what's the difference
71
3.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
cuál es la diferencia
- Well, what's the difference?
Examples
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So what's the difference?
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Question 1: In Miami, what was the difference between the high and low temperatures on Friday?
Academic text (2015) -
If the event is the solution, then what is the difference between incident and event?
Blog text (18) -
Strategic Foresight and La Prospective: What's the Difference?
Academic text (2012) -
I distinctly remember asking her, "What's the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats?"
Blog text (17) -
Oh, what's the difference?
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Excerpt: First off, what is the difference between the two Epi's on Need2's site?
Blog text (26) -
JMP: What is the difference between a thriller for young adults and a thriller for adults?
Academic text (2011) -
What's the difference between Joshua Pearce and Sonny Hayes?
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First of all, let's clear up some confusion: what's the difference between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch?
Antonyms
How Important
46
2.7
- Informal
71
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
what's + the + difference
The phrase is compositionally built from 'what' (asking), 'the', and 'difference' (extent by which things differ), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer it asks about a distinction between items. The pragmatic extension (rhetorical use meaning 'it doesn't matter') is context-dependent but the basic interrogative meaning is transparently derivable and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
The phrase what's the difference paints a clear picture: you are looking at two very similar things and asking which part is not the same. So, it is used to ask about a difference between things or, when said with a shrug, to mean 'it does not matter'.