You’ve done very well for yourself

English translation: You've been very successful

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	You’ve done very well for yourself
Selected answer:	You've been very successful
Entered by:	Catherine Bolton

15:07 Oct 18, 2004

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Cinema, Film, TV, Drama

English term or phrase: You’ve done very well for yourself

Driver:
I am a fruiterer and a greengrocer. That’s my van and this is one of my roads.
Tom:
You’ve done very well for yourself, haven’t you?
Driver:
I don’t own the road. I didn’t say I owned the road. What I am saying is I have worked myself up in all the roads round here.
Tom:
I believe that. You’re doing it again. Just what are you on about?
Driver:
Private enterprise! It’s taken me ten years to work up this round and I’m not having anyone pushing in!

‘The Good Life’

lim0nka KudoZ activity Questions: 1591 (5 open) (1 without valid answers) (13 closed without grading) Answers: 3319 United Kingdom
Local time: 04:47

you've been very successful

Explanation:
Simply means that the driver has developed his business into something profitable and successful. He's doing well in his career/business.

Selected response from:

Catherine Bolton
Local time: 05:47

Grading comment

Thank you.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

5 +8

you've been very successful

Catherine Bolton

5 +2

It's a deliberate, humorous ambiguity...

John Bowden

Achieved a level of success

Kurt Porter

Answers

2 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +8

you’ve done very well for yourself

you've been very successful

Explanation:
Simply means that the driver has developed his business into something profitable and successful. He's doing well in his career/business.

Catherine Bolton
Local time: 05:47
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Thank you.

3 mins confidence:

you’ve done very well for yourself Achieved a level of success

Explanation:
Accomplished something.

Kurt Porter
Local time: 08:47
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

It's a deliberate, humorous ambiguity...

Explanation:
- if I remember the episode correctly, Tom is arguing with the Fruiterer, because he(Tom) is trying to sell his home-grown vegetables by knocking on doors, and the Fruiterer is saying he already delivers to this road and therefore doesn't want Tom's competition ("I’m not having anyone pushing in!")

So, Tom deliberately misunderstands him by taking the Fruitere's words literally to make him angry/frustrated:

"That's my van" = "that van belongs to me"

but Tom then deliberately misunderstands "that's one of my roads" to mean "this road belongs to me" rather than "this is one of the roads on my delivery round" - so he says "You've done well for yourself" (if you own a whole road), making the Fruiterer say, in exasperation, "I don’t own the road. I didn’t say I owned the road"...

HTH

John Bowden
Local time: 04:47
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

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You’ve done very well for yourself

English translation: You've been very successful

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