Reply to Nobody says 'excuse me' or 'pardon me' anymore

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Reply to "Nobody says 'excuse me' or 'pardon me' anymore"

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[quote=Anonymous]I have a different perspective on this, OP.  There are two ways to use "excuse me".  First is to ask for forgiveness if you have gotten someone's way, or made them wait.  For example, if someone needed a seat on public transit and they had to wait for you to get up.  Or, if someone needed to get to get by at the grocery store and they had to wait a second for you to get out of their way.  It's a way to repair after a small breakdown in societal norms for how people should move around and give each other space in public.

Second is to ask someone else to get out of your way.  It implies that they were oblivious, and were not getting up for you, or getting out of your way.  Or, that they couldn't wait their turn - you were piking out lettuce and they wanted you to move your cart, rather than wait 3 seconds for you to pick up the lettuce and move on.  It's a way to get what you want/need either because the other person didn't have manners, or because you are impatient.

Growing up in the DC area, you heard a lot of the first.  These days, I hear a lot of the second.  [/quote]

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