Fair enough. Since I said Melbourne Australia where AFAIK there’s only the one, I was being irresonponsibly redundant. I have been asked (in the UK) if I meant the tiny Melbourne (never been there so dunno if it’s good) near Nottingham or the one in Florida.
And I currently live in a town in Dorset that is named the same as one in Kent - and having lived in one and been to both I can definitely say the other one is the “good” one.
I do that sometimes. Or I say the entire name of the city.
I used to live near the Melbourne in Cambridgeshire. Tiny and very nice !
That’s the version I’m familiar with as an American.
Often said as, “Just leave it to me.”
Another way of saying, “I’ll take care of it.”
She said to leave it to me
Everything will be alright
She said to leave it to meeee
/The Cars
Yeah that’s 100% a recognized American phrase.
Isn’t English beautiful? I love all these little idiomatic expressions.
‘Leave it with me’ has always to me just been a way to say ‘You have described the task; I now have enough information to proceed’.
Whether or not the task gets done is more of a measure of the person supposedly doing the work - it’s nothing much to do with the phrase.
I can understand how it might be frustrating to be told ‘leave it with me’ only to return and find the job not even started; that would be the same if the person had said “OK, I will definitely do it, right away!”, and not completed the task either.
People seeking to hand over a task sometimes have a tendency to want to describe the problem over and over at length, especially if they are consulting or commissioning an expert; ‘leave it with me’ is a polite way for the assignee of the task to say ‘OK, you can stop talking now and allow me get started with it, which I would like to do now’
I think that Americans are unused to being polite - especially to shop assistants. From films and TV, I see that “please” and “thank you” are not used at all.
A few years ago, when I was staying in a Parisian hotel, I was talking to an American couple in the bar. She complained bitterly about the “rude” and “ignorant” assistants in stores, where she was trying to take advantage of a good exchange rate to stock up on fashionable clothes.
I suggested that she try saying “Bonjour Madame" when she approached the (notoriously snooty) sales staff. The following evening, she thanked me and expressed he surprise at the difference in attitude.
Nitpick - it’s Aren’t English beautiful?
Indeed. And if whatever task or whatever is actually completed there are many ways of saying “Thanks”
My frustration with the phrase is all too often (I don’t have recorded stats) even if it’s said earnestly, whatever it is you are leaving with someone doesn’t happen. I mentioned upthread about Simon the foreman who’s been oversseeing work on this apartment building telling us “leave it with me” regarding the poor wifi signal and last week he’s wiring us up with Cat 6 ethernet. Simon is a “leave it with me” kind of guy. Two Friday’s ago his assistant - a very nice guy (chap?) - was shown how the shower curtain had been jammed into a 45 degree wall and comes crashing down if you breathe upon it. He even took pictures and said “Leave it with me”. We’re only staying here short-term and my best tools are in storage yet everyday at least once I’m putting that thing back up (it’s a multi-room shared shower). It’s down right now and I’ll tack it back up as best as I can when I take a shower.
So those are the tangible stats then: one of two “leave it with me” folks. In my experience there are far and few between actual “leave it with me” people.
Yes that’s exactly how I understand (and use) it
Then you are, as no mobster likely ever said:
You’re gonna like this guy, he’s all right. He’s a goodfella. He’s one of us.”
And I fixed that shower curtain rod up again pretty securely. No chin-ups but it’ll be good for at least the weekend.
I think you have a Simon problem, not a ‘leave it with me’ problem.
“Amn’t English is beautiful?”
“Ain’t Murican purty?”
In British idiom, I would say these are rather different.
“Leave it to me” means, yes, I’ll take care of that.
“Leave it with me”, on the other hand, means I’m going to have to investigate a bit, I’ll get back to you when I know more.
I was going to say that I’ve never encountered the specific phrasing “Leave it with me.”
Then yesterday, I was watching an episode of Midsomer Murders, and Inspector Barnaby (the second, fake one, not the original, true one) told his wife, who was freaking out over some local village festival thing, “Leave it with me.”
Probably wouldn’t even have noticed it if not for this thread.
Same goes for Scousers.
What Spanish? The word comes via Portuguese, where it’s pronounced zhagwar, and originated from an Old Tupí word pronounced yagwara.
There’s nothing un-English about the consonant sequence /gw/ between vowels, as seen in native English words like bigwig or hog-wild.
Yes, my bad.
I was going by a source I can’t find anymore (fuck it anyway) that had clearly bullshit info. You’re absolutely right.
True, but the Brits insert an intrusive vowel (what my Linguistics 101 prof taught me was called a svarabhakti) between the /g/ and the /w/: jag-yoo-ar. It’s not a schwa, either, but a stressed long u.