So, you are a non-native English speaker. You text a friend, and you write, ‘I’m free from work tonight. Do you want to get together for dinner?’
Text messages lacking facial expressions and intonation which aid in reaping the intended meaning of whatever the speaker says can be obscure. So, texts with no emojis don’t help the receiver understand correctly. Plus a text is by its nature written, so the receiver can’t hear joy, sadness, anxiety, excitement, sincerity, nor sarcasm. All this important information has got to come from the words alone.
Then you receive your reply: ‘Get out of town!’
Your reaction to this message depends entirely on whether you know this is an idiomatic expression communicating disbelief with a positive connotation. A literal interpretation would be a breakdown in successful communication and potentially a loss of a good friend.
Here some incentive: Don’t lose friends; learn your idioms.
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