student asking question

Is "with" necessary here? What does "what's with ~?" mean?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"What's with (something)" is an idiom used to ask what the reason is for something, or to ask what is wrong with something. So "what's with your nose" is the same thing as asking "what's wrong with your nose", or "why is your nose like that". You can also use the phrases "what's up with" and "what's going on with". Ex: What's with the hiking boots? Are you going hiking? Ex: What's up with the weather this week? It's been so stormy.

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