what is the difference between 'wait' and 'hang on'?
Rex Knepp
: Hi this newsgroup readers!
: As a non-native speaker and before I have come to the USA to pursue my
: higher studies, I usually use the word 'wait' in my speech. But, it
: seems to me that English speakers (I mean those who speak English as a
: first language) prefer to use hang on a lot.
: My question is this: what is the difference between these two words in
: meaning and what is the hidden meaning which makes the 'Hang on'
: preferable?!
Hi, Sami!
"Hang" on is a less formal way to say "wait." As far as I know, it derives
from talking on telephones -- old-style phones that had hooks one could hang
the earpiece on while one did something that required both hands.
Neither is preferable to the other in real life. The extreme brevity of
"wait" makes it sound like a command; whereas the more colloquial "hang on"
sounds less like an imperative and more like a friendly plea.
A similar usage, as in "the audience was hanging on his every word" is
related, but means that there was an element of eagerness or suspense
in the audience members' waiting. Perhaps they waited with bated breath?
[my daily nod to thread convergence]
-30-
rex
============================================================================
kn...@hou.moc.com
Rex Knepp - Marathon Oil Company - Tyler, TX
Marathon has no opinions: these are, therefore, mine.
=============================================================================
Jack North
>Hi this newsgroup readers!
>As a non-native speaker and before I have come to the USA to pursue my
>higher studies, I usually use the word 'wait' in my speech. But, it
>seems to me that English speakers (I mean those who speak English as a
>first language) prefer to use hang on a lot.
>My question is this: what is the difference between these two words in
>meaning and what is the hidden meaning which makes the 'Hang on'
>preferable?!
"Hang on" is less formal, and generally indicates that in won't be a very
long while.
"Wait" is more of a command.
Jack
(At least, that's my guess...hang on while I look it up.)
Truly Donovan
> Can window( )sill be one word, by the way, or is it a typo?
Not only can, is.
Truly Donovan
Mark Baker
jmi...@enterprise.america.com (J Miller) writes:
>I may be wrong here, but doesn't "hang on" have a sense of waiting
>*attentively* rather than simply waiting? In other words, one may wait
>for a bus or a train, but not hang on for a bus.
I think it's just that you can't hang on *for something*. "If you hang
on a minute there'll be another bus" is sometimes heard.
Peter Moylan
>Not only can, is.
Yet another dialectal variation. (Notice that Simon is in NZ,
and Truly is in the US.) I too did a double-take when I saw
windowsill written as a single word.
A couple of years ago I was struck by the sloppy editing that
had allowed the word "backseat" into a book I was reading.
It wasn't until some time after that that I discovered that
"backseat" is a perfectly respectable word in some regions.
(But, for some unknown reason, "frontseat" didn't make it.)
Hang on, I've just remembered what this thread was about.
In Australia both "hold on" and "hang on" are used; both have
the same meaning, but "hang on" is a little more informal.
Both of them bring up the same mental image for me: someone
holding on to the edge of a cliff by his fingertips, and
being asked to be patient while a potential rescuer is doing
something more urgent like eating an icecream.
I don't think these are precisely equivalent to "wait".
In my experience they're normally used only in a few special
cases, for example:
- when asking someone to wait at the telephone. (Here, the phrase
is almost always "hang on"; i.e. hang on to the phone.)
- to ask someone to wait while you go away. (Hang on, I'll
go and find out who's looking after that.)
- when an interaction appears to be over, but then a new
factor is introduced. (Hold on, I've just remembered that
we have some on the bottom shelf.)
--
Peter Moylan pe...@ee.newcastle.edu.au
ftp://ee.newcastle.edu.au/pub/www/Moylan.html