看绝望的主妇学英语实用表达：what gives?

what gives: Used to ask the reason for something;  Used to ask what is the matter or what went wrong. This phrase have come from German borrowing. Germans used the phrase “was gibt es?” as “What is the matter?” or “What’s up?”. In English, it is commonly used to ask “What is the matter?”

中文释义：What gives，是在英语对话中常用的一句口语，意思不是很多。通常用它的时候只有两层意思，一个是What’s happening?怎么了，出什么事了？;另一个是why is this happening? 你为什么这么做？。说这句话是为了表示你对听者的行为或身边发生的事毫无线索和头绪。比如：你朋友情绪低落，跟平时不一样。就可以这样说”It’s not like you to get so upset, what gives?”。其他同样意思的表达方式：”What’s the problem?”，”What happened?”。