What's it?

0 As a complete question, it would have the stress on "is", so the contraction is inappropriate. In a longer question, you could say, for example, "What's it called?", because the stress is now on "called".02br
00Of course "this" and "that" are stronger words and can carry the stress, so "What's this?" is fine.0-

0I wouldn't use it... But then I guess it can be heard in 01b00spoken02b00 English, as your source said. On the other hand, "what's this?" is perfectly correct.0-

0LOL! 050010id1

0 Great minds think alike0-

0 ... and at the same time! 0-

0 02br
02br
00/ˈwɒtsɪt/ (wotsit = what's it) is certainly used in informal British English as an approximating expression, like stuff, thing, thingy, etc. 02br
02br
00It can refer to a person and is a variation on 00/ˈwɒtsɪzneɪm/ (wotsizname = what's his name) as in:02br
02br
01font00I saw 02font

0 It's also used in North American English (especially the phrase what's-his-name), but it's pronoucned [ wVtsIt ] and [ wVtsIznem ] 0-

0 01blockquote

01cite10Tam Sadek12cite10P.S. to Admin: The font in this post12br
10looks unusually big and I can't change it! There's no font sizer in the12br
10compose interface. I'm using IE7 btw. 12br
10Use the various Normal/Paragraph choices (the dropdown to the right of Insert Smiley in the compose interface)1

0 01blockquote

00I was told by a native speaker of BrE that it is perfectly acceptable in spoken English. Is he correct?12blockquote

10 Yes, but the circumstances in which it is used idiomatically are exceedingly rare.02br
00 The stress must be on the word 01i00it02i00, and to be clear, 01i00it02i00

0 01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite11blockquote

10I was told by a native speaker of BrE that it is perfectly acceptable in spoken English. Is he correct?22blockquote

20Yes, but the circumstances in which it is used idiomatically are exceedingly rare.12br
10The stress must be on the word 11i10i