AEE 2583: Are You the Sandwich? Why Native Speakers Say This

Summary

All Ears English Podcast – Episode 2583: “Are You the Sandwich? Why Native Speakers Say This”

Hosts: Lindsay McMahon & Aubrey Carter
Date: March 17, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Lindsay and Aubrey explore a quirky, very natural habit in American spoken English: using pronouns like “I,” “me,” or “us” to stand in for things associated with us, such as places, food orders, or even tables at restaurants. This habit often sounds funny to non-native speakers, but it’s extremely common and creates a sense of connection and shared context in conversation. The hosts break down these patterns, offer real-life examples, and show how learners can use them to sound more natural and connected in English.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction to the “I’m the Sandwich” Phenomenon

• Definition: Using “I” or “me” to refer to something associated with you, like, “I’m the sandwich,” or “This is me.”
• Initial Reaction: Lindsay confesses initial confusion about this habit.

  “When I first, I was like, what? … I’m confused. It’s such a funny—and I’m excited to go in this.” (Lindsay, 02:45)

2. How and When Native Speakers Use This

A. Referring to Places (Homes, Offices, Locations)

• Example phrases: “I’m a bit far,” “I’m right off the highway,” “I’m hard to find.”
• Meaning: The pronoun refers to a place connected to the speaker, typically implied by context.
• “They know you’re talking about your house. … But yeah, we use the pronoun ‘I’m’—‘I’m right off the highway.’” (Aubrey, 06:20)

B. Indicating Food Orders at a Restaurant

• Servers might say, “Who’s the chicken sandwich?” and diners reply, “I’m the sandwich.”
• Builds instant connection and efficiency.
• “The server says, ‘Who’s the chicken sandwich?’ … And you say, ‘Me! I’m the chicken sandwich.’” (Aubrey, 08:31)

C. Referring to Tables or Other Roles

• At events: “I’m table six.” (Meaning the speaker is sitting at table six.)
• “We’re the table by the window.”
• “I’m table six. We’re table six.” (Aubrey, 09:05)

D. Other Contexts

• Cash only: A cashier might say, “I’m cash only,” meaning they only accept cash payments.
• Out of gas: A gas station attendant might say, “I’m out of gas,” meaning the station has no gas left.
• “You go up to a register and they say, ‘I’m cash only.’ … You can’t use credit cards here.” (Aubrey, 10:36)

E. “This is me” / “This is us” (Transportation Context)

• Used when arriving at a destination: “This is me,” meaning, “This is my stop.”
• “If you're on a bus with someone … they say something like, ‘Oh, this is us’ or ‘This is me.’” (Lindsay, 03:38)

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3. Why Do English Speakers Do This?

A. Efficiency

• It's faster, avoids redundancy, and assumes shared context.
• “Spoken English often prioritizes efficiency, first of all. So, shorter, faster speech, removing the subject…” (Aubrey, 11:56)

B. Building Connection & Warmth

• Implies familiarity, reduces formality, puts the speaker and listener into a shared moment.
• “We emphasize shared context, which builds connection. … For today, we’re the table in the back.” (Lindsay, 12:12)

C. Speaker-Centered Framing

• The culture of English often places the speaker at the center (“I’m the sandwich”), even if it seems illogical grammatically.
• “We are putting ourselves … even if it doesn't make sense grammatically.” (Aubrey, 12:39)

D. Comparison to Other Languages

• The hosts are curious if this habit exists in other languages and invite listeners to share in YouTube comments.
• “I would be so curious to know ... Do you also do this in your first language?” (Aubrey, 04:44)

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4. When Not to Use This

• Formal Writing: In contracts or academic essays. Use clear, full references.
• Clarity Required: Legal, technical, or safety-related contexts—avoid ambiguity.
• “Very formal writing, especially contracts, academic essays, then you would maybe want to avoid this. … Situations where clarity is critical. Any kind of safety instructions.” (Lindsay & Aubrey, 13:17)

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5. Native-Like Warmth: What This Implies Socially

• Using this type of language implies you’re comfortable, relaxed, and interested in connecting.
• You don’t need to be close friends—it’s just a way to lower formality and build rapport.
• “It just means, hey, I’m gonna relax a little bit around you and get a little bit more familiar and a little bit more connected.” (Lindsay, 17:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On confusing idioms:

  “It is so interesting. It’s very common in natural English, especially in spoken informal conversations, that we say ‘I’ or ‘me,’ but that stands for something else.” (Aubrey, 03:12)

• On realizing the habit:

  “I think you would not be alone, Lindsay, that if I said to someone, have you ever said, ‘I’m the sandwich?’ They’d be like, ‘No, what are you talking about?’ And then if I gave them that context, they'd be like, ‘Oh, I absolutely say that all the time!’” (Aubrey, 09:58)

• On connection:

  “It really does have this subtle implication that you care about the connection. You feel comfortable with them. You like them. It's amazing how this very subtle language feature does all of that.” (Aubrey, 17:49)

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Example Role Play (14:09–16:47)

Scenario: Lindsay and Aubrey meet for lunch.

