“Cue” means to signal to someone to begin playing music. You might be more familiar with the word “cue” from playing pool or billiards a pool cue is the big, long stick that you use to hit the pool balls. But what’s the meaning exactly? What Does It Mean? More often than not, this is what you mean when you say that you’re going to cue the music. Let’s explore the meaning of each of these phrases and when you should use them. The only way you’ll know that you’re using the correct one is to be very clear on both of their meanings. Spelling and grammar checks don’t always catch this mistake since both “cue” and “queue” are real words. Or your friends may mock you if you get it wrong in a group text message.
If you ever plan on writing about music, you’ll want to learn the correct uses for “cue” and “queue.” Your editor will get frustrated if you can’t distinguish between them. These words may sound virtually the same, but their meaning and spelling are completely different. You may wonder: if these two words sound exactly the same, why do I need to know the difference? Well, you may someday want to write it down. Why Knowing the Difference Between the Two Words Matter We’ll look more closely at what a music queue is later on in this article. You may see the word “queue” on your app and think that this is the correct spelling.
Even if you hear someone say both of these phrases in different situations, there’s a possibility you’ll never know the difference unless you see them written out.įurthermore, many apps offer a music “queue,” including Spotify. People get “cue” and “queue” mixed up because they sound the same when said aloud, despite their different spelling. It all comes down to context and to what exactly you’re trying to say. However, depending on what you’re trying to say, they both can be incorrect as well. Queue: Why Do People Get Them Mixed Up?Īs stated above, both of these phrases can be technically correct.
#Cue vs queue how to#
Now you know how to use queue or que in a sentence, why not take it to the next level and find out what a queue management system is. “The shopping assistant asked everyone to queue up near the counter.”Īn abbreviation for Quebec or the Spanish for “what?” Recapping the que vs queue vs cue debacleĪdmittedly, that’s a lot of queuing for one day so to wrap things up, we’ll leave you with this roundup: For example, you might give a friend a cue or a look to discreetly and wordlessly tell them to stop speaking.īottom line, cue and queue aren’t interchangeable words either. Essentially, a cue is usually a signal to do something. To be clear, although they sound the same, they have entirely different meanings. Īnother common point of confusion is the difference between cue and queue. If you want to use the traditionally American spelling, it’s queuing. Fortunately, this isn’t wrong per se–it’s just the British English way of spelling the word. However, things can get complicated again if you’re trying to use the -ing suffix.įor example, you may be understandably tempted to write something like, “I’ve been queueing at the bank for a long time”. Que is a homophone, meaning that it’s a word that sounds like many other words, even though the spelling is different.īy now, you likely already know how to spell queue (q-u-e-u-e) when you’re describing a line of people waiting in line. That said, these likely aren’t the words you’re looking for unless you’re trying to showcase your world knowledge. Qué, however, is the Spanish word for “what”.
It’s easy to see how we reached the phrase “queueing in line” then, although “queueing in tail” would admittedly have been more fun. The word queue originates from the Old French word cue, coe or queue, translating as “tail”. (“Louise waited in a virtual queue to speak to a fashion expert”). For instance, if you’re trying to talk about people waiting in line, the word is queue. Whether you should spell it as queue or que ultimately depends on the context. So, without further ado, let’s clear a few things up. You don’t want to fall at the first hurdle because of a lousy misspelling. If you’re looking to use a queue management system in your stores, the first thing to know is whether you’re spelling queue correctly. In fact, one of them really only works if you’re speaking Spanish. The bad news is that they’re not interchangeable and you need to know the difference. The good news is that all three options are real words. It’s a question almost as old as time itself–is it que or queue? Or maybe it’s cue.
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