The young actor waited nervously for her cue to step onto the stage.In societies where queueing is a national tradition (read: Britain) the etiquette and rules involved are well known, clear cut, and enforced by the community as a whole. It can also be used by someone wishing to join the line, but is used usually under duress. Is usually used by the person serving the line to find the end of the line and close the queue. Usually there is much gesturing and body language that goes into informing where the end of the line is, in particular the not uncommon exasperated glares from people already waiting trying to ensure their position. To ensure one does not wait in the wrong line. In the cases where there might be multiple lines forming, for example in a crowded bus terminal, one might ask Under most circumstances, the end of the line is obvious. Usually if the answer is yes, one would begin to trace back to the end of the line possibly asking When one is unsure where the line is, but is sure there is a line, one would look any number of people in the vicinity of the possible line and ask If one is unsure a line exists, the question There are several ways to enter a line (AmE) or queue (BrE) The last person is of primary importance in Russian while the location of the end of the line is of secondary importance. "Who is last?" - He will be answered - "Jack!", even though Jack is out for the time being. In practice, you physically stand in a line, however, people may want to step out of the line for a short time and you must remember which person is in front of you. I haven't paraphrased it because I don't want to get any details wrong! It's quite interesting:Į always ask "Who is the last?" It's a cliche. So knowing the 'last in the queue' is very important. Mostly you stand in the queue, but you can leave the physical line for a little bit. The situation in Russian seems to be halfway between the two situations described above.
However, if you just can't physically identify where the end of the physical queue is, you could just ask: For this reason we don't really have a fixed saying for asking who the last person in the queue is. If you try to reinsert yourself in your old position, you may start an argument with the other queuers. If you aren't physically standing in the queue, you aren't in the queue at all! So if you leave the physical line of people and you don't ask someone to keep your physical place, you aren't in the queue any more and if you want to rejoin the queue, you have to go to the back of the line and start all over again. In most English speaking countries the system for queuing doesn't work this way. In the meantime you can wander about or sit down as you please. At this point you become the last in the queue, and if anyone asks who's last, it's you.
If they are indeed the last person in the queue, you know that you can go up to the counter after that person. Someone will normally point you towards the person who is last in the queue. In order to find out where you are in the queue, you ask people "Are you the last?". In many countries - for example in Spain - a queue at a bank, for instance, won't actually be a physical queue.
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