Excuse Me
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 11:55 AM | Filed under grammar/usage
I had fun ringing in the new year, and I'm sure that the 20 other people at the party did too. What I didn't enjoy, however, was the fact that it was hard to navigate through the house because of so many people standing in the way. I noticed that I was uttering, "Excuse me," several times throughout the night. I also noticed that in and of itself, "excuse me" isn't a perfectly polite thing to say.
"Excuse me" is an imperative sentence, so in saying it to people, you are commanding that they excuse you. It's equivalent to saying, "Get me a glass of water," without adding "please". The polite thing to say would be, "Please excuse me."
I don't think people are going to be mad at you if you just stick to "excuse me", though. Everyone knows that it's something to say when you're trying to be polite, and it's much better than pushing through wordlessly.
"Excuse me" is an imperative sentence, so in saying it to people, you are commanding that they excuse you. It's equivalent to saying, "Get me a glass of water," without adding "please". The polite thing to say would be, "Please excuse me."
I don't think people are going to be mad at you if you just stick to "excuse me", though. Everyone knows that it's something to say when you're trying to be polite, and it's much better than pushing through wordlessly.
It's implied that you mean please excuse me. Kind of the same as when you say "morning" to someone. They know you really mean "good morning" but it's too much effort to say both words.
That's on the same level as saying, "Water!" when you want someone to bring you a glass of water.