MountainLaurel wrote:
Quote:
If by accepting the dinner invitation she is accepting the date, then the answer to "Would you like to go out on a date with me?" is obviously "Yes." I don't understand how in being direct the question is more serious or grandiose.
The difference is implied in your phrase; "being direct". The question; "will you go on a date with me" is more direct than; "would you like to go out to dinner with me".
The woman accepting an invitation to dinner is, in essence, indicating an openness to the possibility of being courted by the man making the invitation. Using the phrase; "will you go on date with me" is asking her to indicate whether she wants to date you.
The latter question is more direct and it demands more information about the woman's feelings than she may feel ready for.
Sorry, I know this is an old thread by now, but there's one thing I still don't understand: when I was at school this is exactly how people asked each other out. They'd go up to the person they liked and say, "Do you want to go out with me?" If she said yes, they were a couple then and there, if she said no then he'd be embarrassed. It worked for all my friends when we were teenagers, why not now as adults? There's no obvious logic here.