You're welcome
"Can I get a tall skinny latte?"
Yes, you can. Just come round here behind the counter. There's the coffee, there's the machine, there's the milk, off you go.
(Getting back onto semantics and putting science and theology behind me) ... Can we stop saying, "Can I get ... ?" please. It's an odious American habit, and while the Americans have given us many fantastic things (The Wire, The West Wing, Heroes, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The New Yorker), they are not a nation to be deferred to in matters of eating and drinking, nor of related etiquette. I remember a time when the people of this proud nation used the phrase, "Can I have ... ?" in coffee shops. (Indeed, I can remember when we didn't have coffee shops.) To get is to fetch, surely? It's an active verb, and not the verb of a paying customer, unless it's a self-service restaurant, in which case, yes, you can get it. To "get" a coffee when you are the customer doesn't sound right. It also seems to come automatically without a "please", which is another bad habit.
The Americans are, of course, beyond reprogramming, but I don't think it's too late to nip this irksome habit in the bud. If you are not American and you find yourself using the phrase "Can I get ...?", why not experiment with the old way of ordering something in an eating and drinking outlet? It feels nice. I'd like a tall skinny latte please. Can I have a tall skinny latte please. A tall skinny latte please!
That's better.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:07 AM
15 Comments
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15 Comments:
ah you're back you old pedant you....
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew.
"May I have a skiny latte please? Or even a nice strong cup of tea."
I don't mind that, but the going up at the end of sentences while, like, really expressing yourself? ...does rather get on my wick.
Must be getting old (33).
Chances are that anyone using the locution you describe with such justifiable indignation, will also, when asked if there's anything else you can get them, respond "no, I'm good". Which is rightly a capital offence, here in Rightthinkingland.
I recall telling friends (natually) to "go and get stuffed" as a kid. Was that wrong (aside from the lack of manners)? Should I have said "go and be stuffed?" or "go and avail thyself of a local taxidermist service?" Hmm. Other than that I totally agree with you. ;-)
I am not sure if there is anything wrong with get if the sentence ends with a please and a thank you when you get your coffee.
Incidentally I do say can I have. I remember doing it yesterday.
Paranoid Mod the quirk you are referring to is the 'Australian Question Intonation' Stephen Fry put it in his room 101. It is intensely irritating but I suppose twith both these things, language just evolves and there is nothing you can do to reverse that.
The comfort is in twenty years time the people irritatingus today will find some new quirk of youth speak that will irk them.
I never went away, Peter. I just switched to my "back-up blog", The Corner, and I even posted this post up there, and the discussion has been long and fruitful. Now I don't know what to do! I think I'll come back here, actually.
A ridiculous rant!
Language changes. Get over it.
A very enjoyable rant, but answer me this - if someone asks you "What did you get for Christmas" do you tell them what you went and bought for your nearest and dearest, or do you tell them what you were given?
See also "Can I get a witness", etc.
I always want just a sensibly - sized normal coffee but that only exists in the olden days now.
Bemoaning the bastardisation of our language while happily ordering a ridiculously American corruption of a simple coffee? Ah, Mr Collins, with your knowingly ironic posts you are spoiling us...
Just don't ask to get it to go. That's the final straw.
This is a normal coffee shop exchange conversation here in the midwest (once the beverage has been delivered):
A (customer): Thank you
B: You're welcome (takes money). Thank you.
A: You're welcome.
B: Have a nice day
A: Thank you
B: You're welcome.
A: You too.
B: Thank you.
A: You're welcome.
[continues until one of them dies]
I believe the standard term for "to take away" in certain caffeine emporia is "to flee".
Ah, but Greg, I only ever order a peppermint tea, to take away, and I say please. (I used the example of a skinny latte to point up the bastardisation of the language. Nothing ironic about that. Unless your comment was ironic. Eek!)
As annoying as the use of "Can I get..." is in this country, I don't think it's worth trying to criticise it on grammatical grounds. It's just a horrible affectation, isn't it? It's akin to ordering in Italian in an Italian restaurant.
Personally I'm much more annoyed by the current trend for adding "-age" to unsuitable nouns. Even good DJs keep talking about having "some classic tune-age" for us. Horrible.
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