What are polite table manners?
Andres Kemmer
2025-08-11 05:40:33
Count answers
: 15
Have proper posture and keep elbows off the table. Wait for everyone to be served before beginning to eat, unless the individual who has not been served encourages you to begin eating. Eat slowly and cut only a few small bites of your meal at a time. Chew with your mouth closed and do not talk with food in your mouth. Pass food items to the right. Do not use excessive amounts of sweeteners - no more than two packets per meal is the rule of thumb. When you are finished, leave your plates in the same position, do not push your plates aside or stack them. Lay your fork and knife diagonally across the plate, side by side, pointing at 10:00 and 4:00 on a clock face.
Eva Cormier
2025-08-01 16:29:43
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: 18
When it comes to quintessential British etiquette, there are few niceties to observe. Social manners are expected and appreciated when it’s time to sit, men should seat the ladies first and rise when they leave and return to the table. Do make sure that you wait for your host to start eating first or to give the signal. You may eat Chicken and Pizza with your hands only at a barbecue…otherwise you use a knife and fork. If bread rolls are served, break them with your fingers not with your knife. Only a small piece of roll at a time (never the whole thing) should be buttered, with a butter knife.
The fork and spoon are the only things that should go into the mouth. Place your serviette, in your lap and keep it there until you leave the table, and then place it by the left side of your plate, never on top. When it comes to cutlery, start from the outside and work your way inward with each course. The fork is held in the left hand and the knife in the right. The fork should have the prongs facing down, and the knife is used to move food closer to the fork or support food so the fork can pick it up.
Please don’t chew or talk with an open mouth or lick your knife, it’s just tacky. Tricky peas can be slightly crushed or use mashed potato to stick them to your fork but never use your fork like a shovel to scoop them up. Food stuck between teeth is tricky…do not use toothpicks, fingernails, knives or napkins to dislodge the food at the table. Excuse yourself and take care of it discreetly. In all instances avoid lunging across the table, it’s polite to request that something is passed to you and if you’re doing the passing, always pass to the right. When eating is complete, place your knife and fork side by side in the middle of your plate, fork prongs down, knife to the right with the blade turned inward toward the fork.
Ilene Glover
2025-07-29 00:08:39
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: 19
Chew with your mouth closed.
Keep your smartphone off the table and set to silent or vibrate.
Hold utensils correctly.
Don’t use your fork or spoon like a shovel or stab your food.
Remember to use your napkin.
Wait until you’re done chewing to sip or swallow a drink.
Cut only one piece of food at a time.
Avoid slouching and don’t place your elbows on the table while eating.
Instead of reaching across the table for something, ask for it to be passed to you.
Wash up and come to the table clean.
Don’t groom or attend to hygiene at the table.
Pace yourself with fellow diners.
Norberto Crooks
2025-07-15 20:51:57
Count answers
: 17
If you sit up straight, chew with your mouth closed, serve other diners, resist bolting your food and manage to talk civilly to your neighbour as well as eating, you will certainly pass muster. The main aim is not to look greedy or voracious, and any small errors in relation to the more arcane rules of cutlery-wielding, salt-shaking, bread-buttering, and fingerbowl-dipping will be overlooked because your demeanour is civilised and courteous. Sit up straight, sit square with hands in the lap and do not fidget. Do not put elbows on the table. Assist fellow diners by making sure others have been offered anything they might want from the table, such as butter, water, salt or pepper. Never eat with your mouth open or talk with your mouth full, however, it is fine to carry on eating during a conversation. Chewing food thoroughly, keeping the mouth closed as you do so, slows things down to a more civilised pace when eating with others. Try to avoid making noises of any kind while eating, either with implements against the plate or teeth, or with the actual ingestion of the food, such as slurping soup. Express appreciation when the food first arrives but do so politely, and when refusing a second portion, avoid big gestures and decline politely.
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