Pleasure, I'm Sure?!?

when british greet each other for first time they say "pleasure, I'm sure"

why do they say this? does it mean it is your pleasure to meet me? or I'm surely pleasured to meet you?

It's just a friendly platitude. Don't read too much into it. But generally, the pleasure would be the speaker's. Attributing it to the listener would be pretty damn presumptuous!

Hi, that expression has always sounded odd to me too (I hear it on British TV shows). The words "I'm sure" seem to imply certainty, but sometimes they are said in a mechanical way and without much conviction. Also they seem to imply that the alternative -- not to be pleased -- was at least considered before being rejected. I feel like saying, "This is just an introduction, not an evaluation. Who cares about your doubts or certainties about being pleased?" :-)

As Uriel says, though, we shouldn't read too much into it. It's just a greeting, and greetings usually don't mean much unless they are said in an unusual way.

It's GOT to be a class thing or a Sassenach thing or something.

I'm British (Scottish version) and I have never ever ever heard anyone say "pleasure I'm sure"...maybe it's because I don't mix in those circles which seem uppity and elderly or old fashioned or something. Maybe the most likely reason.....it simply isn't a pleasure to meet me in the first place so what the heck. At least I'm honest. I'm trying to imagine all my mates going round saying "pleasure I'm sure".....sounds like something out of Jane Austen.

The new film version of Pride and Prejudice comes out soon......Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett....must see! I shall count the "pleasures I'm sure" if I remember to. :-) I thought KK was lovely in Love Actually. I like banofffi pie too.

I'm from England, and I've never heard anyone say it either (in real life), nor even people of an older generation. I just say 'nice to meet you'. 'Pleasure I'm sure' sounds old-fashioned, stiff and hyper-formal.

nor = not

In Scotland, they say "Aye, paahl! How ye doin', wee man?"

"Giz a drink, ye wee English nancy, or I'll shag ye maw."

Contrast the greeting given in Scotland to the greetings given in places such as Kent, or Surrey or Hertfordshire.

"Oh, hello, Old Chap! Rather spiffing weather we're having today, what not? It's a fine day for a spot of cricket with those jolly chaps I met at Mrs Featherstonehaulgh-McComffrey-Blenheim-Mountbatten-Smythe's ball last year. I can't wait to get my bat in my hand and give those balls a good wacking. Guffaw! Guffaw! Guffaw! Toodle-pip, Old Boy. Must dash. I have to by my wife that expensive, spiffing, jolly old Aston Martin that I saw in the showroom yesterday."

And in the North of England, we say "Alright, mate?".

Those are hilarious, i have to remember them. The Brits always have some ingenious way of greeting each other.

"Pleasure, I'm sure" I too have only seen it on TV, I can't imagine it being used much in real life.

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