• Lindsay: “Hey, you live in Phoenix, right? How far are you from downtown?”
• Aubrey: “Yeah, I’m right off I-10.”
• Lindsay: “Wait, are you in that building on Washington?”
• Aubrey: “Yep, that’s me.”
• Server approaches.
• Aubrey: “I’m the Cobb salad, and the French dip is me.”

Discussion: The role play illustrates various ways “I” and “me” are used to stand in for places and things.

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Practical Takeaways

• Listen for this habit in everyday English—at restaurants, on transportation, or describing locations.
• When you feel comfortable or the moment is casual, try using “I’m the sandwich,” “This is me,” or similar phrases for a more natural, friendly American English.
• Remember to avoid this in formal or technical documentation.
• Don’t worry about being best friends with someone to use this—it’s a marker of comfortable, connected communication.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:21] – What does “I’m the sandwich” mean?
• [03:11] – Using pronouns to refer to houses, meals, etc.
• [05:01] – “I’m a bit far” and place-related examples.
• [08:31] – The restaurant context—“I’m the chicken sandwich.”
• [09:05] – “I’m table six,” and related examples.
• [10:36] – Retail context—“I’m cash only.”
• [12:12] – Efficiency, warmth, and context as reasons for this habit.
• [13:17] – When NOT to use this pattern.
• [14:09]–[16:47] – Extended role play showcasing these patterns.
• [17:20] – Takeaways: Connection, subtlety, and relationship-building in language.

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Conclusion

This episode demystifies a common yet confusing English habit, showing it as a tool for efficiency and connection. By using pronouns like “I” and “me” to refer to things we’re associated with, speakers instantly create warmth and reduce formality. English learners can adopt this strategy to fit in naturally and express themselves more authentically in everyday American conversations.

Transcript

[A]

This is an All Ears English podcast. Episode 2583 Are you the sandwich? Why native speakers say this welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, usa. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the Allears English app for iOS and Android. Start your 7 day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slapp

[B]

Sometimes, in moments when native speakers want to connect, they do something funny with their word choices. Listen in to find out how you too could be a sandwich in your next English conversation.

[A]

English is part of how you're evaluated whether you like it or not. In meetings, in interviews, in negotiations, the question isn't whether your English is okay or good enough. It's whether it's working for you. Is it getting you the promotions and the salary raises that you deserve? If not, this is the year to do something about it. Our free 2 minute fluency quiz shows you your true English level, B1, B2, or C1, and where you can level up for real world success for your career or your global life in English. Take the quiz now for free at allearsenglish.com fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com fl e n c dash y s c o r e. Hey, Aubry, what's shaking? What's going on?

[B]

Not too much. How are you, Lindsay?

[A]

Good. But I had a little bit of a curiosity in my head today. Okay. Can I ask you a question?

[B]

Yes. All right.

[A]

So have you ever heard heard anyone say the phrase I'm the sandwich? I've heard that lately and I just don't even know what it means.

[B]

Okay, so I just said this like two days ago. And then I remembered this episode because I was at lunch, okay. And the server brought a salad and a sandwich and I said, I'm the sandwich. Oh, like, that's so funny that we say I'm the sandwich.

[A]

Oh, I got it now.

[B]

I got it.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

I ordered the sandwich.

[A]

Okay. Okay. Because I when I first, I was like, what?

[B]

Why does that even know we had this title? Lindsay was like, what is this about? I'm confused. It's such a funny and I'm excited to go in this. It actually was inspired by a misunderstanding in a recent role play. Lindsay, you were like, Reading the role play. And you said, I know I'm a bit out of the way. And you sort of got confused because you didn't realize you were referring to your house. You're supposed to be referring to your house.

[A]

This is good.

[B]

It is so interesting. It's very common in natural English, especially in spoken informal conversations, that we say I or me, but that stands for something else, the eye.

[A]

So that's the point of today's episode. I'm excited to get into this. Native speakers use I or me to stand for things like their house, what they ordered at the restaurant there, and

[B]

I guess any pronoun. Because I could say he's the sandwich if. And point out my husband if he's the one that ordered the sandwich.

