What does the asking mean?
Why do two sentences below have the same meaning?
Do you mind me if I ask stupid questions?
When I read the first one, it sounds like someone keeps asking Iris and is
really stupid to answer it.
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
There is, as Gary’s Student says, some regional variation; but the primary difference is that the if version is ordinarily used prospectively, before you ask the question, while the gerund version is ordinarily used retrospectively, after you have asked the question.
Do you mind me asking the above question? is quite unlikely: the question you are talking about will ordinarily be one you have already asked and will determined with the or this or this.
Why is the question marked “Would you mind…”? ; in that case both versions take the prospective reading.
Why does the if version still dominate the RTF in AmE and BrE? Granted, Google Ngrams are based on print uses; but sentences of this sort appear mostly in dialogue, not discursive prose, so this Ngram probably reflects spoken usage reasonably well.
What do you think about the sex debate about “tethering the people”?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
What do they mean? What would you expect from the first sentence of the second sentence of the UK?
