Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stevenukd]

Dear Teachers,

1. We went to university together, rings a bell?
- "rings a bell" means "remember", right? and is this common?

2. How in the world do you know that?
- What does "how in the world" mean here? and is it polite to say?

Thanks a lot to Teachers,

Stevenukd

[CP]

1. Usually what you hear is, "Does that ring a bell?" It means, does that sound familiar, does that jog your memory? It is a common way to express it.

2. "How in the world" and "How on Earth" and "How in H e l l / How in the H e l l" and "How in the heck" are variations on the pumped up version of "How" to ask something like "How do you know that?" By adding "in the world" or "on Earth," etc., the speaker is telling the listener that he / she is amazed or at least surprised that the listener knows that.

It is polite enough to say, except for the "H e l l" versions and others more crude than that.

Where on Earth did you hear the expression?
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