[Grammar] This time you be my guest

A: Let's go out for dinner.
B: Ok, this time you be my guest.

Hello everybody,
Why does the sentence above not write as 'this time you are/will be my guest'? The pronoun YOU is the second person, so its linking verb should be 'are'. If its copula is 'be', there must be an auxiliary or modal verb before it, such as WILL, DO, DID, CAN etc., right?

PS: If you find any errors in my English, would you mind correcting me, please. Thanks a lot!

Regards

羡鱼-Xianyu;596877 said:

A: Let's go out for dinner.
B: Ok, this time you be my guest.

Hello everybody,
Why does the sentence above not write as 'this time you are/will be my guest'? The pronoun YOU is the second person, so its linking verb should be 'are'. If its copula is 'be', there must be an auxiliary or modal verb before it, such as WILL, DO, DID, CAN etc., right?

PS: If you find any errors in my English, would you mind correcting me, please. Thanks a lot!

Regards

Click to expand...

The phrase "Be my guest", an idiom, must be referring to "YOU" in the circumstances. It turns out to be superfluous if "ÿou" is added.
(Not a teacher)

albertino said:

The phrase "Be my guest", an idiom, must be referring to "YOU" in the circumstances. It turns out to be superfluous if "ÿou" is added.
(Not a teacher)

Click to expand...

It's true that "Be my guest" is an idiom, but it doesn't really apply in situations like this where someone actually really is going to be a guest. An example would be:

Q - Can I read/borrow that newspaper that you just put down, if you're not reading it?
A - Be my guest.

It means "Of course, go ahead".

In the example given, I would say

- Let's go out for dinner!
- Yes, but this time you will be my guest.

The use of "this time" suggests that perhaps at some point in the past, the first speaker took the second speaker out for a meal and paid for everything and now he wants to return the favour.