[A]

Right, right, right, right, right. Or I think about. I feel like oftentimes if you're on a bus with someone and you arrive at your bus stop, they say something like, oh, this is us.

[B]

Right? This is me.

[A]

This is me. Oh, this is me.

[B]

Where I would get off that bus stop.

[A]

But you do need to get off of that bus stop. So this is what we're getting into, guys. This is a great theme today. This is all about connection. Because these moments really do matter. Right. So go ahead and hit that follow button if you love our style of connection, not perfection. Or remember, today's episode is also on video over on YouTube. You can learn visually by watching us talk to each other on video. Go ahead and hit subscribe on the YouTube channel. Okay.

[B]

Yes. Awesome. So let's dive into this. This is really fun. Maybe you guys have noticed this before, maybe not, but you'll definitely hear it now. It's extremely common. Native speakers do it without even realizing they're doing. Right.

[A]

And I also wonder if this is done in other languages or not. And if we translated it, whether that how that would work. Right. So I could see if it was done in other languages and we didn't do it in English and we directly translated. That would be a problem.

[B]

Right, right, totally. In fact, come back to YouTube, leave a comment and let us know. Do you also do this in your first language? Where I would be so curious to know.

[A]

Yeah, it's true. Because I don't actually know in Spanish if we do. Yeah. Even though we both speak some of

[B]

my Spanish speaking, French speaking friends. I'm not sure.

[A]

Okay, let's get into the nitty gritty here. So the first way we do it is referring to a place and that's home, office, or location. Tell us about this.

[B]

Exactly. So for example, someone might say I'm a bit far and they might be standing right next to you. That doesn't make sense. You're close to me. Right. But what they mean in the context of the conversation, they might mean my place is far, my home is far, my office is far. Whatever you're talking about, they're saying I'm far, I'm a bit far. Referring to that place.

[A]

Yeah. This is so important to know. And of course it's only going to come up in the context of the conversation. Someone's not just going to walk up to you at the T in the tea room and say I'm a bit far. No, that it would make no sense. Right, exactly. Talking about your new home, maybe that you just bought. And that's in context. Yeah.

[B]

Maybe you leave like you leave a kids basketball game and they're like, let's hang out, should we go to your place or our place? And you say I'm a bit far. It means my house is a bit far from here.

[A]

Yes, exactly. Or you could say I'm right off the highway. My. So again, you're not right off the highway. Right. Your house is right off the highway. You're trying to emphasize it's pretty close.

[B]

Right, Exactly. Or like if someone's just like, you know, where do you live? Or where are you located? Right. Oh, I'm right off the highway. I'm right next to the lake.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You're standing right next to them. That makes no sense that they would know. You mean your house. They've asked where your house is. But yeah, we use the pronoun I'm. I'm right off the highway.

[A]

Exactly. Or I'm hard to find. It's also really confusing if you said this to someone out of nowhere and they were just lost. Yeah. So you're not saying I'm hard to find. You're saying my place, my home is hard to find.

[B]

Any. So imagine you're at your house giving someone directions. They're like driving around, they can't find your driveway and they call you and be like, yeah, sorry, I'm hard to find. You're going to turn right after the big oak tree. Right. We wouldn't say necessarily my house is hard to find.

[A]

We.

[B]

They know. It's implied, it's understood. They know you're talking about your house. You'd say I'm hard to find.

[A]

Yeah. So good. And then this is me. So this is me. This is us. Right. So you've. Our listeners have probably heard this in movies Maybe two people are out on a date or something, and the guy's walking the girl home, whatever, and she stops at, like, a brownstone in Brooklyn. Oh, this is me. Right?

[B]

Exactly right. And just word for word, it's actually very idiomatic. That doesn't make any sense. What it means is, this is where we need to stop so that I can go into my house. Right. This is where my house is.

[A]

Oh, this is so good. I'm surprised we haven't covered this yet on the show through 2500 episodes. We're finally getting to it. But this is great.

[B]

High time. It's so fun. It was really fun to plan.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I love this. It's so true. Like, you were mentioning this one. Lindsay, if you are in a taxi or on a bus, we would be much more likely to say, this is me. This is us, before we get off the that. Rather than saying, like, this is where I live, or whatever else you would say. Because when a subject is implied, when something is implied, it's redundant to say it. It almost implies a lack of intelligence in the other person. So, like, we're saying this because it's

[A]

already understood and now we want personalize it. Right? Because it's about the connection between you and the other person. So now it's you are your house. You are your chicken sandwich. Right, so exactly. So that's moving on to the other context. There's more places. It's not just about your home, your location. It could be about what, Aubrey, what could be?

