student asking question

In what situation could I use "tell you what"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"(Let me) tell you what" is an idiomatic expression that is used to emphasize a statement or introduce a suggestion. In this sentence, she has used the expression to introduce a suggestion to the boy, which is to pay less than what was asked for the item. Like in this video, you can use this expression when you want to suggest an idea, or perhaps to offer an alternative solution or negotiate over something. Ex: Tell you what, buy me some chicken nuggets and I'll forgive you for being late today. Ex: Tell you what, why don't we go camping next weekend? It's raining this weekend, so I don't think we can go.

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