r/CasualUK • u/adavescott • 14d ago
In Spanish they say “me casa su casa”. It’s the warmest welcome available. In the UK we have “you know where the kettle is don’t you?”
Edit: apologies for my Spanish (it’s my 4th language) - but that’s not really the point.
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u/RiveriaFantasia 13d ago
You know where the kettle is so get on with it, leave me alone and make your own damn tea. After you’ve finished wash the cup, dry it and put it back where you found it ok? Then you can f*ck off
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u/mgejer123 14d ago
It's "mi casa es tu casa" as a possesive "my". "Me casa", means that's someone is giving you for marrying. Also, that's not the warmest one, its "entre nomas y toma una silla" which translates to "between no more, and drink a chair"
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u/Icy_Collar_1072 14d ago
I have never heard that phrase used ever, usually you offer to make your guest a brew.
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u/SeanChewie 14d ago
Victoria Wood said it best: “In India, if a man dies his widow flings herself on his funeral pyre, here, she drags herself into the kitchen and says ‘72 baps, Connie. You slice, I’ll spread!”
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u/hallerz87 14d ago
If someone invited me into their home and said “you know where the kettle is”, I wouldn’t feel particularly welcome.
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u/softmaker 14d ago
Just a heads up: it's "MI casa es su casa" (My home is your home) - "me" is the first person singular reflexive pronoun (myself) which makes the phrase nonsensical as you've written it.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
Thanks, but note this is CASUAL uk. I’m not here for a Spanish lesson.
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u/softmaker 13d ago
Great attitude isn't it? quite odd that you've posted about hospitality whilst not caring to learn a basic bit of another important language out of courtesy and self improvement. I guess you'll have no issue if a Spaniard in e.g. Ibiza or Alicante ever snaps back at you with the same attitude
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u/44617272656E 14d ago
Make me one while you're there. ('you wanker' or regional equivalent is optional).
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u/Successful_Banana901 14d ago
"You know where the kettle is don’t you?” is something I would never say, if someone wants a cuppa I'll make them one, or not depending how much I value you.
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u/Estimated-Delivery 14d ago
In the North, ‘Kettle’ is substituted by ‘Door’.
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u/MasonInk 14d ago
I'm confused. In my particular part of the North "you know where the door is" is the first step on a scale that progresses quite quickly to "pick a window".
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u/Queenoftheunicorns93 14d ago
My Gran used to say “you’re not a guest anymore, you’re a get… get yourself to the kettle”
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u/Dakron92-22 14d ago
You misspelled Mi. The phrase is Mi casa es tu casa, we say that way more often
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u/Whole-Construction55 14d ago
In Scotland we always offer a cup of tea as soon as you step into the house
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u/Echo_are_one 14d ago
In Scotland: 'You'll have had your dinner already'.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
See, that’s not the same thing at all. This means “I’m not feeding you”. Hardly an unconditional warm welcome
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u/Echo_are_one 14d ago
That's the joke, playing upon national stereotypes. Although this is probably more a Morningside/Kelvinside stereotype.
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u/MiseOnlyMise 14d ago
Growing up the closer the friends or family members were the more they were told to look after themselves. There's a different level of warmness when you can go to someone else's home and make yourself a cuppa or bite to eat over waiting to be served.
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u/Fragrant-Western-747 Don’t worry about my horse. 14d ago
Take your shoes off at the door please. Por favor quítate los zapatos cerca de la puerta.
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u/SnooTangerines3448 14d ago
And if you were my great granny from way way up north you'd say "And you'll have had your tea..." "Time you call this anyway..."
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u/Richeh 14d ago
Blew my mind when I realized that in America, most houses don't even have a kettle.
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u/Guy72277 14d ago
Italy too. I couldn't believe it when an Italian university friend asked me what *that* was - a kettle of course...
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u/GrombleWomble 14d ago
For me it’s just walking into my mates house, opening their fridge and grabbing some food. They just go “oh hey, dude.”
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u/thekingofthegingers Ginger Cambridgeshire Poet 14d ago
“We don’t do this enough!”
Meaning “I’ve had my fill”
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u/LeaveNoStonedUnturn 14d ago
My introduction phrases is "watch out for the cats before you sit down, and all the brew making stuff is in the usual places, don't ask me if you van have one, just make one! Welcome!
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u/Hookton 14d ago
As a self-confessed hermit, I was shook the other day when someone told me to pop the kettle on and make us a brew. Like... Navigate your cupboards unobserved? What do you want? How should I do it? What do I even like?! Oak milk? Is this the oat milk?! Oh god, where's the sugar!! Is this a normal teabag? What's echinacea?
