On a podcast I listen to – A Way with Words, when asking people to get in touch to ask language-related questions, they often say “Hit us up on Twitter”.
To my ears this sounds strange. I might say something like, “Contact us on Twitter”, or even “Drop us a tweet”.
Does it sound strange to you?
How would you ask people to tweet?
How is Twitter referred to in other languages?
When asking people to phone you, would you say any of the following?
– Drop us a line
– Call us
– Give us a call
– Give us a bell
– Give us a buzz
Or something else?
I’m familiar with this newish American English phrasal verb, though I’ve never heard it used for the first person plural. It’s more commonly used in informal speech like “Hit me up later, OK?”. See this Google search: http://bit.ly/2FLlFsG
Maybe the issue with Twitter is that connecting to someone there can mean following them, a direct query, a DM or including them in a tweet. So possibly, the language usage hasn’t yet caught up with the technology.
When asking someone to telephone me, I certainly would not say “Drop me a line”, which, to me, implies a written communication. “Give me a bell” and “Give me a buzz” sound rather old-fashioned, in my opinion.
I have to say that I strongly dislike the “hit up” usage, which sounds unnecessarily violent!
“ping me”
Like Shenn above I find “hit me up” distasteful. “Give me/us a bell” sounds comical like something a stage cockney might say. Surely the most common UK phrase is “give me a ring” which is surprisingly not mentioned by Simon. To me it’s UK English while “call me” sounds more American.
Hey! It’s Grant Barrett, co-host of A Way with Words. I can tell you exactly why I say that on the show. Besides the regular “hit me up” = “contact me; ask me for something,” I was thinking of the M.I.A. song “Paper Planes.”
https://genius.com/Mia-paper-planes-lyrics
No one on the corner has swagger like us
Hit me on my burner prepaid wireless
We pack and deliver like UPS trucks
Already going to hell, just pumping that gas
No one on the corner has swagger like us
Hit me on my burner prepaid wireless
We pack and deliver like UPS trucks
Already going to hell, just pumping that gas.
For what it’s worth, there are a fair number of “hit me up on Twitter” uses. https://goo.gl/Fus4zi