[B]

Yeah. So, for example, that example in the beginning, right? To mean, that's my order. That's what I'm ordered. The server says, who's. And the server might even say, who's the chicken sandwich? Like, who is the chicken sandwich that they're holding? And you say, me. I'm the chicken sandwich.

[A]

That's so funny. Or I'm table six. Right. So now this. Who would this be said by? Would I have a feeling this would

[B]

be the waiter sitting at table six?

[A]

Okay, I'm sitting.

[B]

Right. So maybe you've reserved, like, at a wedding. I could definitely imagine someone's like, which table are you sitting at? Oh, I'm table six. We're table six. Got it.

[A]

Or maybe if the server. Like most restaurants you don't know, not a wedding, but a restaurant scenario, you don't know the numbers of the tables, but the servers do.

[B]

Oh, yeah. When they're talking to each other, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, it's table six. They are table six.

[A]

The beginning of the night, they do the strategy talk, right? And they say, oh, I'm table six tonight. I'm table six through 12 tonight.

[B]

Right? Or we might say, like, instead of knowing the table number, if, like, imagine you are sitting, you're waiting for a friend. You get up to go to the restroom or something. They came, they come in. Be like, I'm the table by the window.

[A]

Oh, yeah, Total.

[B]

Or we. We're the table by the window. But they would know. You mean that's our table. That's where you should go sit.

[A]

And you, of course, could put a simple preposition in there to make it a little more literal. We're at the table by the window. Right? You could say that too. It doesn't make it wrong. But we're teaching something different today. We're teaching that you become the table.

[B]

Exactly. It's fun. It's so funny. I think. I think you would not be the only alone, Lindsay, that if I said to someone, have you ever said, I'm the sandwich? They'd be like, no, what are you talking about? And then if I gave them in that context, they'd be like, oh, I absolutely say that all the time.

[A]

I'm always a sandwich. I always order sandwiches. I love always the sandwich.

[B]

My husband is always the salad. They often servers will give us the wrong one because I'm the burger and he's the salad. And they'll assume I'm the salad.

[A]

That's hilarious. I love breaking the stereotypes of what many women eat.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

So good. And then the last one is, I'm cash only. So what does this mean? I'm cash.

[B]

So this might be said by a cashier. Meaning, like, I can only take cash transactions. Right. You go up to a register and then say, I'm cash only. Meaning, like, you can't use credit cards here. Yeah, totally.

[A]

Or you go to a gas station and there's no more gas, and you go and say, hey, my pump's not working. I'm. I'm out of gas. Right. So the guy at the. The guy or girl at the register might say, I'm sorry, I'm out of gas.

[B]

Right, Right. Yeah. And we say that. We say that, like, when our car's out, I'm out of gas. You know, we don't say, my car is out of gas. Usually I'm out of gas.

[A]

So it could be multiple people in different positions who are taking on this, like, personification. Right. Super interesting. Really good.

[C]

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[A]

All right, so why the heck do we do this? Aubry, we touched on this a little bit. I think we could go into it a bit more.

[B]

Definitely. Yeah. So spoken English often prioritizes efficiency, first of all. So shorter, faster speech, removing the subject, using a pronoun instead, even if it's not really me, it's understood what the subject is. So I can say I or me.

[A]

Yep. We also emphasize shared context, which builds connection. Right. So listeners can infer the meaning of what you mean. Right. Like you are coming into a restaurant. I like the example you gave earlier where you're texting someone to join you at a restaurant and you're already there with friends. We're the. We're the table in the back. Not we're at the table in the back, which would be fine too, but for today, we're the table in the back.

[B]

It's just.

[A]

It feels a little more warm.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's interesting. And this way the listener, like you were saying, infers the meaning. It does remove some of the sort of formality, the extra words, that wall. Because we are. And it also, the third reason is it's speaker centered framing. So we are putting ourselves, we do this in conversations that we make ourselves the center, even if it doesn't make sense grammatically. Really?

[A]

Yes. And it's super interesting that if you study different languages, not all languages kind of put themselves at the center of a center. Put the speaker at the center of a sentence. Right. So that's cultural too. Wow, love this. This is blowing my mind today.

[B]

Yeah, it's really interesting. And then, you know, we want to briefly touch on when not to use it or when it's a little less appropriate. Like very formal writing, especially like contracts, academic essays, then you would maybe want to avoid this. But even casual conversations at work or in meetings at work, we still do this. Right. If maybe your pen is, oh, I'm the black pen.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Instead of like that, black pen is mine.

