"Can I get"

[Facilitatingdarkness]

What's wrong with "Can I have"?

It doesn't even make grammatical sense! I've noticed it more and more when people are ordering coffee, to the point that more people say it than not.

Makes me irrationally angry. Just me?

ZOMBIE THREAD

Can I get an eye roll?

Especially when people bring back zombie threads.

I'm sure there was a new thread about the same thing last night as well

How much time do you spend listening to people order coffee?

And the night before and the night before that probably. Can i get a break from the 'can I get threads'?

I f you feel you need to sound like a half-wit, by all means say 'can I get'. Generations of young people corrupted by that awful American show Friends

So most Scottish are half wits?

”can I get” was common/normal in Scotland over 30 years ago when I lived there.

Imagine resurrecting a three and a half year old thread just to make yourself look like a complete idiot.

So many saddos, how could I possibly know this was a thread over 3 years ago? Get a life for god's sake

It still is!

The... Date?

The date is on the OP (that’s the original post)

I totally agree! I feel like saying “Don’t you know that this is a coffee shop and that he’s a barista? NO! He will get it for you “

Did you get anything nice for Christmas?

How did you end up on this thread, as a matter of interest? I understand people reawakening old threads when they're searching for information on how to bake a decent scone or what cures haemorrhoids or something. But this is a bit random. Did you do a search for 'can I get?'

I haven't read my old comment from three years ago, but was undoubtedly defending the use of 'can I get' as we say it all the time in NI, even though we are continually told how WRONG we are on here.

😆just the same as someone who resurrects a two year old post perchance?

Oops! @MathsyUsernameGoesHere already observed very many, many hours previously

@ThisLoudBlueZebra · Today 21:53

So many saddos, how could I possibly know this was a thread over 3 years ago? Get a life for god's sake.

Sure thing, aye we could LoudBlue 😘

Really?

If you hear someone say 'can I get a cappuccino please?' you think it's genuinely possible they intend to hop over the counter and start making it themselves? Really?

I find that extraordinary.

ETA I'm so glad someone resurrected this, what an eye-opener into the deliberately obtuse!

Please may I have a ....

Some people just aren't very good with language I guess. 🤔

Language evolves and either are fine to say and perfectly understandable.
To me " May I have" sounds a little like you are a child asking a parents permission for a treat. I probably would have said it in the past but would use "Can I get" nowadays.
For me the most important part of either sentence is the "Please".

Just to be helpful, I'll re-post my comment from 2021:

There is nothing wrong with "can I get" unless you want to quibble with the can/may distinction, which will probably be gone in a few years anyway. The dictionary definition of "get" is "come to have or hold (something); receive." It does not have some sort of built in reflexive. To ask someone "can I get" can mean "can I receive".

It grates on me but as long as people say please.
I am upset with how little people say please and thank you these days. I was in Boots at the till and the lady said I was the first person to say please and thank you to her all day. Costs nothing

I must admit I'm not overly concerned about please, because it can be inferred by a polite/pleasant tone or a smile, but I feel very strongly about thank you.

It's a shame that 'can I get' grates on you when it is perfectly acceptable in parts of the UK (Scotland and NI) and in Ireland. In fact if you used 'may I have' in NI you'd likely get a look suggesting 'oooh, la de da'😆 My MIL very annoyingly corrected both my children on this - telling them to say 'may I', yet she never ever uses the expression herself.