Monday, December 6, 2010

"You See"

A companion to "I see," "You see" is often used as a rhetorical statement. That is, even though its true figurative meaning is, you (the other party) see (figuratively) what is being discussed, many people use it to urge the other person to "see" the logic, even if they do not do so at present.

Example: "So you see, rebooting the computer fixed the entire problem." "...Ah, I see now."

Example 2: "I came all the way from Vancouver to see this film festival, you see?"

In this second use, this can be shortened to just see.

Example 2, revisited: "I came all the way from Vancouver, see?"

Likely, the listener doesn't see, or the speaker wouldn't be explaining it to begin with!

Again, the point of the idiomatic usage is to urge the other person to "see" something that they should see, not that they necessarily do see.

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