To have told SIL "no...NOT Pardon!"?

[MrsMushroom]

We're abroad with DHs family.

DD aged 4 didn't hear something SIL said.....DD said "What?" and SIL said "WHAT? WHAT??? I think you mean PARDON don't you?"

I HAD to say..."No...in England "what" is fine. Or If you prefer..."sorry, I didn't catch that."

Was I rude? I just don't want DD saying "Pardon" or even worse "P'don"

Oh and Merry Christmas everyone!

cardi, I think that 'say again' comes from the military. So I'd be careful about expressing that stabby feeling if I were you, just in case the person saying it has access to serious weaponry...

This is fab! Is saying Father Christmas or Santa Claus part of all this shenanigans too?

Oooh good question stillstarving. I think Santa Claus is common and have just told dh so. It's Father Christmas. Or St Nicholas.

Good good

We don't say Santa

We're not Yanks

Good God

Not Good good

It seems very tiring!! What about a bath? Do you run one or draw it or is that just ridiculous? Actually if any of you say you draw it I won't believe you anyway.

We've done the Santa/father Christmas before. Scottish and Northern Irish people say Santa. Father Christmas sounds unbearably posh to us.

I run one

So despite saying "what" I must be vair common :)

I don't run a bath, or draw one.

What are the servants for?

Again, all these tedious domestic details. One employs trusted others to draw baths, curtains and, discreetly some following mornings, their own conclusions...

"Pardon", or "Excuse me?" Is what we say around here.

Stillstarving I think about 80% of the posters are being tongue in cheek when they post phrases like "the lower orders",

Yes, I think so too. At least I hope so.......

Sofa and couch are NOT interchangeable, you common, uneducated oiks.

A couch has only one arm.

Source: an episode of My Hero, where Thermoman's wife tells him that if he doesn't stop being such a know-it-all, he'll be sleeping on the couch. To which he replies "It isn't a couch, it's a sofa. If it were a couch, it would only have one arm".

Anyway, carry on.

Bound to have been done countless times, but "Nanny", "Nanna" and worst of all "Nan" for "Granny" give me the creeps. "Pardon?" said Nan on the couch in the lounge - eugh!

We say DM is "Grandma", MIL is "Granny". I don't really like "Granny" but it's what she prefers

"Nanny" is a female goat to me

Yes, Catgirl, Grandma is fine too.

I think "What?" is extremely rude. I've also never heard that "Pardon" is anything other than polite.

Well you have now, Shakey. Actually it is not so much that it is rude, but the use of it will allow others to make all sorts of class-based assumptions about you.

It's a problem,isn't it? Sorting out the people who are saying "what" who are actually being rude because of tone,or because they were taught "pardon" was polite and aren't using it deliberately,from the people who think it's correct usage,and polite.
I wouldn't hear "pardon" as rude - I just don't like it,and don't think it's the word to use!
Maybe all the pardon-ers could switch to "I beg your pardon",which is fine by me and nicely parallels the "I'm sorry,what did you say" which what-ers could use?

It would involve more word usage of course - would MNetters be bothered by that ??

"I beg your pardon" is very rude as it implies you literally cannot believe what the other person has just had the audacity to say to you.

Lol. Just asked my dh (excruciatingly posh, public school educated....) initially he rolled his eyes as can't believe I'm on MN (unforgivably common) but I managed to coax from him that IHO "what" is rude and preferred term is "I beg your pardon"
Fwiw re: sorry v pardon, if pardon is a request to be excused from such behaviour as a fart, then surely sorry is just as bad, sorry for what? What?
I say pardon (or eh?)