huh

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hʌ̃/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Interjection

huh

1. With falling pitch, used to express amusement or subtle surprise.

   Huh! I'm sure I locked it when I left.

2. With any pitch, used to express doubt or confusion.

   Huh? Where did they go?

3. With rising pitch, used to reinforce a question.

   Where were you last night? Huh?

4. (slang) (Shortening of the slang "I know, huh.") With falling pitch, used either to belittle the issuer of a statement/question, or sarcastically to indicate utter agreement, and that the statement being responded to is an extreme understatement. The intonation is changed to distinguish between the two meanings - implied dullness for belittlement, and feigned surprise for utter agreement.

   (belittlement) A:"We should go to an amusement park, it would be fun." B:"Huh."

   (agreement) A""Murder is bad." B:"Huh!"

5. (informal) With rising pitch, used to indicate that one did not hear what was said.

   Huh? Could you speak up?

6. (informal) With falling pitch, used to create a tag question.

   It's getting kind of late, huh?

Translations

to express amusement or subtle surprise

Finnish: häh (fi), höh (fi) Portuguese: puxa (pt), eta (pt), eita (pt), caramba (pt)

Russian: да, да ну (in questions), ха (in statements) Swedish: vad (sv), vad nu (sv)

expressing doubt or confusion

Cebuano: ha Dutch: hè (nl) Finnish: häh (fi), höh (fi) French: hein (fr) German: häh (de)

Italian: eh (it) Portuguese: ué, como (pt), hã (pt) Russian: а, да (with special intonation) Swedish: vad (sv)

to reinforce a question

Dutch: hè (nl), nou (nl) Finnish: täh, mitä French: hein (fr) German: hä? (de)

Portuguese: hein, hã, hein (pt) Romanian: a (ro) Russian: а (ru) Spanish: eh (es)

"I know, huh" what huh

Finnish: joo (fi) Portuguese: dã, não brinca

Russian: да, угу (first meaning), ага (both meanings)

to indicate that one didn't hear

Dutch: hè (nl), wat (nl) Finnish: häh, täh French: hein (fr)

Portuguese: hã, hem, como (pt) Russian: эй (ru) Swedish: vad (sv), hur sa (sv)

tag question

Swedish: eller hur (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Cherokee: hv (1,3) Vietnamese: hả (2), a! (3)