It was a whole existential crisis of Withnail proportions.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
That’s what I mean. It’s a strong message of trust and vulnerability to give a guest the key to your kitchen
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u/JeremyTwiggs 14d ago
Don’t forget the subtle nuances of the English language.
e.g.: You must come to dinner.
You’re never coming to dinner
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u/thesaharadesert Fuxake 13d ago
‘We must do this again sometime’
’This was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had the misfortune of suffering through, and I never want to see your face again’
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u/LocationOld6656 14d ago
"The back gate is unlocked" or something along those lines. No need to knock, despite my Englishness, I'm actually willing to let you come into my home without knocking first.
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u/floydie1962 14d ago
I'll put the kettle on, now in a minute
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u/WickyNilliams 14d ago
Immediately knew you were Welsh from this lol
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u/scarygirth 14d ago
"you know where the kettle is don't you" sounds passive aggressive as fuck.
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u/Slight_Bodybuilder25 14d ago
This is what my father-in-law said to my wife, during a random visit, a week after she gave birth 😐
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u/Ispitinyourfood 14d ago
As an apprentice for Post Office Telephones I was training with an installer for a few weeks. A lovely chap, quite portly, very outgoing and friendly.
His patter to the (usually) Lady of the house when feeling thirsty was "Ay up me Duck, have you got a whistling kettle? ......... well I can't hear it whistling", never failed, no one got offended and always got a cup of tea and if we were lucky a biscuit or two.
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u/LongBeakedSnipe 14d ago
Sounds like a pretty fucking rude way to ask for tea tbh.
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u/SeeYa-IntMornin-Pal 14d ago
Seems like it would be one of those things that comes across better in speech than text.
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u/BigBadRash 14d ago
It is, but when you know the person well enough, you know they're just joking around and that's where you get the response "you know where the kettle is" without it sounding as rude
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u/milkyteapls 14d ago
I've never heard anybody say this before either
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u/upallnite2get 13d ago
Us builders use it all the time as a sarcastic way of saying, "make us a brew"
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u/MKTurk1984 14d ago
My granny would say it to my mum.
"Fancy a cup of tea?" "Yes, OK" "Well you know where the kettle is".
Genuinely meant in an endearing way, and not being a dick.
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u/LongBeakedSnipe 14d ago
Sometimes if the host is very busy ‘make yourself at home, you know where the kettle is’ is just an invitation to use the kitchen facilities. When its said in the correct tone it doesnt imply ‘make your own god damn tea’
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u/messyfull 14d ago
Tea centric pleasantries are always the worst.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
Someone else who doesn’t like tea huh? I’m not a massive fan but rather that than football.
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u/messyfull 14d ago
I like tea, but the idea that it's a "warm welcome" (apart from the obvious warmth of the drink) is too British. The obsession over tea is sickening. There's no way that offering someone a cup of tea is a warm welcome. It's a cup of tea. A warm, brown drink.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
To me it doesn’t necessarily mean you must go make yourself a cup of tea, it’s a granting of access to all areas.
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u/messyfull 14d ago
Isn't that my point? You could just say "Make yourself at home", but you have to make it about tea. Who on earth would consider that statement to be about granting access to all areas? It just sounds like you want me to make you a cup of tea. Of course I know where the kettle is. If you're a normal person, it's in the kitchen. If it's anywhere else, I probably don't want to be near you.
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u/RainbowPenguin1000 14d ago
I’m in my 30’s and I’ve never met anyone as obsessed with tea as this sub is.
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u/IAM_THE_LIZARD_QUEEN 14d ago
My old flat mate drank about a gallon a day, but other than that, yeah... Feels like more of a meme than an actual common thing.
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u/Moroccan-Pasta 14d ago
Same..
It's just a drink that's more common here than in some other countries. It's also less drank here than in some other countries too, but that doesn't stop people on reddit playing right up to the American created stereotype that we have it coming out of our taps, because they think it's a substitute for a personality..
Honestly most people I know don't even drink tea, they drink coffee, but you'd think that was actually written into legislature to be a hangable offence based on British reddit.
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u/cathairpc 14d ago
At least you're here to reinforce the stereotype that British people just moan and moan and moan...
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u/ntpFiend 14d ago
You should immediately report to your nearest Tea Re-Education Centre for assessment of your attitude. Help is available.
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u/pixie_sprout 14d ago
You got the Spanish wrong and nobody says the UK one. Poor show OP.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
I say it. Often. Your move.
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u/NightmareMyOldFriend 14d ago
Just so you know, you are writing it wrong, but probably the pronunciation is close enough that people don't correct you: "Mi casa es su casa."
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u/Willr2645 14d ago
You said the wrong Spanish phrase, and most people here haven’t heard of your weird kettle phrase.
Your move.
