what's the story
34
8.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
qué me cuentas
- So what's the story there?
- So, what's the story
- what's the story here
- he asked what's the story
Examples
-
You have all these individual facts, but what's the story?
Blog text (16) -
Now, what's the story with your wife?
Fiction book (1990) -
All right, daddy, what's the story?
-
- So what's the story on these John Does?
-
So, what's the story, Blake?
-
What's the story there, really?
-
"What's the story, Angles?" I asked, coming up behind him.
Fiction book (1990) -
"So what's the story on this Zeno guy, Professor?"
Fiction book (1994) -
So, what's the story?
-
Hey, what's the story with ... our chicken, man?
Synonyms
161
2.0
A question asking why someone is upset or not feeling well
48
2.4
To ask what has happened recently in someone's life
1
8.2
To ask for information about a person or situation
How Casual
- Informal
554
7.2
- Informal
34
8.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a direct, compositional question: 'what's' (what is) + 'the' + 'story' (an account or situation), so a learner who knows the words can infer it asks for an account, news, or details. The colloquial/informal use as 'what's happening?' is a straightforward pragmatic extension found in many languages, making it readily understandable to B1 learners.
Etymology
What's the story comes from the simple image of asking someone to tell the whole story, a short account of what happened. So when people say what's the story, they are asking for 'news', 'details', or 'what happened'.