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A friend, playing an american, used the subject line.. It is a very american thing to do, but many of us hate it.. since my job is IT support, i get a lot of variations of the line-- and i have a number of different responses.. (unfortunately, none of them is entirely effective... but it keeps me from going crazy!)
how do you respond to Can i ask you a question?
Just one? We offer discounts on three or more.
I have a question....
Ans: and i have answers! shall we see if any of my answers match your question?
Can i ask you...
Anything! but remember i don't kiss and tell!
Do you mind if i ask?
If i said yes, would it stop you?
i don't use any of the answers snidely, but all rather lightheartedly.. and one or two people have actually changed! and get right to the question!
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Carpal Tunnel
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of Troy:
I like a lot these ironic responses. Please don't ask me to define irony. I just know they are in someone's mind out there who sees irony as I do.
Thanks for this!
DubDub
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Putting aside considerations of Can I/May I, I think possible translations of the phrase are "Can you spend some [significant] time with my concern?" or "Are you free right now?", or even more simply, "Knock, knock." It's not really a guestion, more a ritualized greeting/introduction like "Hi, how are you?" Responses addressing only the words are all going to be awkward in one way or another, as (being off the subject) they should.
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Sometimes, my dear helen, you just have to realize that people are going to open this way, understand what they mean even if the way they say it doesn't match what you feel should be the "proper" way and say something really witty, like, "Go ahead, that's what I'm here for." For a follow up lesson, listen to yourself and see if you say things that may be similarly creatively misinterpreted by the pedantic nitpicker (not that *I would know what *that would be) and follow the Golden Rule, doing unto others etc.
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Carpal Tunnel
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May I ask you a question? For, surely, you can if the bloody cat ain't got your tongue over there among the mideastern king's cats!!!
I am really, really cranky today. I apologize in advance for all I write today.
Beastly regards,
WildeWind
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In my callow youth I took careful notice (philologist even then) of the use of can vs may in this context. Except for the times our elders were excoriating us for the "misuse" of can for may the only time I heard may used "properly", whether by us children or by the excoriant elders, was in the children's game Mother May I?. We learned to use can from those very elders who upbraided us for that usage.
Post Edit: I haven't the foggiest idea why the font decided to change in midstream.
Post-post Edit D'oh. I had [/i] in front of that may where the font changed. Live and learn.
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(Apology in advance for being chatty...but)
Dear Faldage,
You wrote:
We learned to use can from those very elders who upbraided us for that usage.
Well, you're obviously not from the South. At least not from the Old Dominion. We still wrangle that rope over may and can--mayhem and canhem still iz taught here.
This has not been a good day.
Without a sense of humor (or humour, as if I give a dang),
DubDub
It's gotta have to do with the Moon!
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mayhem and canhem still iz taught here.
So wherefrom did y'all learn the "misuse" of can that it is there to be hemmed about?
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Carpal Tunnel
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And, Faldage, here you are so Bold:
So wherefrom did y'all learn the "misuse" of can that it is there to be hemmed about?
Here in Vir-gin-eye-aye, we're too close to the Mason-Dixon to drop into "y'alls"--except in the mountains, but them there varmints are altogether different from the bloody FFV's!
You gotta git into the 'Carolinas before you hear the dadburned "y'alls."
And what are your references, F? Yeah, yeah, I know we've got an abundance of "You alls," but we don't speak "y'alls," and DeWitt is pretty darned close to the North Carolina line.
We still do teach the difference between can and may. Hey, it may fall on deaf ears, but we teach the dadburded distinction. (And there's the students thinking, "Can you do it, can you do it!" while we write egregiously frustrated on our black and white--read: high tech--boards.)
I've gotta go offline. Today is still not a good day.
Best regards in the spirit of tolerance,
come may as you will,
Poor, poor DubDub
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