations where it is understandable and unavoidable. For instance, a loud noise occurred at a critical time (understandable), and/or what was said is important for the conversation to go on (unavoidable). But if the latter condition doesn't hold then I think it is far better to just let things go on and try to pick it up out of context. Or just let it slide. There are people who are legitimately hard of hearing, and I'm am sorry about that. However, it is still wrong to insist every word uttered around you be repeated over and over again until you personally get it. |
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