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Got any questions?

Is this a proper quick way to ask someone if they have any questions? On a website, the pop up to prompt and online chat says "Got any questions?"

KillingTime
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user472737
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    Hello, 472. Someone has to decide what 'proper' means in these cases. Most seasoned Anglophones would just answer the question in informal situations such as with friends, on a chat site. But if this was used instead of say "Do you have any questions?" in formal contexts, some might worry about a certain lack of propriety and/or style. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 31 '23 at 19:11
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    I would add to Edwin's response that the circumstance you describe is one where the designers of the website have made a choice to be informal. – KnotWright Jan 31 '23 at 19:27
  • Ever since the popular "Got milk?" advertising campaign, this form of informal question has been common. – Barmar Jan 31 '23 at 22:17
  • And you could go in the middle and use, “Have you got any questions?” – Jim Jan 31 '23 at 23:11
  • A typically shorter version is "Any questions?" Or on a website, "Ask a question." – Weather Vane Jan 31 '23 at 23:17

1 Answers1

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This is another example of Conversational Deletion, an English syntactic rule that's very common in speech, but fusses some people who wanna have all their auxiliaries lined up in front of them.

(by the way, academic "formal" situations like lectures and conferences are the most
informal things you can imagine; everybody's polite but the in-jokes fly)

Basically, CD chews up the beginning of the sentence, starting with the first word, and throws away any predictable pronouns, articles, dummies, auxiliaries, possessives, conditional if, plus assorted short grammar chunks. If the first word is deleted, CD looks at the next word; if it, too, is predictable, out it goes.

This is basically the way people ordinarily talk -- lots of shortcuts, very little formal grammar, get to the meaningful parts fast. And this rule results in the change from

  • Have you got any questions? (normal speech)

to

  • Got any questions? (normal CD result)

which is what an American speaker would say, at least.

A few other examples, to give you the scope of the rule:

  • (1.16) Gotta go now.
  • (1.17) See you next Tuesday.
  • (1.18) Too bad about old Charlie.
  • (1.19) No need to get upset about it.
  • (1.20) Been in Pennsylvania long?
  • (1.21) Ever get a chance to use your Portuguese?
  • (1.22) Ever get to Japan, look me up.
  • (1.23) Good thing we didn't run into anybody we know.
  • (1.24) Last person I expected to meet was John.
  • (1.25) Wife wants to go to the mountains this year.
    [all from Thrasher 1974 p.5]
John Lawler
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