Do you know what it means?

Question

To mind your P's and Q's??? I have heard that all my life but never knew what a p or a q was. How about you?

Answer 1

It comes from when apprentices would stamp letters onto pages, and they would get confused about the lowercase p and q. It's telling you to be careful about what you say or else it could get messed up and the readers wouldn't be able to understand, etc.

Answer 2

A warning to be polite, and careful of one's actions and behaviour. It is usually said to the young but was probably originally directed at printers to remind them to be careful of these two letters of the alphabet in case they were mixed or placed upside-down when setting up type.

Alternatively, it could have been a warning to customers in public houses to mind their Ps (pints) and Qs (quarts) when these were 'chalked up' and would eventually have to be paid for.

Yet another explanation for the phrase is said to come from French court etiquette in the days when large wigs were fashionable. The p was the French 'pied' or foot, and the Q - le queue - the hanging plaited tail of a wig. In this case the admonition was to remind young and old alike to be careful where they put their feet, to keep them together and to bow slowly and gracefully so that their wigs would not get entangled with others, or fall off.

Answer 3

It has something to do with the old printing presses. The letter stamps were all mirror images of the letter that they wanted to appear on the paper. Being that p and q are mirror images of each other, the printers had to mind their p's and q's so that they would choose the right letter for the word they were printing.

Answer 4

This expression, meaning "be very careful to behave correctly",
has been in use from the 17th century on. Theories include: an
admonishment to children learning to write; an admonishment to
typesetters (who had to look at the letters reversed); an
admonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with
their tarred "queues" (pigtails); "mind your pints and quarts";
"mind your prices and quality"; "mind your pieds and queues"
(either feet and pigtails, or two dancing figures that had to be
accurately performed); the substitution of /p/ for "qu" /kw/ in the
speech of uneducated ancient Romans; or the confusion by students
learning both Latin and Ancient Greek of such cognates as pente
and quintus. And yes, we've heard the joke about the instruction
to new sextons: "Mind your keys and pews."

The most plausible explanation is the one given in the latest
edition of Collins English Dictionary: an alteration of "Mind
your 'please's and 'thank you's".

Answer 5

It means the same as watch your manners .

Answer 6

I just means to watch what you say.

Answer 7

Great question!

Answer 8

It means remember to say 'Please' and 'Thank-you' which is the 'Q'.

Answer 9

please and thank you. oh and thanks for the two points....