Can I get?

I'm actually quite pedantic myself where meaning is concerned.

I've been told off for that a few times on GN too. Not by present company, I hasten to add.

I'll bugger off for the time being and leave yous (sic) in peace though.

If I were to be serving someone who said 'I wanna get a coffee' I would be tempted to reply 'I wanna get off home but I have to serve you before I can do that' [sigh]

You dunna have to do that duck

I loathe 'Can I get..?"

If I were serving I'd want to say, with emphasis, "Can I get YOU something, unless of course you want to go and get it yourself?"

We were sitting down to lunch with friends a while ago. Their lad, recently returned from University looked up the table and said "Can I get the salt and pepper?" His mother replied, "Well thanks for trying to be helpful love, but it's already on the table." His father also told him to ask for things properly, unless he really did have an urge to come and collect the salt and pepper from the far end of the table. It was all good natured and he laughed and the other young people chimed in too.

The world needs pedants!

As a child I very often heard "Can I get....?"
Mum discouraged its use but outside the family it was frequently used, so not a recent thing and not an americanism.
I see it as a regional variation and unless it's reasonable to complain about all local expressions I don't see it as a problem.

Nothing personal Baggs. I dislike people correcting regional varations and idiom. I think there's a difference between that and incorrect grammar but it's a fine line!

How do you feel about "What did you get for your birthday?"
Very common in the playground and not worth fussing about when far more serious expressions should be picked up.
BTW I hate 'yous' !

The thing that drives me absolutely potty is using 'like' instead of 'as if' - but it is almost ubiquitous now. For example I would say That animal looks like a cat (ie a noun' ) but he looks as if it's going to rain (verb). People now say 'It looks like it's going to rain.' NOO!!!

I dont see anything wrong with that mcem!!

I remember seeing Ann Widdicombe on Grumpy old women talking about using a computer. It would flash up on the screen 'It looks like you are trying to write a letter. Can I help?' She aid 'Not if that's your idea of good grammar!'

Talking of 'get' (used in a different way) can anything beat the true dreadfulness of a mother yelling "Get here, Wayne!" at her runaway offspring?!!

Well, better than Wayne running out into the traffic!

Get ere, nayah!

As a child I very often heard "Can I get....?"

Yes, "Can I get you anything?" was heard as a child, and that sort of usage is fine. The person asking the question is prepared to go and get the item.

If you request something of someone you don't suggest you'll get it yourself, as in, "Can I get a coffee?" I always imagine the would-be coffee drinker leaping over the counter to the coffee machine.

BTW I hate 'yous' !

You'd hate it in my part of Scotland then, mcem. It's used a lot in the west.

I'm not Scottish, except by naturalisation, but I'd think it rude to object to the way local people talk, even if I only objected inside my own head.

DD2 drives me mad when she says "Can I get" in Costa or Nero. Interestingly, both her children say "Please may I have?"

The (now dead) landlord of our local pub, if asked "can I get" would always reply, "no you can't, that's my job".

Perhaps it wasn't clear day6 but it was very much by way of a request "Can I get an ice cream/ mars bar/ drink?" and not a synonym for fetch.
You're right baggs that it's more of a West Coast thing. Also N. Ireland.
I'm afraid it did grate when a student from
Belfast addressed my class by saying "Are yous gonna hand in your homework now?"

Best response, phoenix! Taking it in his stride ?

Perhaps I've been exposed to more speaking variations than people on whom some things grate. My interest is piqued when I hear a new way of saying something. It's all part of life's rich wotsit.

Perhaps I've been exposed to more speaking variations than people on whom some things grate.
Nah!
I've spent some considerable time in Australia and they speak a different lingo there? It's a purer form of English?

Sorry if it offends but I wasn't prepared to adapt my speech patterns (and those of my pupils) simply to show how willing I was to adopt what was a rather alien and idiosyncratic term!
Local dialect words and expressions are quite different! That would be the Doric for us but not necessarily Ulster and West coast.

Not offended by what you say, mcem, any more than I'm grated by how other people say things.

BTW, autocorrect wants you to be McEnroe!