You're learning with 9 to 5 English - business English for the workplace.
Hi Tim here with another nine-to-five English lesson. In today's lesson we're
going to learn how to make an offer in English. There's give-and-take in every
relationship and giving involves making an offer. It might be something simple
like offering a cup of coffee or it might be something big like help with a
project. In some situations - like offering a drink - we can make the offer very
directly. One common way to do this is with the word "can." So you can ask a
question like "can I help you with that" or you can make a statement like "I can
get you a cup of coffee if you want" How about a bit of practice on making direct
offers. Let's try some examples. Listen to each example then repeat it yourself.
Ready? Let's get started!
Can I get you anything?
I can clean up when we're finished here if you want.
How about I buy you some lunch?
Need a hand with that report?
As you heard you can also use the question "how about"
to make a direct offer you just add what you want to do for the person
after how about such as how about I get you some coffee. And you can also just
ask if someone needs or wants something.
Asking them like this means you're offering to give it to them.
Now sometimes you don't want to be too direct.
Instead you want to be polite and careful. This might be true with someone
you don't know well or in a sensitive situation. So how can you make a careful
offer? Well instead of can you can use could, for example you might say "could I
give you some help?" Just a little change like this can make a big difference.
You can also use other polite expressions such as "would you" and "shall." For
example you might say "would you like some help with that?" or "shall I send you
that document?"
Let's try some examples of making careful offers in these ways.
Remember to repeat the examples after you hear them.
if you like I could give you some help with that
would you like me to you the report for you
could I offer you a glass of water while you wait
shall I organize the files for you
Great job! And maybe you noticed some if questions in both the direct and careful
offers. To make an offer with an if question just say that you can or could
do something "if you want" or "if you like" and you can change the order of the two
parts. I mean you can say "I could help you if you like or "if you like I could
help you" Besides making offers you also need to
respond to offers whether you're accepting or rejecting an offer it's
polite to make a complete sentence. Just saying
yes or no is not enough to accept an offer you can use the word would again
like that would be nice or I would like that and to reject an offer you can say
no thank you and then add a bit more like that's okay
or I'm alright let's try some more practice this time we'll be responding
to offers here we go that would be great thank you
sure I'd appreciate that
no thank you I'm alright
that's okay I should be able to do it
I'd like to point out one important thing in those examples in the last one
you heard that's okay this expression actually means no it can be confusing
because okay means yes but that's okay means the opposite all
right so we've practiced making and responding to offers but how does this
sound in a conversation let's listen to a short dialogue between John and Kim
John is offering to help Kim with some work would you like me to help you write
the proposal Thanks that's okay I should be able to do it
okay so how about I review it when you're finished sure I'd appreciate that
as you heard Kim rejected John's offer to help write the proposal but accepted
his help reviewing it now it's your turn to practice will repeat the dialogue but
this time we're going to beep out the second speakers words you will have to
say those parts yourself remember to reject the first offer then accept the
second one would you like me to help you write the proposal
okay so how about I review it when you're finished
okay that just about does it for this lesson we've learned some great ways to
make and respond to offers tune in next time to learn about making and
responding to requests until then so long and happy learning