The other day, I was at a somewhat upscale restaurant when one of my pet peeves was triggered. Don’t get me wrong, the food was excellend and so was the service. The peeve that bugged me so much was this incessant use of the word "we" when the speaker clearly did not include himself in the group. Some examples of this type of situation:
- "How are we feeling today?"
- "Are we going to have anything else, today?"
- "Aren’t we a cute little one."
- …
It should be noted that there are plenty of cases where the above statements would be perfectly acceptable. However, if you want to know how I am feeling, ask that. Using the term "we" requires me to make a divination about your state of being.
Conventional wisdom seems to be that using the so called "royal we" is a good thing. Personally, I find it insultingly condescending. That is, it implies to me that the speaker is doing me the great courtesy of taking the bother to include themselves in my life. These days, it is clear the most speakers simply use it as a canned mannerism since they’ve grown up hearing it continually.
The gist of this rant is that the word "we" should ONLY be used when the group referred to includes the speaker. Thus, if I am acting on behalf of a company, it would be appropriate. If I am asking you for your opinion, it is not. Of course, the same should be said of the other formations of the first person plural.