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My teacher said that this idiom would never be told by an American and is British English. What is an alternative way to say this in American English?

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    Check couldn't ask for more in TFD. It is cited as coming from McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., so should be reasonably American in usage. Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 9:41
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    The Google Ngrams for "more could one ask for" for the American and British corpora show little difference. Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 10:00
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    I've got rhythm. What more could one ask for? Tea anyone...?
    – Dan
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 10:15
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    Are there even places where you could here "For what more could one ask?"
    – Dan
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 15:44
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    I question the premise here.
    – Casey
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 19:20

4 Answers 4

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Who could ask for anything more ?, surely. (I Got rhythm. I. Gershwin)

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    I've heard answers given to the 'British' version, but this one is as rhetorical as it gets. Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 10:22
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    (Well, Madonna could, for one.)[youtube.com/watch?v=YqeoSUY6Qws]
    – 1006a
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 20:39
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I believe your teacher is wrong. I am an American and "What more could one ask for?" sounds perfectly natural, if a bit formal. This is not one of those idioms that comes in one form that everyone uses consistently. You can substitute "anyone" or "you" or "a person" (for instance) in place of "one", and you could substitute "want" or "wish for" (again, just as examples) instead of "ask for".

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I think its the "one" construction that would be highly unusual in colloquial American English. Rephrase it without that and you are probably OK. For example, I'm pretty sure I've heard "What more could anybody ask for?"

I've also heard @convoke's "What more could you want?", as well as "What more could you/anyone need?"

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    I don't think 'one' is much more cmmon in colloquial British English!
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 14:18
  • @Colin: there's a use of "one" when it means a certain specific person (for example, me), which sounds very British to me. But as a general pronoun, not so much. See Ngram. Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 14:21
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    @PeterShor, there's colloquial and colloquial. There are people for whom 'one' is in everyday speech. But many people would only ever use 'one' if they were trying to sound upper class, for whatever reason.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 14:32
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    Agreed, "one" is slowly falling out of general use in British English. Most people would say "I've got a room with a view. What more could you ask for?". (That is, "you" rather than "one"). But "no-one" is still current: "No-one could ask for anything more". Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 15:30
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    I mean, just "what more could you ask for?" is probably fine.
    – Casey
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 19:21
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Lots of Gershwin jokes in here... but colloquially, I'd say "What more could you want?"

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  • Gershwin as in "Who Could Ask for Anything More"?
    – ttw
    Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 3:55
  • Yes, that's the one.
    – convoke
    Commented Nov 23, 2016 at 23:37

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