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It means that the asker believes the question is relatively short and thus won't be too much of a burden on the askee.
by jghn 9y ago
It means that the asker believes the question is relatively short and thus won't be too much of a burden on the askee.
- l0b0 9y agoAh, I understand. Like "what is mass" or "who killed JFK". Simple questions like that.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoIME it's often used as a sort of sarcastic parody, to emphasise that the element of the person's statement being questioned hasn't been resolved and the whole situation is contingent on the answer. For example, when PM May had finished presenting her new manifesto before the election one might ask "Quick question: how are you going to pay for all that?" to highlight the fact that no costings had been included and suggest you thought it was unrealistic (or hiding tax rises, or whatever). "Quick question" is used genuinely too. One use appears to be "don't go too deep, give me a superficial answer".
- zeptomu 9y agoI concur - that was the reason at least for me. Actually I am not a native English speaker, I translated it literally from German where we also say "Kurze Frage [...]".
- sharpshadow 9y agoIn German you would use it to get a short answer to a short question, for example a yes/no question or when you ask about the time. In practice the shortest answer possible with the notice that you are just looking for a quick answer without explanations. Normally you use it to let the other know that it will not take long and you don't want to disturb.