Average American asks ‘What did you say?’ over 1,000 times a year

The average American will ask, “What did you say?” or an equivalent 1,095 times in a year, according to new research.

The survey of 2,000 general population Americans revealed respondents will need to ask someone to repeat themselves an average of three times per day because they didn’t hear the first time. This adds up to about 91 times per month, or over one thousand times per year.

But despite the difficulty in hearing what others said, the average respondent will only ask twice before giving up on understanding and just pretending to have heard.

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Audien Hearing, the survey looked at the social impact this can have on respondents. The results revealed that 35% of respondents have felt left out of a conversation because they couldn’t hear well, and while the outcomes of mishearing others can be funny, they can also be awkward and embarrassing — or even painful.