What do you say when someone starts to eat? [Bon appetit, dig in, etc.] (2024)

JulianStuart said:

Some people use the French phrase in the UK. Practices before a meal vary quite a bit, I suspect. Many say nothing, some say "Grace" some a phrase like "Bon appetit".

Click to expand...

Just to clarify this: people do not say the word "Grace." They say a prayer called Grace, short for Grace Before Meals. (There is also Grace After Meals, but it is less commonly used.) The form of this prayer is not fixed, but it generally thanks God for providing the food that the group will soon eat.

entangledbank said:

No, there is nothing that people in the English-speaking world commonly say before eating. People might occasionally say 'bon appetit', but that's likely to be pretty jocular - you're sort of making a joke or adopting a different personality. I can't remember ever hearing it actually used. Twice in my life I ever heard very elderly people 'say grace'.

Click to expand...

In the same "jocular" vein, I've even heard people actually say the word "Grace" (Because someone said "Who's going to "Say Grace" referring to Egmont's description, the joker at the table just says the word). The times I heard "Bon appetit" were before "special", usually some sort of "Haute Cuisine", meal like a dinner party. Needless to say, I didn't gte to partake in many of those, and I certainly never heard Bon Appetit before a normal everyday meal. Maybe the speakers were trying out some sort of faluting, high or otherwise!

I've heard Tuck in!, Get your face round this! (and variants) and, more recently, Enjoy!

more often than Bon appetit!

(I must've heard 10,000 graces said in my lifetime, but that's another story.)

ewie said:

I've heard Tuck in!

Click to expand...

Or "Dig in"

Stoggler said:

Or "Dig in"

Click to expand...

This is a very informal expression that's also used in AE to let your guests know that it's time to start eating.

To me Enjoy your meal! is often said by wait staff in a restaurant in the US, but I would find it odd if someone told me that in their home. It is such a cliché that it seems too commercial for a home setting.

I agree with others that there isn't anything standard or expected said at the beginning of a meal. Perhaps Cheers! as wine served with the meal is first drunk, if that is part of the meal, but you might say that with a drink and no meal.

New question added to previous thread. Cagey, moderator.

Is there an English phrase - not French or Spanish - that you say when a meal is about to start? Thanks.

Other than a prayer thanking God for the food you are about to eat, there isn't a specific tradition for signaling the beginning of eating in Anglophone countries. At best you'll hear whoever made the meal say to "dig in" or "help yourselves" or something akin to that.

Now when it comes to drinking there are plenty and they vary by region.