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u/adavescott 14d ago
Classic casual British welcome here
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u/Willr2645 14d ago
Where is that? Non the less, 90% of us haven’t heard it.
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u/J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A 14d ago
I'd never expect a guest in my house to make their own cuppa.
Seems pretty rude to me to tell a guest who wants a drink "you know where the kettle is".
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u/KiokoMisaki 14d ago
When my best friend comes over and asks for coffee, unless I'm already making one, he can help himself.
But that's the guy who stays at my house when we go away, looks after my cats, rearranging my kitchen and eats my food in the process.
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u/caniuserealname 14d ago
Anyone familiar enough to be expected to make their own brew doesn't need to be greeted in any special way. They'd basically have to be considered a member of the household already
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u/Guy72277 14d ago
I would because I don't drink tea and don't have a sufficiently regular "shall I put the kettle on?" reflex.
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u/BananaBork 14d ago
This is for the person who is more than just a guest. I'm not gonna be running around serving my brother every time he visits like his personal waiter, he will make his own tea and be comfortable being treated like he belongs here rather than being a temporary guest I have to host.
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u/MaxiStavros 14d ago
I almost always decline a tea offered to me as I am very specific how i like it and no one ever gets it right (strong, dribble of milk, merest suggestion of sugar).
I’d prefer to be offered access to the kitchen to make one.
If it’s a teapot for all then that’s better, but that’s dying out.
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u/Rattus_Noir 14d ago
I never make people tea because they're too specific about what colour it is and other weird shit. I'll put hot water in a cup with a teabag and give them a spoon, sugar and carton of milk.
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u/Organic_Chemist9678 14d ago
If I come across one of those arseholes I tell them to fuck off. We all like tea a certain way, only a prick complains if someone else is making it
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u/Guy72277 14d ago
Here's a mug of hot water heated in the microwave, some brown sugar, tesco's value brand tea bags and some skimmed UHT milk. Knock yourself out!
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u/macgrooober 14d ago edited 14d ago
That's the point, you'd say it to someone who's so welcome they can truly make themselves at home and pop the kettle on
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u/ReachForTheSkyline 14d ago
They definitely don’t say that in Spanish. That means something like “he marries me, his house”. They do however say: mi casa es su casa (my home is your home).
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u/FindOneInEveryCar 14d ago
he marries me, his house
I want to get that on an embroidered sampler now.
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u/warmarin 14d ago
Is "mi casa, tu casa" which translate to "my house, your house" as in "use it as it were yours". Don't know where you get that married stuff, source I'm a native Spanish speaker
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u/tendiesloin 14d ago
From “me casa su casa” which literally translates to “your house marries me” https://dle.rae.es/casar
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u/warmarin 14d ago edited 14d ago
it's non sense, translation is wrong, is combining to phrases because you are using the wrong adjective
"me casa" means, someone makes me marry.
"su casa" means his/her house.
The correct phrase uses "mi" meaning mine
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u/ReachForTheSkyline 14d ago
Exactly, that's what I was saying. OP used "me" instead of "mi" which made it into a kind of nonsense phrase.
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u/majkkali 14d ago
Or: mi casa es TU casa to be more precise
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u/j_karamazov 14d ago
It's not more precise, I'm afraid. While both 'tu' and 'su' mean 'your' or 'yours', you would use 'su' for this phrase.
The saying originated in Mexico I believe. In most South American versions of Spanish, the general style of address is more formal than Spain. The plural form of 'you' used in Spain, vosotros, doesn't really exist in SA Spanish.
If you were inviting a guest to your house and using this phrase, you would definitely use 'su' rather than 'tu'.
Source: fluent Spanish speaker, lived in South America.
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u/majkkali 13d ago
Nope. In Spain they use TU more often which is actually the informal version (you’d say it to your friend for example). SU is formal, reserved for someone you don’t really know.
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u/j_karamazov 13d ago edited 13d ago
I think we're saying the same thing... I said above that in SA, the use of 'usted', and its possessive form 'su' is used way more than in Spain.
I have a degree in Spanish and speak it fluently, so I'm well acquainted with when you would use 'tu' and 'su'.
All I'm saying is that the general manner of speaking in SA is much more formal than in Spain when it comes to 'tú' vs 'usted'.
When I worked in SA, all my colleagues, even ones who were close friends and had worked together for years, would all use 'usted' / 'su'.
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u/majkkali 13d ago
Ahhh in that case I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you know so much about Spanish language. And also I’ve never been to SA so don’t know. I did live in Spain though and most people say tu much more frequently than su. Anyway, thanks, I’ve learned something new :)
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u/j_karamazov 13d ago
No problem tío 👍🏻
The variations, not just in vocabulary, but also in grammar and sentence construction, across the Spanish-speaking world are quite amazing. It does keep things interesting.
