Profound Epiphany & Etiquette Revolution

[essentialsaltes]

When one holds a door open for someone, one might well say, "After you." Yet this makes little sense, since it is being addressed to 'you'. What one really wants to say is, "Before me."

Please update your system files.

Comments

::iznt a huge jenius::

[marlo.livejournal.com]

What? Isn't that the same thing?

You're basically saying:
[I'll go] after you
or
[you go] before me

Re: ::iznt a huge jenius::

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

[You are] right.
But it's far more natural to eliminate [you] than [I] in English. Every imperative command is like that, "[you] go to the store", "[you] go before me". It's not such a stretch to "[you go] before me". But it seems bizarre (apart from the fact that it is idiomatic) to lop off "I'll go". You can't just say, "To the store."

It also seems strange that the message A wants communicate to B is "you (B) should go first", but it is done by referring to what A is going to do afterwards.