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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Pardon?

520 replies

MothersGrim · 31/08/2016 19:04

AIBU to not bother with the word "Pardon" for my young children? It seems like a generational thing to me but my parents and in laws correct my young children when they ask "What?"

I was just curious what the expectation is nowadays, should I be teaching them 'pardon'? Is it bad manners not to Confused

OP posts:
JuneBalloon · 02/09/2016 18:19

I'm confused.... Is saying 'toilet' bad or good????

Goodness only knows how many people I've been offending with my very sincere 'pardon?' for the last 40 odd years. But 'What?' Was considered 'clip round the ear' worthy in our house. Though my preferred phrase of choice is "sorry, what was that?"

BertrandRussell · 02/09/2016 18:33

Neithe good nor bad. It's just a class indicator.

phoenix1973 · 02/09/2016 18:37

U wot?😅

ffon · 02/09/2016 18:37

We say
I'm awfully sorry, I didn't quite catch what you said. Would you mind terribly if I asked you to repeat it?
Seems to work.

missyB1 · 02/09/2016 18:37

"What" is considered bad manners in our house, it's "sorry?" Or "pardon". And as for "huh" or any other type of grunt, that is totally unacceptable.

MercedesD · 02/09/2016 18:49

Oh the "say ta" annoys the hell out of me

Nanny0gg · 02/09/2016 18:50

Oh the "say ta" annoys the hell out of me

Why?

midsomermurderess · 02/09/2016 18:51

Where I went to school saying 'pardon' or 'sorry' was regarded as a bit 'déclassé', a bit Morningside' posh (I am from Edinburgh, the former home of strangulated, elocution lesson speech al la Miss Jean Brodie). We were encouraged to say 'what'?, which you can do with out sounding ridiculously rude or peremptory. But I suppose it could be seen as a bit 'lavatory' instead of loo and I don't do that. I do generally just still say 'what' though, I guess it has become ingrained.

riceuten · 02/09/2016 18:56

Depends how it is said, but "WHAT?" in an exasperated voice is unreasonable.

Marylou2 · 02/09/2016 18:56

It's what not pardon. Drummed into me at home and school. I don't mind sorry at all as I spent plenty of time in the US but pardon is just ghastly.

gaylemcfedries · 02/09/2016 19:01

Recently I discovered boy @age10 has never apologised for anything in his life I admit I just scuffed over the fact now its honestly a struggle

neveradullmoment99 · 02/09/2016 19:02

Teacher here. Hate when children answer with what. It bugs me. It just seems rude.

Kenduskeag · 02/09/2016 19:03

I don't say 'pardon' as it was never really part of our vocab growing up, despite attempts from parents and teachers to instill it.

The list on the Wiki list surprises me. I knew that 'pardon, serviette, settee' were low-class, but we're not supposed to say 'mirror, mantelpiece, ice cream, radio or teacher'?

Pretty sure a lot of that's died out by now.

GarlicMist · 02/09/2016 19:11

I was taught to say 'pardon' - 'what?' was considered smack-worthy - but also had posh relatives who tried the difficult feat of telling us our parents were wrong but we should do as they said anyway Grin

These days I tend to say 'eh?' - or 'sorry, what?' if trying to be polite.

I only call the loo/bog/toilet the lavatory if I'm in upper-crust circles. In my defence, I never call it a powder room or little girls' room!

midsomermurderess · 02/09/2016 19:12

There used to be lots of linguistic traps for the unwary to fall into that indicated their social class. Does anyone nowadays really stress about whether to say 'sofa' instead of 'setee' or 'what' instead of 'pardon'? It is now very rare to hear that 'Morningside' speech in Edinburgh that I mentioned, except among people in their 60s and older. It has been a joke for so very long and we have generally loosened up over the years and definitely for the better.

LauraMipsum · 02/09/2016 19:17

"Pardon" was one of the terms mocked by Betjeman in "How to get on in society" - the joke is that the narrator thinks she's being terribly posh but keeps using non-U words that give her away:

Phone for the fish knives, Norman
As cook is a little unnerved;
You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
And I must have things daintily served.

Are the requisites all in the toilet?
The frills round the cutlets can wait
Till the girl has replenished the cruets
And switched on the logs in the grate.

It’s ever so close in the lounge dear,
But the vestibule’s comfy for tea
And Howard is riding on horseback
So do come and take some with me.

Now here is a fork for your pastries
And do use the couch for your feet;
I know that I wanted to ask you –
Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

Milk and then just as it comes dear?
I’m afraid the preserve’s full of stones;
Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doilies
With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

Minesadoublethanks · 02/09/2016 19:18

I hate using pardon in the context of not having heard something. "Pardon me" is acceptable if one burps however! I teach my children to say 'What did you say? or 'I didn't hear what you said' although schools really push the 'pardon? ' I hate hate hate it!

LauraMipsum · 02/09/2016 19:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LauraMipsum · 02/09/2016 19:19

Duplicate post, I don't think anyone needs that twice! Will report.

Chickoletta · 02/09/2016 19:22

'What?' is incredibly rude! As a teacher I would be very cross if a pupil said it to me. Abrupt and aggressive.

Dogcatred · 02/09/2016 19:30

What is fine. I pay school fees to ensure my children's teachers are posh enough!

Here is more of the mocking of pardon by the way....

Middlesex

Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train,
With a thousand Tas and Pardons
Daintily alights Elaine;
Hurries down the concrete station
With a frown of concentration,
Out into the outskirt’s edges
Where a few surviving hedges
Keep alive our lost Elysium – rural Middlesex again.

Well cut Windsmoor flapping lightly,
Jacqmar scarf of mauve and green
Hiding hair which, Friday nightly,
Delicately drowns in Drene;
Fair Elaine the bobby-soxer,
Fresh-complexioned with Innoxa,
Gains the garden – father’s hobby –
Hangs her Windsmoor in the lobby,
Settles down to sandwich supper and the television screen.

Gentle Brent, I used to know you
Wandering Wembley-wards at will,
Now what change your waters show you
In the meadowlands you fill!
Recollect the elm-trees misty
And the footpaths climbing twisty
Under cedar-shaded palings,
Low laburnum-leaned-on railings
Out of Northolt on and upward to the heights of Harrow hill.

Parish of enormous hayfields
Perivale stood all alone,
And from Greenford scent of mayfields
Most enticingly was blown
Over market gardens tidy,
Taverns for the bona fide,
Cockney singers, cockney shooters,
Murray Poshes, Lupin Pooters,
Long in Kensal Green and Highgate silent under soot and stone."

I don't know people who say "pardon me" if they burp. I thought the polite thing to do was pretend it never happened.

clam · 02/09/2016 19:37

Chickoletta, you can be as offended and outraged as you like, but as a parent, I should jolly well hope you never suggest to my child that they should say, "Pardon."

iamapixiebutnotaniceone · 02/09/2016 19:38

So it's common to have manners? I think 'what?' is rude. Suppose the less common you are the more rude you can get away with being.

Myredrose · 02/09/2016 19:38

Me too clam, it used to really annoy me when my DC were told off for this.

midsomermurderess · 02/09/2016 19:42

what do the refined say for 'ice cream'? What would Jacob Rees-Mogg suggest? Is he actually that 'etiquette' expert that the Daily Mail runs out?