[A]

I love that. Or again, situations where clarity is critical. Any kind of safety instructions. Right. Legal, technical instructions where you just don't want anything to get misinterpreted, where it's being Written down or you're delivering them. But you just have to be clear. We want to stay away from this. This is for connection moments.

[B]

Being warmer, putting yourself at the spoken English. Conversational English. Absolutely.

[A]

Really good. Okay, let's do a role play. This will be fun. So we are meeting our new friend. I'm meeting my new friend Aubrey, that's you. For lunch.

[B]

Cool. We just met here. All right, you want to start us out?

[A]

Yes. Hey, you live in Phoenix, right? How far are you from downtown?

[B]

Yeah, I'm right off I 10.

[A]

Wait, are you in that building on Washington?

[B]

Yep, that's me. It's nice that it has such easy access to the freeway.

[A]

Oh, here's the server.

[B]

I'm the Cobb salad, and the French dip is me.

[A]

A salad and a dip. It is funny if you take it out of context, you're like, what? You're the French dip. What? So, yeah, so here I asked you, oh, you live in Phoenix. How far are you from downtown? So immediately we're going to location, so it's an opportunity to use this.

[B]

Yeah. And out of context, you would think that I. You're asking me where I am and how far I am from downtown, but in context, it's clear to both of us that you're asking how far my home is from downtown. How far I live is from downtown.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then I say, I'm right off I 10. Clearly, I don't mean me. I'm sitting right next to you. What that means is I live right off I10.

[A]

Yeah, clearly I don't need to know how far you are from downtown. At this moment, we're in a restaurant together. Right? Exactly.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I said, wait, are you in that building on Washington? Right. So we're talking about a particular building maybe, that I see often, right?

[B]

Yes, exactly. Clearly, I'm not in that building right now. So what you mean is, do I live in this building on Washington? Right.

[A]

Right. And you said, yep, that's me. And you are not the building, but you are saying, yes, I live in that building.

[B]

Right, Exactly. Right. It's really interesting with all of these to look at what's being left out, how much more informal, how much more friendly the wall of formality is down. Like, I'm not saying, you know, you're not saying, how far is your house from downtown? And I'm not saying I live right off I10. We're removing all of that.

[A]

I mean, and that's. We're going to get into that in the takeaway. That's the Cue where there is a connection moment here. Because when you. When you move, it's kind of like changing your register a little bit.

[B]

It.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Yeah. It's very subtle. It's very subtle, but people notice it. Right. That wall of formality you can feel when it's down.

[A]

Interesting. And then we have the. The most common example is the server comes over with two dishes. Right. And then you say, oh, I'm the Cobb salad. Right. So that means I ordered the Cobb salad. And then you said, and the French dip is me. Instead of saying, the French dip is mine, you could say that. You could say, oh, the friendship is mine, I suppose. Right. Or I ordered the French dip. Right.

[B]

Or I'm the sandwich. The sandwich is me. Yeah. And the server might even say, who's the sandwich? Who's the salad?

[A]

Yeah. You're gonna see this coming at you, so be ready for it. Right, guys? Another great episode is 2543. Get go out of your way for these English direction phrases. And is that where this episode came from, Aubry?

[B]

Or is that that role play? The role play? If you go back and listen to that one, it's actually a really fun moment where you're, like, reading the role play and you kind of get. So you're, like, hesitating because you don't realize you supposed to be referring to your house and not yourself. It's really great.

[A]

That's why we have to be very present in our conversations.

[B]

Right?

[A]

100. Yeah. Aubrey, what's our takeaway?

[B]

Yeah, I love what you were saying. Right. This. It's sort of subtle, but whoever you're talking to will feel it when you do this. When you remove the subject, when you are more conversational, you're more informal, it does feel that you feel that connection.

[A]

Yeah. And don't get us wrong, guys. It doesn't mean you need to be best friends with the person to use this type of language. It just means, hey, I'm gonna relax a little bit around you and get a little bit more familiar and a little bit more connected.

[B]

Right? Exactly Right. A little less formal, a little less. It really does have this subtle implication that you care about the connection. You feel comfortable with them. You like them. It's amazing how this very subtle language feature does all of that.

[A]

Super interesting. Good stuff today, Aubry. And we'll be back soon for another connection episode. Yeah.

[B]

Awesome. Yeah, we'll see you guys next time.

[A]

All right, take care. Bye.

[B]

Bye.

[A]

Thanks for listening. To all ears. English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our 2 minute quiz, go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluencyscore and if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

[D]

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