We've all had a frustrating experience while standing in line at the register of, say, a coffee shop. A clerk opens a second register several feet away, and someone who was behind you notices first and rushes over, to be served ahead of you. To avoid this, the clerk at the second register may call for the next person, and call similarly when he/she finishes with one customer and are ready for another.

Around here, the clerks' standard call is, "Can I help who's next?" Once you start to notice this consciously, you find that this ungrammatical phrasing is nearly universal here.

What phrase has caught on in your area?

Might I suggest that "Can I help who's next?" is not ungrammatical at all if the "who's" is a contraction for "who(m)ever is"?

My beef, albeit a tiny one, would be in the clerk's usage of "can" instead of "may." One would assume that, yes, of course, he or she can help you seeing as how it's a pretty sure bet that you're there to be served a cup of coffee, an action well within that person's job description.

On the other hand, if the coffee shop clerk says "Can I help you?" and I ask her to overhaul my transmission, well, then she was right to have used "can" in the first place. Don't supose that comes up all that often, however.

Can I assume you don't withhold a tip on the basis of poor grammar?

The phrase sometimes used in my area is for the young woman (I specifically do not use the term "lady" in this context) to approach the customer with a bored look on her face and to stop chewing her gum just long enough to say "Yeah?" Now that results in no tip!

You know, I've heard that too but until now it never occurred to me to take it as anything other than two perfectly grammatical sentences.

Can I help ? Who's next ?

Of course from now on I'm only ever going to hear it as a single ungrammatical one.

Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

Read all about my travels around the world here.

One of the standard questions sales clerks (whoops, sales "associates", as they are now called) ask is, "How may I help you?" I find this particularly annoying and presumptious, since it presupposes they are able to help, often incorrectly.

Tinman

I find the American use of "clerk" in this context interesting. Over here it describes someone whose main job has to do with writing things down. Dickens' Bob Cratchit was a clerk. Mr Pooter was a clerk. The word, of course, is related to cleric, because in the middle ages pretty well the only people who could write were ordained.

Someone who serves in a shop has little if any writing to do, and I suspect many would have great difficulty stringing a coherent sentence together if called upon to write it down.

In the UK a "sales clerk" would be a shop assistant or a salesperson.

[This message was edited by arnie on Sat Nov 23rd, 2002 at 2:25.]

And even in jobs where the service is essentially clerical in nature (such as a travel agency) the expression "clerk" is falling from favour and the term "consultant" is preferred.

Richard English

There is also a new term here in some of the more upscale department stores: The customer is now called the guest. When a sales associate (Good Grief!) recently referred to me as her guest at first I didn't know what she meant! Does she want me to come to dinner??? Remember, I am a literalist!

Does the british clerk rhyme with "mark, dark" or with "work, shirk"?

From poetry, I know it used to be pronounced in the former way, but is that still current?

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
When a sales associate (Good Grief!) recently referred to me as _her guest_ at first I didn't know what she meant! Does she want me to come to dinner??? Remember, I am a literalist!

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The term "guest" is correct in this context. When you showed up unexpectedly at the sales associate's home for dinner, it became apparent that you had guest her intentions incorrectly.

And regarding "How may I help you?", being in the sales force myself, when I say "How may I help you?", I'm sure that in some way I can. You're right, though. It's presumptuous otherwise.

And for that particularly unpleasant store customer, there's always the variation "I'd like to help you out. Which way did you come in?"

[This message was edited by C J Strolin on Wed Dec 4th, 2002 at 13:06.]

"Clerk" in UK English, rhymes with "park", not with "perk".

This is an eccentricity of pronunciation shared with "Derby" (pronounced "darby").

There are many eccentric pronunciations in both UK and US English, although I suspect that we have more, thanks in part to the French influence of of the 18th Century that most of the US happily avoided.

Richard English

Along with the correct term for folks receiving our services...

I work for an agency that serves Senior Citizens (do you British use that term?) meals in their homes. My employer wants them referred to as participants. This makes no sense to me, whatsoever! What do they participate in? It makes them sound like they are in a dance contest! I call them clients. What would you say?