What do you mean ____ that?

Interference from Dutch leads many Dutch speakers to get the preposition wrong in the above phrase. It’s not ‘with’, but ‘by’:

What do you mean by that?
What do you mean by ‘free’?
We’ve all got to do better. And by that, I mean everybody.
Don’t get upset: I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.

© 2014 Baxter Publishing, Hilversum, The Netherlands