“Yeah, he's a real stickler for following the proper chain of command.”

At work, your coworker is complaining because she got yelled at by the manager of the tech support department. She sent an e-mail to one of the tech support staff directly instead of going through the manager. You've been yelled at by this person in the past, so you have some experience dealing with him. But you don't want to say anything too bad about him. So you say:

Yeah, he's a real stickler for following the proper chain of command.

Click to read more ...

“As you're well aware, all requests for tech support are to go through me.”

You're the manager of a tech support department at a company. People are supposed to e-mail you when they need help with their computers and other technology. Then you choose an employee from your staff to help them. One coworker doesn't follow the rules, and always calls one of your staff members directly instead. She just did this again, so you write an angry e-mail telling her not to do this. You begin:

As you're well aware, all requests for tech support are to go through me.

Click to read more ...

“I'm sorry. I don't set the rules; I just enforce them.”

You work at a nightclub. The club has a strict dress code. A group of people wants to get in, but one of them is wearing shorts. You can't let them in because of the club's rules. One of the people in the group is asking you to make an exception, but you're not allowed to decide that. You say:

I'm sorry. I don't set the rules; I just enforce them.

Click to read more ...

“Can't you make an exception just this once?”

You and your friends are trying to get into a nightclub, but the club has a dress code that doesn't allow people wearing shorts to enter. Your friend is wearing shorts, so the bouncer won't let him in. You beg the bouncer:

Can't you make an exception just this once?

can't you (do something)

You can ask "Can't you ___?" instead of "Can you ___?" when you're not just asking a question, but trying to convince someone to do something. In the example above, you're trying to convince the bouncer to let your friend in. In the following example, you're trying to convince your son, who's playing a noisy game, to play in another room so that it doesn't distract you:

Can't you do that in the other room?

The tone of the first example, "Can't you make an exception...?" is polite. The tone of the second is annoyed. But both of them are used to try to convince the listener.

make an exception

When you're the person who makes or enforces a rule, people will sometimes ask you to let them break the rule. If you let them do this, you are "making an exception" for that person. For example, if a teacher has a rule that homework has to be submitted by a certain date, he can "make an exception" for a certain student whose computer broke. Use "for ___" to indicate the person who is allowed to break the rule:

I don't usually give my number out to people I've just met, but for you I'll make an exception.

(do something) just this once

When you're trying to convince someone to do something that they don't want to do, one way to persuade them is to say that it's "just this once". It means that they only have to do it one time. In the future, they won't have to do it again. People use this phrase a lot when asking for favors from people. Like when you want to borrow money from a family member:

Can you loan me a couple hundred bucks? Please, just this once.