# "Uh oh" - English? Universal? Somewhere in between?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 9, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116 "2014-11-09T02:25:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116/1 "2014-11-09T02:25:45Z")

</div>

The title pretty much says it. I don’t even know what we call that… The sound “uh oh”- but we all know what it means: “oh – shit–something – bad – now”. Is this just an English thing? Is this sound understood across cultures?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116/2 "2014-11-09T02:29:00Z")

</div>

> [@Stoid](#):
>
> The title pretty much says it. I don’t even know what we call that… The sound “uh oh”- but we all know what it means: “oh – shit–something – bad – now”. Is this just an English thing? Is this sound understood across cultures?

It’s not universal. In Chinese it’s something like “Owh…”, and in French… I can’t remember. If you say it with a horrified face while cringing in fear, it’d probably be understood across cultures. If you just say “Uh oh” plainly, it’d probably just sound like a random interjection.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116/3 "2014-11-09T04:27:45Z")

</div>

The French version is “Oh, oh”, sung to the same tune as in English.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116/4 "2014-11-09T04:35:53Z")

</div>

In Spanish it’s probably _Ay, no!_ or just _Aaay!_, although it can be _oh, oh_. I’m not sure if the latter is in imitation of the English, though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116/5 "2014-11-09T04:53:45Z")

</div>

An identical thread from June of this year:  
[“Uh-oh” in other languages.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=724908)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-oh-english-universal-somewhere-in-between/704116/6 "2014-11-09T05:13:05Z")

</div>

> [@hogarth](#):
>
> An identical thread from June of this year:  
> [“Uh-oh” in other languages.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=724908)

And, from that thread, it seems there are similar sounding versions in many but not all languages.

“Huh,” on the other hand, does [seem](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0078273) to be universal.