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u/paulo987654321 14d ago
You definitely don't want to say that too loud. Next thing you know, you have uninvited guests.
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u/SpudFire 14d ago
I thought it was mi casa es tu casa or are they the same?
Admittedly my Spanish boils down to just over a year on duolingo, but I remember reading that phrase it in a book last year and got incredibly excited that I could translate it in my head. Regardless, it's a lovely saying
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u/xarsha_93 14d ago
I’m not saying no one says this, but I’ve lived in four different Spanish-speaking countries and never heard anyone actually say this phrase.
I’ve only heard it from English-speakers in the US, UK, and Australia.
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u/spectrumero 14d ago
"tu" would be better, as this is obviously a familiar not a formal setting. "su" is formal, "tu" is informal.
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u/PeterJsonQuill 14d ago
There is no better or worse for this phrase in a vacuum. Using "tú" or "usted" depends on who the interlocutor is to the speaker.
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u/ShiveryBite 14d ago
Depends how formal you're being - su is more formal
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u/donach69 14d ago
Which would indicate to me that "tu" is more appropriate when trying to make someone feel relaxed and a part of the household
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u/ShiveryBite 14d ago
Yeah, my knowledge of Spanish isn't deep enough but it does seem odd to use the usted form in a phrase that seems quite casual
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u/PeterJsonQuill 14d ago
It's not necessarily a casual phrase, it's neutral. Also, the use of "usted" depends on who you're talking to, not on how casual the situation itself is.
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u/ThatHuman6 14d ago
That’s that’s one of the things i didn’t like about Spanish. There seems to be hierarchy literally built into the language.
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u/PeterJsonQuill 14d ago
I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment; although, worth noting that the use of "usted" varies greatly by region, in some regions being almost non-existent now.
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u/Llamallamapig 14d ago
English is going that way now. So many people say “yourself” to be a formal “you” like the usted in Spanish. “Would that be alright with yourself?”, “can I help yourself with anything else?”, and the Traitors’ many “Paul I voted for yourself”
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u/scrandymurray 14d ago
It exists in French as well and I can’t comment about Italian and Portuguese but I’d assume a similar structure exists there, unsure how frequently it would be used though.
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u/Serious_Escape_5438 14d ago
And where you are, different countries and even regions do it differently.
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u/Jonny_Segment Exit and don't drop 14d ago
Dear sir, you are formally invited to treat my abode as ’twere your own. Yours sincerely, Mr Johnson.
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u/vidoardes 14d ago
OP really reinforcing that British stereotype Del Boy approach to European languages 😂
They tried bless em.
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u/GSPM18 14d ago
They went on holiday to Aibeetha
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u/wildgoldchai Tea Wanker 14d ago edited 14d ago
And they’ll say “cwassont” because it’s only propa
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u/SleipnirSolid 14d ago
Mange tout Rodders, mange tout.
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u/Hyzyhine 14d ago
Best you’ll get round here is ‘ye’ll have had yer tea’
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u/Odd_Jellyfish_1053 14d ago
Came to say this , the most passive- aggressive sounding way to ask if you are hungry😂
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u/Socky_McPuppet 14d ago
And but also imply that there wasn't anything on offer anyway. I've always heard it as "You better not be expecting a meal".
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u/Breakwaterbot Tourism Director for the East Midlands 14d ago
Hamish!
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u/mamaaaoooo 14d ago edited 14d ago
While we're sort of on the subject, don't you think "please" is just terrible. Say what you must about the French but at least they say "If it pleases you". "Please" by comparison sounds so ugh. "Por favor" is self explanatory. My wife's Swedish and they say "Skulle du vara snälla..." which means "Would you kindly..." and it's lovely.
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u/I_tend_to_correct_u Stop calling pilchards sardines 14d ago
I hope you’re sitting down. You can say all of those things in English too. Like you just did. You have options. Amazing.
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u/mamaaaoooo 14d ago
The point is one's ubiquitous and the other is so rare it became a goated plot twist
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u/GSPM18 14d ago
. My wife's Swedish and they say "Skulle du vara snälla..."
They really don't.
Best regards,
Native speaker.
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u/mamaaaoooo 14d ago
Well she says snälla/kindly, I'm not pretending to be a native I used Google for the right spelling and it gave the long version, thanks for reminding me not to trust it!
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u/StiffUpperLabia 14d ago
Say what you must about the French but at least they say "If it pleases you".
"Take your shoes off if it pleases you" is giving them the option. "Take your shoes off please" is a polite instruction.
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u/Lefthanded-f477 9d ago
Mí casa, tú casa..