ask

pronunciation

How to pronounce ask in British English: UK [ɑːsk]word uk audio image

How to pronounce ask in American English: US [æsk] word us audio image

  • Verb:
    inquire about
    make a request or demand for something to somebody
    direct or put; seek an answer to
    consider obligatory; request and expect
    require or ask for as a price or condition
    address a question to and expect an answer from
    require as useful, just, or proper

Word Origin

ask
ask: [OE] The Old English ancestor of ask existed in two main forms: āscian and ācsian. The first produced descendants such as asshe, which died out in the 16th century; the second resulted in axe (still extant in some dialects), which by metathesis – the reversal of the consonant sounds k and s – became modern English ask. Ultimately the word comes from a prehistoric West Germanic verb *aiskōjan (source of German heischen, a poetical term for ‘ask’); cognates in other, non-Germanic, Indo- European languages include Latin aeruscāre ‘beg’ and Sanskrit iccháti ‘seek’.
ask (v.)
Old English ascian "ask, call for an answer; make a request," from earlier ahsian, from Proto-Germanic *aiskon (cognates: Old Saxon escon, Old Frisian askia "request, demand, ask," Middle Dutch eiscen, Dutch eisen "to ask, demand," Old High German eiscon "to ask (a question)," German heischen "to ask, demand"), from PIE *ais- "to wish, desire" (cognates: Sanskrit icchati "seeks, desires," Armenian aic "investigation," Old Church Slavonic iskati "to seek," Lithuanian ieškau "to seek"). Form in English influenced by a Scandinavian cognate (such as Danish æske; the Old English would have evolved by normal sound changes into ash, esh, which was a Midlands and southwestern England dialect form). Modern dialectal ax is as old as Old English acsian and was an accepted literary variant until c. 1600. Related: Asked; asking. Old English also had fregnan/frignan which carried more directly the sense of "question, inquire," and is from PIE root *prek-, the common source of words for "ask" in most Indo-European languages (see pray). If you ask me "in my opinion" is attested from 1910. Asking price is attested from 1755.

Antonym

Example

1. They ask the same questions .
2. Ask her questions about her .
3. Ask a ton of questions ?
4. Do they ask for personal information by email ?
5. Ask him to transform your discouragement into patience .

more: >How to Use "ask" with Example Sentences