What do the Letter P and Q stand for when you are told to "mind your P's and Q's"?
404827
Old British Term from 1800s meaning "pints & quarts".  Now it's slang for minding your manners, like please & thank you.
534929
This expression, meaning "be very careful to behave correctly",\nhas been in use from the 17th century on.  Theories include:  an\nadmonishment to children learning to write; an admonishment to\ntypesetters (who had to look at the letters reversed); an\nadmonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with\ntheir tarred "queues" (pigtails); "mind your pints and quarts";\n"mind your prices and quality"; "mind your pieds and queues"\n(either feet and pigtails, or two dancing figures that had to be\naccurately performed); the substitution of /p/ for "qu" /kw/ in the\nspeech of uneducated ancient Romans; or the confusion by students\nlearning both Latin and Ancient Greek of such cognates as _pente_\nand _quintus_.  And yes, we've heard the joke about the instruction\nto new sextons:  "Mind your keys and pews."
359549
In British pubs, particularly in earlier times, bartenders kept track of customers' purchases on a slate behind the bar. Beer was sold in pints or quarts (the size of the glasses or mugs the beer was served in - no bottles back then), and had to pay up before they left. Hence, mind your Ps and Qs meant keep an eye on the tab you were running.
685717
Mind your P's and Q's \nMeaning: Behave properly. \nExample: Since his drunk driving arrest, he has been minding his Ps and Qs. \n\nOrigin: Comes from the early pub days when beer and ale was served in pint and quart containers. The tab was kept on a chalkboard used to count the pints and quarts consumed. To watch your Ps and Qs is to control your alcoholic intake and behavior. \nNot only did pub keepers maintain the count of pints and quarts consumed, they often maintained a tab for regular customers, especially sailors. The sailors tab was sometimes paid directly out of the sailors pay by the ship's captain. This to assure the pub keeper of payment. \n\nHowever, this created the opportunity for the pub keeper to charge for a few extra pints and quarts. And in some cases the captain was in on this little deception, and shared in the extra payment. Hence it was to the sailors best interest to keep count of the pints and quarts. To mind his Ps and Qs. \n\nAlternative: Lower case Ps and Qs look similar and can be mistaken for each other. When setting moveable type printing presses, "minding your Ps and Qs" is important. \n\nSimilarly, a person just learning how to write could easily confuse lower case Ps and Qs. Hence a need to be careful and "mind your P's and Q's". \n\nAlternative: Ps and Qs may just be a childish word play for "please and thank yous"! Certainly this seems to fit with the accepted meaning.
45234
If you mean the for "P's", they are: \n\nProduct: Whare is your offering?\n\nPrice: What price will customers pay for your product?\n\nPlace: How will you bring your product to market? What channels do you have available? e.g. internet, retail store, mail order, catalog, etc...\n\nPromotion: How will you position your product and create awareness, interest and preference?\n\nTogether, they represent a composite picture of your "target marketing strategy". However, I would add that the customer is always at the center of your strategy. Start with the customer and work your way back (inside-out). If your product is perceived as being more "relevant" than a competing product - it's likely that yours will be purchased.
594238
Only the best of us get those letters. It means you are probably really funny, like me. However, somewhere during your comedy routine, you offended someone! That is very easy to do around here. That very prudish person reported you to the answer gods, they in return sent you a threat!
871476
"R.S.V.P. stands for the French phrase Répondez s’il vous plaît (“reply, please”), so it doesn’t need an added “please.” However, since few people seem to know its literal meaning, and fewer still take it seriously, it’s best to use plain English: “Please reply.” It is a mistake to think that this phrase invites people to respond only if they are planning to attend; it is at least as important to notify the person doing the inviting if you cannot go."
460256
BE CLEAR WHILE ASKING..\nWE CANT UNDERSTAND YOUR 'Q'.
99581
Usually spoken in harsher words, but it comes from another way of saying "do not give a poop"\nIt means "I do not care."
991486
working in a bar- the barmaids have to remember who ordered a pint/quart. \n\nIt is now used as a phrase meaning mind your own business.
