You didn't even tell him the right word -- if you wanted to help him learn English, you might say something to the effect of:
queue -- noun. A first-in, first-out data structure, such as a supermarket line, or processes to be scheduled naively.
cue -- verb. To prepare for, to bring up, to introduce, typically used as a command. Also noun. an indication that it is time to do something, cf. "that's our cue!". Also used in the phrase "on cue", meaning timely.
The thing that bugs me here is that if you honestly consider it, in some situations either word could be used for more or less the same effect.
For example: "Cue the complaints". Surely "Queue the complaints.", meaning that the complaints should start lining up, gets across the same meaning (which is of course "oh great, here come complaints").
This doesn't always work of course ("That's our queue" has an entirely different meaning), however where I see most complaints about "mis-usage", either actually works.
But that's simply invalid English, as 'queue' is a noun, not a verb. Enqueue is the verb form, and nobody would ever say, "enqueue the complaints." :-)
queue -- noun. A first-in, first-out data structure, such as a supermarket line, or processes to be scheduled naively.
cue -- verb. To prepare for, to bring up, to introduce, typically used as a command. Also noun. an indication that it is time to do something, cf. "that's our cue!". Also used in the phrase "on cue", meaning timely.