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What do you usually say, depending on the context and depending if it's US or UK English?

wait in line or queue

A E
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João Paulo
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    Waiting line? Or wait in line? Either way, in BE we queue. – Roaring Fish Oct 02 '12 at 11:55
  • Edited post with Roaring Fish and Mitch's recommendation – João Paulo Oct 02 '12 at 12:12
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    But whether in the UK or the US, the branch of mathematics that deals with the question of how quickly things waiting in lines get to the front is called queueing theory and not *lining-up theory. – Peter Shor Oct 02 '12 at 12:34
  • There is a song "In the Waiting Line" by Zero 7, but they are British. So, I'd have to say that is a British expression. – David M Feb 17 '14 at 20:41
  • David M, it's not. Considering that it is in a song, it is more likely that it was just a combination of words for that. – Tristan r Feb 17 '14 at 22:13
  • And in theatre you are waiting for your cue ( queue ;- ) to say your line. Which is a nice tangent. –  Jul 26 '14 at 17:54

7 Answers7

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In US English, the thing is:

a line

('waiting line' is not used).

To be on it is

to wait in line

To add to it is:

to get in line

Mitch
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    In New York, I have heard a dialect variation: one waits "on line." The perception of the wait may be lessened if one surfs online while waiting on line. – rajah9 Oct 02 '12 at 16:36
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In the UK, people say queue. See this: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/queue_1?q=queue

That link also states "UK (US line)".

Tristan
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queue (UK) I never "wait in line". I always "queue".

Suke
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    And in the US, I "wait in line". It is just a "line" never called a "waiting line". Now I have heard of a "waiting room" and a "waiting list". – GEdgar Oct 02 '12 at 12:08
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In the US it's always line. I haven't heard anyone say, waiting in queue or queued for food. The NOAD also marks it chiefly Brit.

That said, queue is pretty common when it comes to computers. And in some areas it may refer to a braid of hair worn at the back.

"Samurai shaved the tops of their heads and then gathered hair from the sides and back together into a queue. They applied oil to the queue before doubling it forward over the crown, then tying it at the point where it was doubled over."

Noah
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  • The hair thing is taken from French, where "queue" can mean either a plait (braid) of hair, or a tail (e.g. of a dog). – Suke Oct 02 '12 at 12:50
  • Plenty of people say "queue for food." http://www.google.ca/search?q=queued+for+food&oq=queued+for+food&sugexp=chrome,mod=17&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 – Merk Oct 03 '12 at 06:27
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    @Merk not in the US, AFAIK. – Noah Oct 03 '12 at 06:43
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    I don't think I've come across the verb, but I do seem occasionally to hear queue as a noun used by AmE speakers lately. It's possible these are speakers with many BrE friends or something like that, but the word seems to me to be slowly creeping into AmE vocabulary. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 18 '14 at 00:29
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Wait on line in New York City. Wait in line in the rest of the US.

Good discussion here

Supposedly, New Yorkers wait on line because of Ellis Island having had painted lines on the floors. New immigrants were told to wait "on the line." And, it has changed our local lexicon. (i.e. It is a shibboleth.)

David M
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No one in the US ever really says queue. We say 'get on line', 'wait in line', 'don't cut the line', 'line up', 'what a long line!', 'make a line', 'form a line', etc. Queue is reserved for technical usage, such as in computer science where one might create a queue of objects. A LIFO queue (last in, first out), a FIFO queue (first in, first out) are common computer programming constructs. There is no right or wrong. Language is dynamic, ever-changing and tied to whatever is 'normal' for a given culture. What may sound correct to British ears sounds outright funny to American ears and vice-versa, but that's ok. It surely keeps things interesting!

Robert
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In an English school you will hear a teacher say 'line up!' as a command though. He will not say 'queue!' as a command.

Rachel
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    Of course he won't, any more than he'll say, “Line!”. Because queue doesn't mean the same thing as line up. He's perfectly likely to say, “Queue up!”, however, if he's a Brit. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 18 '14 at 00:26
  • He's not very likely to say "queue up", to be honest. @Rachel is correct that "queue" is rarely used in any imperative form, in British English -- "line up" would indeed be a much more common thing to hear. Or occasionally, "form a queue" or "form an orderly queue", in more formal circumstances. – calum_b Apr 25 '16 at 19:48