What does "though" mean in these sentences?

Question

I knew these are American English sentences, and they are informal. However, I would like to know what exactly it means, or it simply means nothing, and people merely want to add something unnecessary at the end of a sentence, because it sounds fetch.Sentences like:> 1. His denim jacket, though.2. I love the way he talks, though.3. For real, though.4. Really, though.5. What's up though6. When are you coming over, though?

Answer 1

This is a good question! We say many words in spoken English that seem to not carry much meaning. It can be very confusing, right?! (just an example). However, they can have a subtle meaning, like in the examples you gave.

"Though" (easily interchangeable with "although" which is more formal) is an adverb that expresses contrast or a change in position between two ideas. Let's look at your examples:

"His denim jacket, though." This might be spoken if someone usually feels like the person is a good dresser, but they really don't like his/her denim jacket. Though, it could also mean that they feel the denim jacket is really cool when compared to something else about the person. You will need more context or information to determine the speaker's meaning.

"For real, though." In my experience, I hear this when people are joking, exaggerating, or saying something that might not seem true. When they say "for real, though," they are saying that they really mean that it is true. Although, people may say this to emphasize their joke. Context is always important.

"When are you coming over, though?", "What's up, though?", and "really, though". These examples seem a little different than the others. This seems like an unconventional way of changing or focusing the subject.

I hope that this clears things up for you. Remember that spoken language doesn't always follow grammatical rules. Most of the time, as long as you understand the meaning of the person speaking, the grammar is usually unimportant. It's a fun question, though ;)

Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions!

Take care.

Dustin

Answer 2

“Though” is being used in a nonstandard way in these sentences to skip the beginning of the conversation and make a particular point or in some of these examples to indicate that the previous point of conversation is over.

1. His denim jacket, though.

The above could, depending on the context, just be drawing attention to the jacket. It is as of you already had a conversation about the rest of the outfit and now the conversation has lead to the jacket. This comment essentially skips the beginning and leads straight to what the speaker wants- your opinion on the jacket.

2. I love the way he talks, though.

This could serve to mean the speaker does not love other aspects of the person. As if the full thought is “He is a jerk, but I love the way he talks”. As above, it’s skipping part of a conversation to draw attention to the main point.

3. For real, though.4. Really, though.5. What's up though

These could be Indications that the speaker is being serious whereas previous comments were made in jest. You could imagine two friends making fun of each other, messing around, and then one says “For real, though, I have to go now”.

6. When are you coming over, though?

This also indicates that the speaker is dismissing the previous conversation, it is serving as the conjunction “but”, to say I’m done talking about what we’re talking about, but when are you coming over?

I hope that makes sense!

“Stop trying to make Fetch happen”