1044323
A and W. The letters are the first letters of the words in the question. And Why :)
10858
There are at least two possible origins, and both seem pretty believable:\n\nFirst: In the days of sailing ships when Sailors were paid a pittance, seamen drank their ale in taverns whose keepers were willing to extend credit until payday. Since many of he sailors were illiterate, inn keepers kept a tally of pints and quarts consumed by each sailor on a chalkboard behind the bar. Next to each person's name, a mark was made under "P" for pint or "Q" for quart whenever a seaman ordered another draught. \n\nOn payday, each seaman was liable for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to "mind his P's and Q's" or he would get into financial trouble. To ensure an accurate count by unscrupulous keepers, sailors had to keep their wits and remain somewhat sober. Sobriety usually ensured good behavior, hence the meaning of "mind your P's and Q's." \n\nSecond: "Mind your P's and Q's" is thought to have originated with printers who set headlines using movable type. If you've ever seen old type, you know the letters are mirror images of the regular alphabet. Lower-case P's look like Q's and vice versa. "Mind your P's and Q's" was a reminder not to mix up the letters when putting them back in the rack after use.
56943
Nickisbox answer is as correct as makes no difference. In fact it means 'socially correct behaviour'. Mind your manners; Mind your behaviour, etc.\n\nI've added this edit (26.01.06) because Puppyfred and MacMomma have referred to origins of the expressions and all of you might be interested in the following: \n\nThe phrase dates to the late 18th century. The pecise origin is not known, but several competing hypotheses seem to be the most likely.\n\n    * The first is that it derives from the phrase p and q which was an abbreviation for prime quality. This English dialectical term dates to the 17th century. So to mind your p's and q's would mean to be exacting in detail and ensure high quality.\n\n    * The second is that it refers to difficulty children had in learning to distinguish between the letters p and q, being mirror images of one another. To learn one's p's and q's is a phrase meaning to learn one's letters is first recorded around 1830--somewhat later but not impossible as the origin. Often this explanation is identified with printers and distinguish between a p and a q in type, but the early use exclusively deals with children, not printing.\n\n    * The third, first suggested by Farmer and Henley at the turn of the 20th century, is that the phrase comes from the practice of maintaining a tally in pubs and taverns. Marks under column P, for pint, or Q, for quart, would be made on a blackboard. To tell a bartender to mind his Ps and Qs would be to tell him to mind his own business and get back to work.\n\n    * Another commonly suggested explanation is that it is a variation on mind your pleases and thank yous, a plea for gentility and manners. There is no evidence to support this, nor does the please and thank you phrase appear anywhere except in explanations of the Ps and Qs origin.\n\n    * The last is from the world of printing. Typesetters had to be skilled in reading letters backward, as the blocks of type would have mirror images of the letters. The lower-case letters p and q were particularly difficult to distinguish because they are mirrors of one another and located in bins next to one another. Typesetters had to be particularly careful not to confuse the two.\n\nAny could be correct except perhaps the fourth which  has no foundation and seems false. I would go for the first as being the most plausible. \n\nThe third is interesting because the blackboard was normally made of slate (and still is in most English pubs although today used for other purposes) and leads to the origin of two other expressions: 'Put it on the slate' and 'Wipe the slate clean'. Workers used to be paid on Friday and by Monday had very little money left. So if they wanted to drink during the week they would ask the landlord to 'put it on the slate'. The landlord would put the customers initials on the board and by the side of it the number of drinks that had to be paid for. The following Friday the customer would pay his bill and the landlord would 'wipe the slate clean'. So, to put something on the slate means to get credit; to wipe the slate clean means to clear ones debts.
1158837
they end with the letters ing  (eg) - what are you doing?, where are you going?, are you coming over? etc.
944976
And you, what do you feel?\n\nusted = you\nq = que = what (in this case)\nsiente = verbo sentir = verb feeling\n\n...\n\nKnow it all is right. There's a mispelling in the word q, as I signed. Just like some American people write "u" meaning "you", some Spanish speakers write "q" meaning "que".\n\nThe correct sentence would be:\n\n¿Usted, qué siente?\n\nThere must be a comma after the "usted" because it's a vocative (like: "God, why me?"; "you, come here!"). And there must be an accent over "qué" because it's a question. And yes, one of the meanings might be: "what do you think?".
594399
First get your p's and q's right
242725
remember it about A's and T's