when
pronunciation
How to pronounce when in British English:
UK [wen]
How to pronounce when in American English:
US [wen]
-
- Adverb:
- as soon as
Word Origin
- when
- when: [OE] When was formed from the ancient interrogative base *qwo- (source also of English what, who, etc) and a nasal suffix which also appears in then. From the same ancestor, but with an additional dental suffix, came Latin quando ‘when’, source of English quandary.=> quandary
- when (adv.)
- Old English hwænne, hwenne, hwonne, from Proto-Germanic *hwan- (cognates: Old Saxon hwan, Old Frisian hwenne, Middle Dutch wan, Old High German hwanne, German wann "when," wenn "if, whenever"), from pronominal stem *hwa-, from PIE interrogative base *kwo- (see who). Equivalent to Latin quom, cum. As a conjunction in late Old English. Say when "tell me when to stop pouring you this drink" is from 1889.
Example
- 1. That was when mr murdoch started running out of patience .
- 2. When will financial markets recover ?
- 3. That was when parents got involved .
- 4. Boeing officials declined to say exactly when .
- 5. This is akin to when the industrial revolution overwhelmed the agrarian age .