Can I say "Welcome, you are"?

R

rejelx

Member
Ahamari
Hi,
Instead of saying "You are welcome!" when replying to a "Thank you!", can I say a little bit more literally as "Welcome, you are!"?
Does it sound weird?
If my memory does not fool me, I remember seeing this kind of invert saying somewhere before.
Thank you.
 
    • Hello Rejelx. Well it sounds weird to me, and I can't imagine any native speaker saying it, so I would strongly advise against it. (We do occasionally do similar-looking inversions ... but not in this instance.)
     
    Thank you, ewie.
    That helps prevent me from saying it in from now on. It's fortunate that I have never said it before.
     
    rejelx said:
    [....]
    If my memory does not fool me, I remember seeing this kind of invert saying somewhere before. [...]
    Click to expand...

    We (or I) don't say "Welcome, you are."

    But as for your memory that we do say a similar inverted sentence:
    "Right you are!" ;)
    ​
    However, I can't think of another that works this way, and we can't take that form and apply it generally.
     
    Thomas Tompion said:
    Sure, Cagey. But 'Right you are!' doesn't mean the same as 'You are right', does it?
    Click to expand...
    I think the same as Thomas Tompion. I wonder if there are some cases whose inversion and themselves have the same meaning.
    Example: "The sky is beautiful today!" --> "Beautiful, the sky is today." Does it sound better?
     
    rejelx said:
    I think the same as Thomas Tompion. I wonder if there are some cases whose inversion and themselves have the same meaning.
    Example: "The sky is beautiful today!" --> "Beautiful, the sky is today." Does it sound better?
    Click to expand...
    No, it doesn't. There may be circumstances where such inversion is appropriate, but none immediately spring to mind. There are some people who speak like that but they are usually very old, or affecting to be moribund, or Irish.
     
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    Definitely do NOT say "Welcome, you are," unless you want to sound like Yoda from Star Wars. You can say "You're welcome," "No problem," or even "No biggie" when replying to a thank you.
     
    ResoluteTwo said:
    Definitely do NOT say "Welcome, you are," unless you want to sound like Yoda from Star Wars. You can say "You're welcome," "No problem," or even "No biggie" when replying to a thank you.
    Click to expand...
    Don't say "No biggie" round here; people might think the dog had had an accident. The appropriate formulae of politeness are as much a part of language as everything else, and you need to learn the one suitable for the English spoken where you are.
     
    Cagey said:
    I blush to admit that it does mean the same to me, except that "Right you are!" seems more celebratory.

    What difference do you see?
    Click to expand...
    I'm sorry I put the question in that way. I'm very interested in what you say, Cagey.

    For me 'Right you are' is a rhetorical gesture changing the pace of the conversation, and usually suggesting that talk ceases and action begins. 'Right you are! Let's get going' would be a typical use.

    'You are right' would be used to indicate assent in a discussion, without any particular rhetorical force.

    'You are right about X, but I still disagree with you about Y' would be fine, but I couldn't say 'Right you are about X, but I still disagree with you about Y'.
     
    I agree that I wouldn't use "Right you are!" as part of an on-going conversation. I was thinking of both versions as stand-alone statements, to parallel "You are welcome!"
     
    ResoluteTwo said:
    Definitely do NOT say "Welcome, you are," unless you want to sound like Yoda from Star Wars. You can say "You're welcome," "No problem," or even "No biggie" when replying to a thank you.
    Click to expand...

    It's fine to just smile and not give a verbal response; more traditional responses are: 'My pleasure', 'Not at all' or 'Don't mention it'.

    The inverted form of 'You're welcome' doesn't work because I think it is formulaic. I could imagine, if you were welcoming somebody, to be able to say something like 'Delighted we are, to see you!'
     
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    To me, "Right, you are!" means exactly the same thing as "You are right!" (when used as stand alone sentences).
     
    rejelx said:
    ... "Welcome, you are!"?
    Does it sound weird?

    If my memory does not fool me, I remember seeing this kind of invert saying somewhere before.
    Thank you.
    Click to expand...

