What Does Mind Your P S And Q S Mean

Attempts at explaining the origin of the phrase go back to the mid 19th century.

If you mind your p s and q s or watch your p s and q s you try to speak and behave politely. Be on your best behaviour. For example a mother might mention that aunt gertrude is a stickler for manners and the children had better mind their ps and qs when she visits. The mother reminded her young children to mind their p s and q s when they went over to their friends houses for play dates.

Much more likely is that p and q stands for pints and quarts in which case the phrase might originally have referred to a landlord totting up a customer s tab or to a drinker being told to mind. You may see the phrase as mind your p s and q s or mind your ps and qs or mind your p s and q s or less often as mind your ps and qs. Mind your ps and qs can mean to be careful vigilant or more often polite. This expression may originally have been a warning to children not to confuse p s and q s when learning the alphabet.

To mind one s manners. There are several suggested origins for the phrase which often differ from the way it is now used. She always minded her p s and q s in front of the queen but their relationship wasn t that close. There is some disagreement amongst grammarians about how to spell ps and qs either upper case or lower case and either with or without an apostrophe.

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To be polite and well behaved. Mind your ps and qs is an english language expression meaning mind your manners mind your language be on your best behaviour watch what you re doing. Ps and qs are just the plurals of the letters p and q. Be sure to mind your p s and q s when you visit your aunt this weekend.