# 她总是皱着眉头看着我。她好像很不耐烦



## panzerfaust0

Hello.  At this convenience store that I patronize often, there is a girl who has been treating me rather rudely.  I am thinking about telling their manager about it, but I don't quite know how to say what I want to say in English.  It is this:  "Every time I come up to her at the counter, 她总是皱着眉头看着我。她好像很不耐烦".

Thanks.


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## Ghabi

Perhaps you can say, "She always scowls at me, with an impatient look on her face".


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## panzerfaust0

Thank you Ghabi.


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## brofeelgood

Every time I come up to her at the counter, she would shoot me a dirty look and serve with a lousy attitude (like she couldn't wait for me to f# off).


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## panzerfaust0

Thank you Bro.


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## elroy

brofeelgood said:


> serve with a lousy attitude


 I don’t know about other varieties of English, but in American English “serve” is not idiomatic here.


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## panzerfaust0

So what is the proper way to say it then, elroy?


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## elroy

I really like Ghabi's translation.  But if you want a substitute for "serve," try "*rings me up*," since that's what she does (in American English).


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## panzerfaust0

Thanks elroy.


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## brofeelgood

I guess it's a BE thing. (serve #2.3, serve #B1, serve #3)

At a checkout counter, I might say 'Please ring this up (for me)', but not 'Please ring me up'.  To ring someone up in BE means to call them on the telephone.


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## elroy

The dictionary definitions you cite do not support the use of “serve” _intransitively_, as in your example. All the examples use the verb transitively.  Perhaps you meant to add “me”?

I still wouldn’t say “serve me” in this context (i.e. even with an object).  Maybe there is a US/UK difference in usage.


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## Skatinginbc

brofeelgood said:


> serve #3





elroy said:


> The dictionary definitions you cite do not support the use of “serve” _intransitively_.


serve #3 (cited by Brofeelgood): [*intransitive*, transitive] to help the customers in a shop, especially by bringing them the things that they want.

Peter Drucker (2012) _Management Challenges for the 21st Century_: One day is spent actually doing a job in a supermarket, for example, by _*serving* _(*intransitive*) _*at a checkout counter*._


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## yuechu

elroy said:


> But if you want a substitute for "serve," try "*rings me up*," since that's what she does (in American English).


I, personally, am not familiar with this usage of "ring up" (when I hear someone "ringing someone up", I think of them giving the other person a phone call).



elroy said:


> I still wouldn’t say “serve me” in this context (i.e. even with an object)


"to serve customers" is completely fine for me, although it is possible that it may be more common in UK English than American English...


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## elroy

To be perfectly clear, I'm not saying that the collocation "serve customers" is not acceptable.  I'm saying that in this particular context, me going up to a counter and being attended to (presumably by getting rung up and checking out, although it occurs to me that it could also be something else, like asking a question and getting an answer), I would not say that the cashier (or whoever it was) _served_ me.


Skatinginbc said:


> serve #3 (cited by Brofeelgood): [*intransitive*, transitive] to help the customers in a shop, especially by bringing them the things that they want.
> 
> Peter Drucker (2012) _Management Challenges for the 21st Century_: One day is spent actually doing a job in a supermarket, for example, by _*serving* _(*intransitive*) _*at a checkout counter*._


 Sorry, I missed the "intransitive" label in that dictionary entry and focused on the example.  However, presumably they meant something like your Drucker citation, where "serve" is meant in a general sense.  "Serving at a checkout counter" = "performing cashier duties" _in general_.  This is different from a specific instance of attending to a customer.


yuechu said:


> I, personally, am not familiar with this usage of "ring up"


 Interesting!  Maybe it's a US thing.


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## Lamb67

She always looks at me with knitted brows, looking fed up.

She always has a fed-up look with her knitted brows when serving me.


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