Hello and welcome to letthemtalk my name is Gideon
and In this video you'll learn how to be super polite in English.
Not just a little polite but really, really polite. When you use this grammar noboby will
refuse you. If you want to know more then stay tuned.
Hello, give me your phone please.
No, I won't
Why not? I said please
You can't have it
Give me me you phone please I want to play pokemon go
Why don't you use your own phone?
My battery is dead, the app really drains the battery.
Is that so.
Give it to me.
No, You can't have it.
give it now
Give that back
I'm about to catch a ____
Well that didn't work, did it?
but in this video we are going to look at different levels of politeness in English
Now, in the English language we have a problem.
Other languages have polite and familiar forms of "you". Such as "tu" and "vous" in French
or "tu" and "usted" in Spanish. This is very convenient if you are making a request because
as soon as you use the polite form you will, by definition, be polite. Modern English however,
only has one word for "you" and this can pose a problem because you need to use other words
to sound polite so it requires a more subtle use of the language.
Sometimes when non-native English speakers ask for something they can sound impolite
even if they say "please". For example, " Give me the book, please ".
While it's ok in some other languages to use an imperative to ask
for something in English it can be interpreted as rude
unless you know the person pretty well.
So how do you overcome this problem?
In English the rule is that the more indirect you are
you are the politer you are. There are several way to do this.
When we ask for things we will often use indirect questions. Let's look at some examples
"Can you tell me what time the show begins?"
If you want to be more polite use "could"
"Could you tell me what time the next train leaves? "
Another common way to ask for something is by using "would you mind" (+verb + ing)
"It's hot would you mind opening the window? "
"Would you mind turning off the radio?"
Another method is to use "I was wondering if" followed by a pronoun followed by "could".
For example
"I'm a little late, I was wondering if you could take me to the station. "
"I'm tired I was wondering if we could finish this tomorrow."
"I was wondering if my friend could also come to the party."
There are times when you need to be even more polite than this. For example, if you stop
a stranger in the street or you ask a friend for a big favour.
How do handle these situations?
In these cases you might want to use the most polite form of all.
And that is the negative statements followed by a question tag.
Usually, with the verb "to be", "have" "could" or "would". Let's look at some examples.
"Excuse me, I couldn't borrow your car this evening, could I?"
So we have a negaitve statement: (I couldn't borrow your car) followed by the question tag
The question tag has the modal verb "could" and because the statement is in negative
the tag will be in the affirmative. The pronoun, in this case "I", is always at the end
Also you should pronounce the question tag
with a rising tone to show that it's a real question. "could I?".
"I couldn't borrow your car this evening, could I?"
Here are some more examples.
"Listen John, I'm a bit broke at the moment.
You wouldn't lend me £50 until next week, would you?"
Finally, to take the sentence to the maximum level of politeness
in addition. to the question tag
You could add "by any chance" to the end of the phrase.
"You're not free tomorrow, are you by any chance?"
"You haven't got a bigger towel have you by any chance?"
OK so let's return to our earlier scene and see how we get on using this super polite form
Excuse me, sir.
Yes
I'm sorry to trouble you...
I couldn't borrow your phone for a moment, could I by any chance?
Why
It sounds ridiculout but I want to play Pokemon Go.
Why don't you use your on phone?
The battery is dead. The app really drains the battery.
I quite understand. Here you are.
Oh that's so kind of you thank you very much
There you are so now you can manage any situation
by choosing the appropriate level of politeness.
Now go out onto the streets see if it works and let me know.