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    Huhhh?

    A curmudgeon speaks, part 97.

    Am I the only one who gets inordinately wound up by being addressed by people with a dozy, neanderthal "Huhhh?" when they haven't quite heard what I've said*?

    I mean, I work with a bunch of affluent-background, supposedly-intelligent (i.e. post-graduate) students, who are hoping to soon be the solicitors and barristers of this world. And yet, more often than not, when one of them doesn't hear what someone else says (not just me) they respond with this completely ignorant grunt!

    Personally, when this happens to me and I'd like someone to repeat themselves, I say one of "pardon?", "sorry?" or even occasionally just "what?", depending on how appropriate each would be for the company at the time. What I never do is make a noise like some cartoon dullard. That's just fucking rude, as far as I'm concerned.

    Please - don't tell me that "Huhhhh?" is the correct form in high society, now!

    So - is it just me, or does anyone else get wound up by this?

    (* - This happens quite often, as I work in a library with a 'silence' policy, meaning whispering only.)

    #2
    Huhhh?

    The correct form in high society remains "What?"

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      #3
      Huhhh?

      It does indeed. I had no idea until quite recently that I was being frightfully frightful by saying pardon? If some toff came up to me, and misheard me, and said what? I'd think they were being rude and I'd .. i don't know, chuck manure at their Bentley.

      I see now an image: I look up to him, he says 'what?' but down on him, who says 'huhh?'

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        #4
        Huhhh?

        eeeh, such prescriptivism.

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          #5
          Huhhh?

          On the part of "high society"? What do you expect?

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            #6
            Huhhh?

            a) "Pardon?"
            b) "What?"
            c) "Come again?"
            d) "Mmmmm?"
            e) "Sorry?"
            f) "Louder?"
            g) "Your what hurts?"
            h) "Again please?"
            i) [Cup hand behind ear]
            j) "One more time?"
            k) "Fishpaste?"
            l) "Sorry, I missed that. My hearing aid's in for repair."
            m) "Nope! Try again."
            n) "Erm, what was that? I lost interest halfway through that sentence."
            o) "Whatever."

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              #7
              Huhhh?

              Wot? No "Eh?"?

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                #8
                Huhhh?

                "Say what?" is the rude expression I usually use, although I've also been known to say "What?", "Pardon?", "Sorry?" and indeed "Huh?"

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                  #9
                  Huhhh?

                  I use "huh?" when I'm with friends. In other situations, I say "what?"

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                    #10
                    Huhhh?

                    Incandenza is OTF 'high society'.

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                      #11
                      Huhhh?

                      Yeah, "huh?" has always bugged me, too. I think it's because that's often what people say when you've said something unbelievable, and by using it in the not-heard situation, there's still this sense of dubiousness.

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                        #12
                        Huhhh?

                        I say "exsqueeze me?".

                        What can I say? I loved Wayne's World.

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                          #13
                          Huhhh?

                          My really quite posh geography teacher in secondary school would insist that we said 'what' instead of 'sorry'. "What have you got to be sorry about?", he would argue.

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                            #14
                            Huhhh?

                            You know the current vernacular du jour that really pisses me off? 'Bad boys'. Everyone seems to be slipping that into conversation these days. "Look at those bad boys!", whether the subjects under consideration are pints of beer, cordless ergonomic optical mice or unfettered breasts.

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                              #15
                              Huhhh?

                              "You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys? "

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