Oxidised Razor Masticator

hi gang

occasinally i go abroad for the weekend and and on a few occasions, when colleagues asked on a friday afternoon what i was up to this weekend, i said that i was going to go away to this or that place.

so they have then asked: WHO ARE YOU GOING WITH? to which I replied I AM GOING BY MYSELF.

they then laughed or chortled and said something along the lines of NO, WHAT I MEAN IS ARE YOU GOING WITH RYANAIR OR EASYJET OR BRITISH AIRWAYS (this happened independently from each other)

my kwestion is: when someone says 'who are you going with', does that kwestion not ask for a person?

if i wanted to know about the airline, someone travels with, would i not make that clear in the kwestion?

many thanks!

Was it "Who are you going with?" or "Who are you flying with?"

I would ask "What airline are you taking?" but then I'm not British. I would also write "question" rather than "kwestion".

A major hotel chain used to have an ad a few years ago that described successful business people and then asked "who is (s)he sleeping with?" In that case, the double entendre was definitely intended.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>my kwestion is: when someone says 'who are you going with', does that kwestion not ask for a person?<hr></blockquote>
I would say that this is definately the first interpretation. But I guess you can see an airline as a person too and then the question would be valid. Are you sure there wasn't some talk in between about flying or airlines? I would have answered in the same way you did, but I'm a non-native, so what the heck do I know ;-)

In a casual conversation I think the question is just a simple ambiguity and could easily be answered either way. I would use those same words whether I was interested in your partner or the airline you were travelling with.

'Who' refers to a person.
'Which' might have been the better interrogatory.

If the interrogator wanted to know which carrier was being used, the question should be framed that way. The terminal 'with' construction is awkward in any event.

Sure, the question could be framed better, and probably would be, if you were writing it down. But it's a casual conversation, and colloquially I would probably use just those words until I got the wrong reply, when I would say "No, (laugh) what I meant was...."

The laugh, BTW, would be at my own stupidity in asking such an easily misunderstood question.

Can I ask why one would ask a question that might have several different meanings? For what it's worth, I would do as #2. If I thought he or she was taking a partner and I was close enough (or rude enough) I might ask "who are you going with." That particular phrase evokes a person in my mind, as opposed to an airline, or by car etc. "Bhutan, hell, that's a long way, how are you getting there?" I might be asking about the airline but I could also be asking what route is being taken. I don't think I would ask "who are you going with unless I wanted to know who he/she was taking with him/her. Newbie or not -- I call it as I see it.

You wouldn't do it deliberately, it's just careless speech in a quick conversation. Of course if you thought about it for half a second you would rephrase it as "which airline are you using?", "how are you getting there?" or whatever.