WHAT?

[word]

Right. Showed sby a video of our hols. On it was a bit where my DS wanted to play the yes or no game - ie you are not allowed to answer any question with yes or no.

I was enjoying watching it until we got to the bit where DS said (on the video), "Mu-uuuum... ?" and as I knew he was trying to catch me out, instead of replying, "Yes, darling?" I said, "What, darling?".

At this point the people watching the video decided to pull me up on my English!

"It's not "what", it's "pardon"". Cue guffaws of laughter (they know I'm a pedant).

WTF?

Firstly, I WAS PLAYING A SODDING GAME, secondly, does anyone answer "Muuuuuum?" with pardon? Thirdly, isn't it rude for anyone (apart from your parents perhaps) to critisize you, as a grown adult, for saying anything?

Finally, haven't I heard that truly posh people think that pardon is rude anyway? Are there any of you "truly posh" people out there, who could enlighten me?!
TIA

Yes, that's what makes it funny, I think.

I don't have a problem with people saying 'pardon' if that's their thing. Would have a problem with people insisting ds says 'pardon' or telling him 'what' is rude.

What I've actually done is tell him some people say 'pardon' but some people think that's wrong and we say 'what?' or 'excuse me?' or 'sorry?' as seems appropriate to the situation.

With ds, I tend to say 'I can't HEAR a word you are saying, try coming into the same room instead of shouting at me from the upstairs'.