12/21/2023 0 Comments Your cue or queue![]() Cue and Queue as verbsīoth cue and queue function as verbs, with meanings that relate to the ones they have as nouns: cue can mean “to give a prompt to,” and queue can mean “to arrange or form in a line (or a queue).” The printer is once again broken, and keeps switching up the items in the queue. It was cold and rainy, but the show was so popular that no one seemed upset to spend two hours in the queue outside the theater. The most common uses of queue as a noun are “a waiting line especially of persons or vehicles” and “a sequence of messages or jobs held in temporary storage awaiting transmission or processing.” The first of these is mainly used in British English, and the second one is mainly found in reference to computers. ![]() Many poker players focus on the subtle visual cues they get from their opponents before making bets. The famous actor was well-known for fumbling his lines, and often had to rely on cues to help him remember them. When yet another guest threw a glass of wine in my face I took this as a cue to depart. The most common meanings of cue, used as a noun, are “a signal to a performer to begin a specific speech or action”, “a feature indicating the nature of something perceived,” and “a hint.” Here are some examples: However, there are notable difference between these words, when each is used as a noun or as a verb. You can find more troublesome pairs here and the index to them all so far is here.It can be tricky to tell the difference between cue and queue, as they are pronounced in the exact same way (like the letter Q). So: a cue initiates action, and a queue waits for it. If you are hanging around waiting to buy a train ticket before the ticket office is opened, you might take your cue from the staff member opening their hatch to start a queue for tickets. The line of people at the bus stop or outside a gig, or the cars waiting to cross a level crossing while the gates are closed. It’s all to do with getting some kind of indication that it’s time for some kind of action.Ī queue is more, if you like, about INaction – as it is a line of people or vehicles, etc., waiting their turn to proceed or be attended to. So an actor takes his cue from the end of the previous actor’s speech, or their actions, while I might take my cue to speak from the person I’m speaking with pausing, or at a seminar, from the chair pointing to me, or a company might take its cue to deliver a new software application from the release of a hardware upgrade. This meaning has been extended to include anything that initiates or reminds one of the start of an action or speech. ![]() So, a cue (as well as being something used to play snooker and billiards, which I don’t think gets into this particular issue) was originally a signal to an actor or other performer to begin their speech or performance. I think I have seen each used incorrectly an equal number of times is that your experience? the two words sound the same, so if you have only ever heard them, rather than having seen them written down, or particularly if you have only seen one of them written down, an assumption can be made about which spelling / word to use. This is another of those homophone issues – i.e. I’ve been meaning to write about this one for ages, as I see it quite a lot, most frequently in popular culture and the media, in newspapers and magazines and personal communications like Facebook updates, Tweets and blog posts. ![]()
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