Good, Lindsay. How are you?

Good. Michelle, did you get scolded a lot when you were a kid?

Did your parents or teachers maybe scold you?

I don't think really.

I was a little bit of a rule follower, so I think I didn't get scolded that much.

But, of course, every kid does, right?

There has to be something.

What about you?

Yeah, same here. I was a pretty good kid.

Occasionally, I would get in trouble, but when I did, I felt so bad.

I think I got detention once, and I just was so mortified.

It's not a place for me to be in detention.

So, yeah, not good.

So, anyways, Michelle, what are we talking about today?

Okay, so we are going to talk about a common – well, actually, not that common, but it's common in this context, when you're scolding someone or questioning someone.

So, we're going to talk about why you would use this on this episode.

But the construction is, have you no X?

Ooh, I love this. Yes, tell us more, Michelle.

Well, this came up in my real life because my son was probably –

I can't remember exactly what he was doing, but I think it probably involved eating a lot of dessert.

And I think I said to him, have you no self-control, like as a joke.

And, of course, he didn't understand what I was –

Yeah, he doesn't know what self-control is.

Yes, but I thought, there's an episode.

Lindsay, I mean, have you heard this kind of construction before?

Yes, it definitely sounds like something I've heard, especially coupled with, have you no shame?

Exactly.

It's kind of a creative way of saying something.

I envision this being used by grandmothers to their grandkids.

I don't know why.

It just feels like a little bit of an older phrase or a more creative way to say this.

Yes.

So, we're going to talk about this today.

It's not super, super common, but I think it's definitely worth an episode, definitely worth learning what it is because if you hear it, it could be a little confusing, right?

Yes, and it's good for our listeners to have these creative tools in their toolboxes, right?

Absolutely.

I mean, sometimes we might pull this out maybe on the IELTS exam.

Who knows?

Maybe there's – I mean, this is generally a back-and-forth connection phrase, and the IELTS exam is where you're speaking at the examiner, really.

But there could be a lot of places where we want to drop something really unique and creative, and this would be something you could do.

Absolutely.

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Yeah, so we might hear this in movies or maybe as a joke, Michelle.

Anywhere else we might hear it.

Do you agree with what I said, grandmothers scolding their grandkids?

Yeah.

Yeah, I do.

I don't even know why.

I do.

Right, maybe movies as a joke, whatever it is.

So, with my son, I was not really being serious.

I was kind of jabbing at him, maybe just trying to make a joke that why would he get it because he's six.

But it just kind of made me laugh because I was thinking, how do you know self-control, just a little funny thing, maybe a little joke to myself.

But, yeah, it's a very interesting construction.

I mean, Lindsay, we're really talking about this.

Now we're going to go for have you no shame because you mentioned that.

When you think of have you no, I think most people would think to put shame.

Yeah, for sure.

It's the most common use of this construction.

And I like what you said, making a joke to yourself.

I think when you choose to use this construction, it's saying more about you as the speaker than it is about the other person.

Right.

It's saying that you want to say something unique and you want to kind of create a platform a little bit.

It's quite a unique delivery.

Yeah.

Sometimes we do things just for ourselves.

Oh, yeah, of course.

Yeah, you want to entertain yourself.

But what does this mean, have you no shame?

What is this construction really saying?

If we were to put it, what would make sense?

It's basically saying you're doing something bad and don't you care that you're doing something bad, right?

Like don't you have any shame about what you're doing right now?

You're doing something.

Usually it's lighter things, right?

Right.

It's not very heavy, serious things.

Right.

Right.

So if you were supposed to – a normal – a typical construction might be don't you have any.

But we're making it have you no.

And it's kind of – I think when this is used, it's kind of a rhetorical question.

Don't you think, Lindsay?

Yeah.

I mean, Lindsay, what is a rhetorical question?

Oh, we could do a whole episode on rhetorical questions.

Sure, we should.

Yeah, it's basically a question that's not looking for an answer.

It's more a question as a statement.

Okay.

Yeah.

So when someone asks you a rhetorical question, they're not expecting you to respond.

Okay.

Right, right.

It's not saying have you no shame.

Oh, I don't know.

Maybe I have a little shame.

Right.

It's not asking for a response.

I'm basically saying it seems –

I'm observing that you don't seem to have any shame.

