You have been waiting in line for ten minutes. Someone cuts the line just in front of you.

Vous faites la queue depuis dix minutes. Quelqu'un passe juste devant vous dans la file d'attente.

ask the person if he or she had a compelling reason to go in front, otherwise yell at him or her

ask them to step to the back, please

Depending how much it really mattered to me, I might complain directly to the person, or I might just let it go, since I've got better things to worry about.

Do not say anything most of the time, it makes things easier.

Hi, but I've been waiting in line. You may wait after me.

i get irritated and i comment about it

I grab their shoulder and point at the line behind them. This sort of thing appalls me.

I politely ask them to get to the back of the line.

I try to made him notice I'm mad and that he did something wrong.

I will say: Hey, if I can wait for 10 min, so can you!!

I would ask the person to please wait in line

I would say excuse me, I have been waiting here longer than you.

I would say, "excuse me."

I would say, "Yo buddy! Are you joking me?"

i wouldn't mind, i would let them cut, waiting for someone else to say something.

I'd ask what they're doing.

If I knew the person (a classmate etc.) I would jokingly say hey no cutting in line. If I didn't know the person and it wasn't in a close contact context, I would probably just not do anything

if they are joining friends or family, do nothing, but if not, then confront them directly

They are very rude, and it's very annoying. I would tell them that that is not the end of the line.

think: i hate it when people cut in line... i wish people would be more considerate

You call them out on it.

"Excusez moi mais je crois que j'étais avant" avec le sourire

ça dépend si c'est une vieille personne, je la laisse passer.

Cela dépendra de mon humeur : soit je ne dis rien mais je n'en pense pas moins, soit je dis :"c'est la fête"

Excusez-moi mais la file est là !

je dirais": la file commence derrière" et je reprendrai ma place

Je le regarde en attendant une explication

Je leur demande de prendre la queue comme tous les gens.

je lui demande poliment de faire la queue ou de justifier sa précipitation

Je lui dis de prendre la file comme les autres, c'est la règle.

je lui explique qu'il faut faire la queue comme tout le monde.

Je lui fais remarquer qu'il a y d'autres personnes qui attendent et je lui indique la fin de la queue.

je lui repasse devant

Je lui signale que la queue ne commence pas ici et qu'il ferait mieux de faire comme tout le monde

Je reprends ma place.

Je ris.

je vais le voir pour comprendre pour quoi il a agi ainsi avant de lui demander de suivre la queue s'il n'a aucune raison valable urgente

Mis à part l'hypothèse d'une personne handicapée ou enceinte, je la remets à sa place.

si c'est une veille personne je laisse mais sinon je lui signale qu'il y a des personnes qui attendaient depuis longtemps

Discussion

It really annoys me when people cut in line, but I definitely am not one to call them on it. When I read this question it completely reminded me of this summer when i was at a concert, and the line for the bathroom was ridiculously long, and some girl cut about 5 people in front of me, and the girl behind me shouted up at her "I came 1000 miles for this concert, and i'm waiting in line, so you better get to the end" or something to that effect (with more inappropriate language). The other girl shouted something back, and within minutes they were almost beating eachother up. That doesn't happen very frequently/ ever, but it's one extreme of what happens when you cut in line...
More to the point- i think that for most of the questions, we tended to be really passive- we let people get away with stuff that bothers us, and you tend to tell them. In this case we both don't let them get away with it. (fortunately we don't act like the girl at the concert) Maybe since waiting in line is one of those things that is really boring, and doesn't have much of an upside, its frustrating enough when someone makes your wait that much longer, that even we get mad and do something about it. maybe...
ps- i hope you all enjoyed my story about the ridiculous american, and i hope you know we don't all beat people up for cutting in line :) ... though maybe some people want to...

I agree with the person that said: "Cela dépendra de mon humeur : soit je ne dis rien mais je n'en pense pas moins, soit je dis :"c'est la fête"." What you say or don't in this type of situation depends on how you feel at the moment. Once I was waiting in a long line to get in the Fung Wah Bus from New York to Boston, and a group of like five girls cut in the front of the line all together. It was pretty amusing to see it happening, and none one but a sir said something about it. I thought it was funny, maybe because I had a good time in New York that weekend, and I was in a good mood.

I also think it depends on how much time you have to spend waiting in line, and on your schedule for the day. If someone is cutting in line he or she might have a good reason (maybe not) to do so. Who else has a similar way of thinking?

This question also brought back memories from home, Syria. There the concept of standing in a line just don't exist :). People just always push and shove until they get to the front. If you tried standing in line, you would never get your turn. So at least the American and French unite on the idea that people should wait in line first come first serve, even if have different reactions to people who don't do that. It seems that cutting in line really annoys Americans, like Gina's story showed :) The French reactions seem more calm. Is it equally annoying for the French, but they're just more polite about it?

Hiba's comment is interesting because in Latin America, even though the concept of standing in a line exists, you need to have some malice to get what you want. It is not malice in the sense of wanting to hurt other people, but malice in the sense that you have to cut line and not care about whoever was there before. Does this happen in France too, or is it just a Latinamerican thing?

En France les gens ont pour habitude de toujours vouloir ce que possède le voisin. Le phénomène de la queue n'est qu'un exemple parmi tant d'autres! En effet il est très fréquent de voir des gens dépasser au supermarché par exemple. En France lorsqu'on fait la queue quelque part on a presque l'impression d'être en guerre, que l'on est obligé de protéger ses positions pour ne pas se faire dépasser. Le pire étant les personnes âgées qui sont la plupart du temps à la retraite et qui par conséquent ont tout leur temps, et qui sont les premières à dépasser et à être désagréable en plus; cependant comme on est des gentleman on ne leur fait pas de réflexions!! Avez vous le même problèmes avec les personnes âgées au USA'

That's funny, because it's the same way in Italy. One time, for example, I was standing in this line with thousands of people that went around the block to see the Vatican museum I think, and this Italian couple decided to skip about 500 people. Most people didn't say anything, but then there was this German couple who said something to the effect of if I had to wait in line, so do you, and then, cut in front of the Italian couple, and since we were right behind them, we joined them. :-) As far your question, no, I don't think we really have a problem with the elderly in that way. I have seen some grumpy old men (and women) like that, but I wouldn't say it's typical.

engage