The Secret to Polite English

easy dreamers this lesson will change the way you speak English forever honestly you don't believe me I'm going to show you the secret to being polite in English it's simple it's easy everyone can do it and you can use it in your English today it's going to be unbelievable bubble bubble unbelievable bubble unbelievable that's unbelievable and bubble unbelievable it's not really a word but I like it why is being polite so important well it's about respect it's about showing respect for the person that you're speaking to it's not about formal or informal language because it's important to be polite in all situations now how to be polite it's such a cultural thing and on eat sleep dream English I teach British English so naturally what we're going to talk about today is useful for a British English context obviously in other types of English there might be different rules are you ready to learn this secret the secret to being polite in English ok let's start off with a request ok here we are we have a pen you have the pen and I want the pen so how could I say it in the shortest way well I could say pen pen it's very direct you would think that was quite rude yeah I mean that's I'm not being polite there pen it's very direct ok let's see if I can add some words for that so pen Cleese pen please I've said please so it's a bit more polite but still very direct to directed you know wouldn't so that was very polite ok pass the pen please ok I've added some words but still not particularly polite so when needs may be a modal verb so can you pass me the pen excuse me can you possibly depending ok that's a request is quite polite can you pass me the pen please yeah I think that would that would that would be okay how can I make kin more polite what I can change it to could it's a little less direct so could you pass me the pen please okay so nice request all right so could you pass me a pen please how can we make that even more polite is a phrase would you mind passing me depend please would you mind passing me the pen please so would you mind and then passing to the verb in the ing so would you mind helping me would you mind giving me so would you mind passing me the pen please that's very polite can we make it even more polite okay let me try em excuse me I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind passing me the pen please wow that's long that's a long sentence super polite very indirect excuse me I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind passing me the pen please all right so there you see the the transformation we've gone from pen which is very direct through to excuse me I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind passing me the pen very indirect so many words but extremely polite I would say so the rule here is some more words there are so polite it is okay now that doesn't mean we use any words just throwing in random words just to make a longer sentence it has to be the right words so would you mind and then the verb would you mind passing me the pen please those are the right words we use them for polite requests now context is really important here take for example a coffee shop the barista is taking my order and they're expecting me to order coffee probably it's quite busy I don't need to use a really long sentence excuse me I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind I don't need to say all that because the context is it's just not necessary so I could order Coffee by saying can I have a cappuccino please or I'll have a latte please and the barista would think that that was still very polite whereas maybe in a situation where the person isn't expecting me to ask for something so in the street if I want directions then I would definitely be polite as a stranger I would say to no excuse me I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind telling me where the nearest cafe is so context is really important when thinking about how to be polite okay let's look at another example refusing an invitation so you invite me to the cinema so you say to me Tom would you like to go to the cinema tonight now in a rude response I would say no no okay that's really rude I would never say that to anyone now it's very direct if I were to be more polite I would use your words oh no thanks I'm busy again no thanks I'm busy it's polite er but still maybe not as polite as I would like still to direct so I will use a phrase like I'd love to but unfortunately I've got plans tonight okay so we've gone from no to refuse invitation direct very rude - I'd love to but unfortunately I've got plans tonight much longer less direct okay and much more polite all right let's think of another example another context what if you don't understand what someone has said so they go everywhere over and you go what now what it's short direct but can be quite rude in some situations again this is about context is about who you're with and the situation so with a friend that I know really well family member yeah I might say what that's possible but if I want to be polite with with someone I need more words I need to be less direct so I would say I'm sorry what did you say I'm sorry what did you say that's quite nice I'm sorry what did you say I'm so sorry I didn't hear what you said what was that I'm so sorry I didn't hear what you said what was that more words less direct more polite okay one last context and what about if I don't agree with what you say so you say to me Tom I think that the Samsung Galaxy is better than the iPhone I don't agree now I could say no you're wrong it's very direct it's quite rude and it's quite short okay so how can we make that polite oh well we need to add phrases we need to make it less direct so you say to me I think the Samsung Galaxy is better than the iPhone I would say I'm not so sure about that I mean did and then I would say why so I'm not so sure about that long longer more words less direct okay you have a point but I actually think that the the iPhone is better because the data again indirect more words more polite so my secret to being polite in English is to use more words and be indirect okay the more words you use generally speaking the left direct you are and the more polite your English is we've looked at four different contexts and in each one I've shown you that the more words we use we build up our sentences the more polite we are obviously it's important to think about context who you're speaking to and which words you are using okay don't just use any words use the words that we've looked at to construct really polite sentences if you've enjoyed this video and found it useful please give it a thumbs up share it with your friends and remember to subscribe to this channel thank you so much for watching this is Tom the English hipster and you know what time it is it's time to take your english to the next level

Channel: Eat Sleep Dream English

Views: 76,900

Keywords: polite english, polite english speaking, polite english conversation, How to be polite in English, The secret to polite english, polite english expressions, polite expressions in english, how to use polite english, polite phrases in english, polite requests in english, british accent, british english, Learn English, grammar, vocabulary, Learn polite English expressions, How to make polite requests, refuse invitation politely, english lesson, esl, english speaking, english video

Id: EXyay2VKtaA

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 21 2017