Yes.

Yes.

And what you're doing is shameful, whatever it is.

Right.

Yeah.

Really rare but creative and fun when you do hear it for sure.

Right.

It's just saying how are you not embarrassed by this, that type of thing.

So this is just really kind of fun to use.

Let's do a couple other examples.

So let's say I offer Lindsay coffee at my house, and she asks for sugar.

And then we open up my cabinet, and I have 300 sugar packets taken from a restaurant.

Right.

Right.

It's this kind of thing.

It's like stealing from a hotel towels or things like that, right, that you really shouldn't do.

Then someone might call you out for it.

Right.

Yes.

This is calling someone out.

That's a really good way to explain this.

So if I open up and you see I have this whole drawer full of all these sugar packets I've stolen, what could you say?

And they all have the branding of the restaurants on them.

Right.

Right.

Right.

So you could say –

I would say, my goodness, Michelle, have you no shame.

Right.

Right.

So it's also in the delivery.

There has to be some real energy in your voice there.

Right.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

You can't say, have you no shame.

There has to be some real energy.

Or let's say you tell me that you have four overdue library books that you have to return.

Yeah.

And I could joke to you and say, have you no shame, Lindsay.

Return them on time.

That's another good example.

So it's kind of these little transgressions, right, that you really shouldn't do.

But it's not like we're talking about huge offenses.

Right.

Right.

And your friend is going to call you out on it.

And it's going to be kind of a fun back and forth because they're surprised or they're a little offended by it, but not in a deep way.

Right.

Well, I have a deeper, I have a more serious one though.

Coming up.

So those are kind of cute.

But I mean, it could be more serious.

So let's say a couple is fighting because one of them saw the other flirting at a party.

So seriously, they could say, have you no shame.

Don't you see I'm right there.

Oh, that was my acting.

Oh, wow.

It sounded emotional, Michelle.

Yeah.

I know.

Yeah.

So it could veer into the more initiating more of a fight, more of a serious emotional thing going on.

So there are kind of two potential scenarios there.

And we hope more so that in your life you'll be using the first one.

Exactly.

Okay.

All right, Michelle, we are back.

So Michelle, do you use this construction?

Well, I brought it here because I did use it.

But again, I want to say that it's something, you know, this isn't something that you're going to use all the time.

Yeah.

This isn't something that you're just going to several times a day.

This is just for once in a while.

And this is not something you should pressure yourself to use.

No.

It's just if you're interested in adding a little something fun to your repertoire, it does show a little personality, which can be good.

So not something totally immediate for you to add in.

But if you're someone who likes to experiment with these kinds of constructions and these little changes, go for it.

For sure.

I mean, so again, the places where we use this are more rhetorical questions, saying when you've observed someone that's doing something that's not really right and you want to call them out, right?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So yeah, like accusing someone of something.

Or it could be in that playful way or in the serious way.

But you can't just stick any word in there.

Right.

It can't just be, have you no almonds?

No, no, no.

That doesn't mean the same thing, right?

Yeah.

We can't put just a noun in there.

It's really just shame and then maybe self-control.

It's really about this person has done something wrong.

Yeah.

And again, you're going to let them know they have.

And you're going to let them know that you're a little offended, but in a bit of an animated way.

Right.

So you can't say, have you no almonds?

Have you no pillows?

It doesn't work.

Right, right.

Have you no pillows?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It doesn't really work in that way.

So some things you might hear would be something like self-control, like what I said to my son.

Or what about morals?

Have you no morals?

Yeah.

Have you no morals?

Yeah.

I think that totally works, right?

Same idea.

It comes back to this kind of value judgment zone, right, where someone has kind of broken an unwritten rule or maybe a written rule and you don't think it's okay.

But you also don't want to get so serious in saying, you shouldn't have done that, right?

Right.

Because that can get a little too heavy for some scenarios.

Right.

You're a tin of sugar.

Yeah.

I mean, what are you going to do, sit down and lecture me about sugar?

You know, it's too much.

It's too much.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So should we do a role play?

Yeah.

So here we're friends and I am telling you about a shopping spree that I just went on.

Ooh.

Wow.

Okay.

There we go.

So I went on a shopping spree and I went a little overboard.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

I bought not one, not two, not three, not four, but five new purses.