word choice - "When" vs. "what time"



When are we meeting, dear, I am hungry?



or



What time are we meeting, dear, I am hungry?



Please elaborate on the semantical differences.



Answer



The main difference is that the latter is really only answerable with some kind of wall-clock time answer, while the former can be more vague. This makes sense if you think about it. If the question is "What time...?" then the answer would have to include a time, right?


For example, if I ask a teammate, "When is our next game?" then "Next Tuesday" is a perfectly acceptable answer.


However, if I were to ask, "What time is our next game", then "Three PM." would be an acceptable answer (although he should probably include the "next Tuesday" part too, unless our games are usually on Tuesdays).


However, both of those phrases read as two sentences to me. If I were writing them I'd put a question mark after the word dear and a period at the end. As formulated, they both kind of look like the questioner is asking the other person if the questioner is hungry.


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