"How do you Figure?"

Non-PRO English Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings Colloquialisms

Rare as some idiomatic occurence may be, you're most likely to get at least by one lexical mention of it. Well, the following experpt from Law & Order SVU shows a recurrent speech pattern I've never seen accounted for, either as slang or colloquial standard English. Anyone to lexically prove otherwise?

(Dr. Huang)"It's not just Olivia he's targeting. It's Elliot and Olivia."
(Cap. Cragen)"How do you figure?"

Responses

4 +19

How do you come to that conclusion?

Stephanie Ezrol

Change log

Jul 31, 2011 08:54: Thayenga changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Aug 12, 2011 11:35: Stephanie Ezrol Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Tony M, Jim Tucker (X), Thayenga

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Discussion

Jonathan MacKerron Jul 31, 2011: Hollywood-speak a typical case of film/TV writers attempting to mimic colloquial speech. They probably have an entire drawer full of such expressions, from which they constantly draw, so as not to repeat themselves.
FNO (asker) Jul 31, 2011: Point taken, Steph... Only that for a learner it's assuring to come by some official reference material which shows the term. From the git-go the idea was contextually made clear allright. Having said that, yet never have I seen one any slang dictionary with the pattern in question, despite its assiduous occurence in Am. English.

Responses

+19

12 mins

Stephanie Ezrol

United States

650 answers

Native in English & English

Works in field

Selected

How do you come to that conclusion?

The phrase is used frequently in American English. It conveys the sense of, How did you come to that conclusion? -- how did you figure that out? How do you know that?

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Note added at 19 mins (2011-07-31 03:43:57 GMT)
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The following is from a blog, but the context is useful in terms of the expression:

Sage is a classic example of what I’ve been railing against. He’s spouting off his conclusions without any evidentiary support. He’s repeating talking points torn right out of the Discovery Institute script.

“it seems like a lot of scientists might be inclined to investigate ID (in it’s purely intellectual form) seriously if it wasn’t so much a weapon of culture war.”

Really? How do you figure, Sage? Upon what FACTS do you base your conclusion?

As a scientist, I can tell you that your impressions do not reflect reality. So my question is: how did it come to pass that you are confused?
http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php/weblog/comments/789/

Peer comment(s):

agree	David Hollywood 3 mins
	Thanks !
agree	Therrien 14 mins
	Thanks !
agree	Liz Dexter (was Broomfield) 19 mins
	Thanks !
agree	Demi Ebrite 47 mins
	Thanks !
agree	Lydia De Jorge 1 hr
	Thanks !
agree	Jack Doughty 1 hr
	Thanks !
agree	Sarah Bessioud 2 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Tony M : Although 'figure' has a ring of AE about it, the expreession is also used in BE, albeit usually as "How do you figure that (out)?" Cf. also "Go figure!" 'Figure' is so common, this can't really be classed as an expression in its own right. 2 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Jim Tucker (X) : also note: "You figure?" = "Do you think so?" 2 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	British Diana : Yes, I would use "you figure" (In Germany I don't use this word at all as the Germans always start to snigger) 3 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Jenni Lukac (X) 3 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Stefanie Rasmussen : The combination "Really? How do you figure?" is quite common. 4 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Thayenga 5 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	vierama 6 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Phong Le 9 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Arabic & More 12 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	amarpaul 13 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	eski : Congratulation! eski :)) 14 hrs
	Thanks !
agree	Thuy-PTT (X) 4 days
	Thanks !

4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks so very much, Steph! Hugs to you and all Kudos team."

Glossary entry (derived from question below)

English term or phrase:

"How do you Figure?"

English answer:

How do you come to that conclusion?

English term

"How do you Figure?"

Discussion

Responses

How do you come to that conclusion?

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