# Are your meals possessed (language usage)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930 "2018-11-03T13:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/21 "2018-11-04T14:18:58Z")
To me, “Did you have _your_ breakfast” implies a caretaking behaviour in the speaker, making sure you ate properly, while “Did you have breakfast” seems like a simpler request for information. I’d be inclined to respond to the first with reassurances that I ate well; to the second, just “Yes.” Seems like my particular interpretation of the affective particle. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/22 "2018-11-04T14:32:42Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I mean, “take a crap”, wtaf is that? Seems to me that taking is the exact opposite of what is going on. You had to take a crap, I refused to give one. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/23 "2018-11-04T20:54:09Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I suppose it could be a feature of Indian English, but I don’t recall other Indians I know using it. Maybe I just didn’t take note of it. > > If it is Indian English, I wonder how it manifested. In Bengali, you would say something that literally translates to “Have you eaten?” or “Has eating happened?” So it’s not the result of a gloss. If she’s Indian–then it could just be a regionalism, and nothing more than that (regardless of any Bengali influence). ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/24 "2018-11-04T22:10:47Z")
When I’m cooking it, I’m making my dinner. As in “I have to fix my lunch now.”. When I’m eating it, “I’m eating lunch now.” Make, possessive, eat, not possessive. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/25 "2018-11-05T00:55:05Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > When I’m cooking it, I’m making my dinner. As in “I have to fix my lunch now.”. When I’m eating it, “I’m eating lunch now.” Make, possessive, eat, not possessive. Weird. If you’re cooking for yourself and others, are you cooking “our dinner”? Or just “dinner”? Or even “the dinner”? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/26 "2018-11-05T01:12:31Z")
It depends on context. If I’m talking to someone who might be eating their lunch at a different time than me, I’ll specify “my lunch”. If I’m talking to someone who is eating at the same time as me, it’s just “lunch”. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/27 "2018-11-05T12:47:28Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Mine are generally unposessed, but I’ve known people to use those possessives. I think the possessed meals are emphatic: the question isn’t so much “did you eat something” as “did you eat that specific thing”. Note that other things which are also ingested do carry possessives: “did you take your medication?” or “now where have I put my drink?” have very different meanings from “did you take medication?” or “now where have I put the drinks?” English or Spanish, though? In Spanish it seems like the possessive would be a bit awkward: “Comiste tu desayuno?” vs. “Desayunaste?” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/28 "2018-11-05T13:05:38Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I mean, “take a crap”, wtaf is that? Seems to me that taking is the exact opposite of what is going on. Yeah! Funk Dat! [/obligatory beavis and butthead reference] ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/29 "2018-11-06T01:30:41Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > If you’re cooking for yourself and others, are you cooking “our dinner”? Or just “dinner”? Or even “the dinner”? It depends on my/our attitude toward this particular dinner. If it’s a certain kind of food that I’ve been promising them forever and I’m finally doing it, it might be “the dinner”. If there’s no special occasion and no special food, just “dinner”. And if we all stood in the store collectively figuring out what to have, it might conceivably be “our dinner”. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/30 "2018-11-06T01:39:54Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > My meals possess me, and later, I exorcise them. I mean, “take a crap”, wtaf is that? Seems to me that taking is the exact opposite of what is going on. Except for that one episode of Red Dwarf. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930/31 "2018-11-06T01:43:27Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Except for that one episode of Red Dwarf. That was one of the best moments in the entire series. _Cat! No!_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-meals-possessed-language-usage/823930.md?page=1)