    Have you seen the 'Star Wars' movies or attended Sci-Fi conventions? Because this is exactly how the character called Yoda speaks. It is an example of how English can be deliberately made to sound weird and alien:
    "Luke, when gone am I... the last of the Jedi will you be"
     
    Aardvark01 said:
    Have you seen the 'Star Wars' movies or attended Sci-Fi conventions? Because this is exactly how the character called Yoda speaks. It is an example of how English can be deliberately made to sound weird and alien:
    "Luke, when gone am I... the last of the Jedi will you be"
    Click to expand...
    Oh, really. I've never watched Star Wars, by the way.
    So if I speak like this, people might come to think I am an alien. :)
    Thank you all.

    PS: I am seeking Star Wars movie.
     
    Yoda is featured in episodes I, II, III, V and VI. George Lucas (the author) deliberately used inversions such as:

    "Into exile I must go...failed, I have" (I must go into exile... (because) I have failed.) This is taken from Episode III. As Rejelx said it is to show how alien he is. Star Wars has many made-up languages (e.g. Hutteese (I think I spelt that right.)) This is to make things more alien and interesting. The same can be seen with Gungans, who always adress each other as sir, e.g.

    "Who sir, are you sir?" (Episode I)

    People may think you're a bit strange, or deliberately talking like Yoda, perhaps for a joke, because you're talking about Yoda in conversation (or a bit wierd) if you say "welcome, you are." I must say, when I saw this, Yoda was my first thought and I wouldn't say "welcome, you are" unless I was hosting a science fiction convention :)
     
    I would not recommend saying "Delighted we are, to see you" either. I don't think you can use these kind of inversions in English in most normal situations and I would recommend avoiding them completely except in a few fixed expressions.

    In AE, "You're welcome" is fine and a normal conversational response. Perhaps not in BE.
     
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    rejelx said:
    Hi,
    Instead of saying "You are welcome!" when replying to a "Thank you!", can I say a little bit more literally as "Welcome, you are!"?
    Does it sound weird?
    If my memory does not fool me, I remember seeing this kind of invert saying somewhere before.
    Thank you.
    Click to expand...

    The only time I could see that being remotely appropriate would be in the following context:

    Q: So, does that mean I'm welcome to stay at your house?
    A: Welcome, you are!

    Of course, there'd be no pause if it were being spoken. And there'd be a certain intonation that I can't really explain through words. Even the above example could sound a little foreign to people outside of rural or country areas in the United States. But as far as it being used for a reply to "Thank you," I don't think it would ever work.
     
    Thomas Tompion puts it well.

    An archaic form follows the pattern "Welcome, that you are!", often with an intensifier such as 'indeed' or 'certainly', and this may be how you have met the inverted construction. It has an artificial Dickensian feel to it. It might have been used to greet a visitor, certainly not to indicate the much more modern "No problem!"

    So literary and archaic, perhaps with occasional humorous usage nowadays, but certainly not recommended for non-native speakers or anyone of tender years.

    Interestingly, also for emphasis, a negative form following the pattern "Welcome, you are not!" or, say, "Lazy, he is not!" can still be heard, though not among the young. They are more likely to employ a related form of emphasis by using a mocking "Not!" on its own to indicate the opposite of what has just been said.
     
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    I think that when inversions are used, they are used for emphasis. I use them in this way quite normally when the occasion calls for it.

    e.g
    A cute girl, she surely is not.
    My ideal night, it was not.
    The perfect husband, I certainly doubt he would be.

    Oh and just to clarify given Tadpole's comment above,
    Drawing my pension, I certainly am not...
     
    "Welcome you are" (no comma) is no stranger to me than "Right you are." It means "You are welcome indeed."

    "Welcome are you" is another matter. It sounds poetic, like "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, ...."
     
    Actually, I wouldn't recommend the inversion either. I wanted to say that it was at least possible in some special contexts for non-fixed expression, but for fixed expressions like 'You're welcome' this isn't possible.

    I never heard 'You're welcome' in BE up until around 1990, but it's certainly one option for responding to 'Thank you' now.
     
    Sometimes Yoda-speak is used in standard English for emphasis. For example, we speak Yodish when getting married, "With this ring, I thee wed."
     
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