A few days ago
SunBunny

WATCH YOUR P’s AND Q’s !! What do the P and Q stand for ?

WATCH YOUR P’s AND Q’s !! What do the P and Q stand for ?

Top 9 Answers
A few days ago
Stacia T

Favorite Answer

There are a lot of theories about this one. Pints and quarts is one popular explanation. Here’s the one that makes the most sense to me.

Printing presses in the past used to require an assistant to place all of the little metal letters in a row to print each line of text. They looked like little typewriter keys. Because they needed to print the right direction on the paper, the actual letter on the metal key was backward. This makes a p look like a q and vice versa. So the saying, “Mind your p’s and q’s.” means to pay close attention not to mix up the letters.

There are a few more explanations at the website below.

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A few days ago
Anonymous
they dont stand for anything this is actually a term referring back to the times of printing presses when news paper and sign making etc all had be be arranged manually on a stamp to press on the paper. The letters would all be in mirror image making the p and q easy to confuse thus the phrase mind your p’s and q’s
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A few days ago
Mr. Keating
The phase comes from British bars. In order to keep order, they would say mind your Pints and Quarts or Mind your Ps and Qs.
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A few days ago
SterlingThorne
Pints and Quarts. It is old British barkeeping slang to mind how many pints and quarts of ale you have consumed while at a pub.
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A few days ago
norb922
the phrase is actually MIND YOUR P’S AND Q’S

which stands for pints and quarts. in old england pub owners would yell this when patrons were getting rowdy.

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A few days ago
John G
Pints and Quarts..
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A few days ago
Anonymous
Pints and quarts.

Here is a site that explains it.

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A few days ago
Anonymous
when you have a cold/flew it is very difficult to correctly pronounce p’s and q’s, also when you’re drunk

hence the saying.

It means dont get sick and dont drink too much

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A few days ago
Peter A
I think it is “Phrases and Quotes”
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