EH?!!?

[Ivytheterrible1]

AIBU to hate this as a response to anything?

My lodger just now.

Him-''You won't want anything from the supermarket will you?'
Me 'Yes, could you get me a bag of salad please?'
Him 'EH!?!?'

For a start, I can't think why he didn't understand what I meant. I manager to ascertain that my 'please' had confused him, he thought I said ' A bag of salad cream' because that would totally make more sense .

Also, in general, is 'EH' not really **ing annoying?!

Yes that could be taken as rude! However when it's just me, DH and DS at home I'm guilty of the odd "huh?" if I'm in the middle of something and didn't hear - but generally I try to stick to "sorry what did you say/what was that?"

In Liverpool it's 'Wha?' Didn't matter what my question was, my ex would always reply in the same way

My neighbour says “eh?” To me all the time. She claims she’s deaf but does nothing about it. I don’t know if it’s my accent that confuses her, but she says it to everyone quite often. It got to the point that I refused to repeat myself and I just carry on talking, or saying the same same sentence in a different way

My partner also says “sorry”? Often to me, but that’s because he’s super human and double multitasks, so I forgive him but he still gets the treatment from me

@takealettermsjones

Where I am, it's very (very) casual local speak for "please repeat that, I couldn't hear you" but can also be used to mean "what do you think about that?" (as in, "shall we go to the park, eh?")

It doesn't bother me, but I don't use it!

Same.

North East and Eh is used a lot, I'd use it if I thought someone was asking for a bag of salad cream too.

The few saying it's a closed question and rude, I know loads of people who'd ask a question like that too, My Mam will say things like "you'll have already eaten have you?" Or "you'll not want a sandwich?" And she's not being rude, it's cos she's making something for herself and not wanting to look rude by not offering but knows I've probably already eaten so says it anyway. Or when my husband is having a few beers and I go to make a coffee, Ill say something like "you won't want a cuppa will you?" I don't know why I do it, I guess it's just cos that's what most people around me do. Depending on who I'm talking to I sometimes try to hide my accent or how I talk because I have been told I sound common and thick. I'll accept the common label but I'm not thick.

It's like every now and then when a thread is started about "what" a lot of people think it's rude too and you'll have loads of people saying of course it's not, "what" can sound rude sometimes, just like "eh" can. It's the context and how it's said.

@Plump82

Is he Irish or Scottish. My wee granny used to always say, you'll have had your tea then? Even though 9/10 we hadn't had our tea.

Ha ha yes that used to drive my non-Scottish mum mad about her Scottish MIL.

(And it’s definitely NOT meant to be the same question as ‘have you had your tea?’!)

Haha I use ‘eh’ a lot (perhaps a northern thing?) and in that instance I would say it’s a shock response to something unusual like someone wanting a bag of salad cream

I hate those kind of questions which obviously invite the answer "No". I used to get them a lot when I was a child/teenager. I realise now that "You don't want to go to that party, do you?" meant exactly the same as "I don't want you to go to that party". I've often wondered what sort of response I would have got if I'd said "Actually, yes, I do want to go". Probably something along the lines of "Don't be cheeky" (which was often employed to end an argument that the adult was on the point of losing).

@ProfessionalWeirdo. My DH does this to me quite often. It drives me mad. He'll either say "you don't want to do X do you?' when what he means is he doesn't want to do it but wants to fob the decision off on me. Or conversely he'll ask " would you like to go down to the pub and watch the match?' (As If!) when what he actually means is that's what he would like to do but he wants it to seem like he is doing me a favour. I call him out on it every time but the habit persists

The worst one of these was about 20 years ago. A milestone birthday, wedding anniversary and Christmas had gone by with no presents because he had been made redundant and money was tight. We had agreed that if he got a new job by a certain date I could have a certain significant item of jewellery to celebrate all three occasions. In the event he swiftly got a new job on much better money so we had a lot of his redundancy left on top of our savings and the item was well within our budget.

I researched the item and narrowed it down to one of three similar things from a local shop. I took cash out of the bank every day for a few days so he could pay cash and so have greater negotiating power. We arranged a baby sitter for our DS and went into town. We stood outside the jewellers and I gave him the envelope of cash and showed him the three items for him to choose from. After all that effort, research , discussion and waiting he still had the cheek to say "You don't really want it do you Confused? '.

Pardon is a more old fashioned and formal way to ask someone to repeat themselves. Times have moved on and 'eh' is not considered rude by most people. It's just an alternative way to say pardon. Odd how some people think it's bad mannered in my opinion. But then I think it's more bad mannered to try and impose 1950s manners on others and judge them if they don't comply.

Sounds like Alan Cumming (Sebastian) from The High Life.

Pardon is a more old fashioned and formal way to ask someone to repeat themselves.

“Pardon” is bad manners, “what” is correct.

Given the information that OP is going away for a few days tomorrow (today now I guess) the phrasing of the original question seems entirely reasonable and not at all rude to me. He made a wrong assumption sure, but gave her the opportunity to ask if she did want something.

‘Eh?’ as a response wouldn’t worry me at all. It’s just as good as ‘What?’ and better than ‘Pardon?’ and I certainly wouldn’t expect a response of ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that’ in most everyday conversation.