What is the difference between these two phrases
Things are hotting up.
Things are heating up.
Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, question-response: How come you didn’t go to the leadership conference?[YSaerTTEW443543]
Hi Torsten,
The second one is the only one that makes sense. Hot is an adjective, so you can’t use it as a present continuous verb as the first sentence tries to do.
Hot is an adjective, heat can be either a noun or a verb.
Have a look here
This is a purely British colloquialism, apparently. I’ve found it listed as informal, and non-standard, which I suppose depends on the viewpoint of the author, but it’s purely 100% British.
To anybody not speaking BrE, it doesn’t make a lick of sense, and sounds like an entry level ESL learner’s mistake.
It sounds as erroneous to my ears as “it’s colding down”, but then it’s not my place to presume to correct another variant of English.
Some like it hot?
Not a lot. Things are hotting up sounds better to me - more poetic.
In the US, if you say “Things are hotting up,” you’ll be answered by a quizical look – the verb “to hot up” is not used here.
But then, Brits refer to soccer shoes as “boots” – which, in the US, is used to refer to cowboy boots, work boots, winter boots, etc… substantial footware. “Hotting up” is just one more difference.
(not sure why I brought up “shoes vs. boots”… guess I just wanted to get it off my chest. hehe)
“Hotting up” sounds ungrammatical to me, and vaguely sexual. As Skrej has pointed out, it is as ungrammatical as “colding down”. It’s just another of those cases that demonstrate that British English is not always good English, and that the British are also capable of abusing the language.
The expression is good enough for America’s premier global news organisation:
[url]http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2007/SPORT/06/01/day.six/[/url]
So use it with gusto. It has the added advantage of annoying some septics.
It seems that there actually might be quite a few Americans who have had the audicity to use a ‘British expression’. Here is one of them:
'Virtualisation hotting up in 2009
If you’ve got money, is this where you should spend it?
By Tim Ferguson
Published: Friday 13 February 2009
Virtualisation technology is going to become even more significant in 2009 with businesses increasingly realising its potential benefits.
Analyst house Gartner predicts global revenue from virtualisation software will grow by 43 per cent this year, hitting $2.7bn, compared to $1.9bn in 2008…'[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, talks: Supermarket employee is informing customers on the latest food specials[YSaerTTEW443543]
CNN isn’t America’s premier news organization. It only seems like that to people outside the United States.
CNN’s ideology is basically leftist, and among the American left there’s a type of Euro-envy that leads them to use Britishisms without examining them. Another one you’ll hear among that type of person is “spot on”. It’s very irritating.
Torsten, where in that publication does it give that author’s nationality? I tried and didn’t find it. In fact, I think it’s pretty clear from his use of that expression, plus abbreviations like $1.7bn that the people writing or editing this publication are not Americans.
Not only that, but in many newspapers and magazines it’s the editor who writes the headlines, not the writer.
Maybe your views are spot on, but there aren’t many I know who hold the American right in high regard. It’s nice to see the debate hotting up a tad.