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Full video: Don’t say GIVE ME | Speak English Politely

Course: Sounding polite and considerateSection: Polite ways to ask for thingsSubtitles: en

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181 subtitle cues

0:00

I remember in my first year living in

0:02

Spain I went to the shop with a friend

0:04

of mine a Spanish friend and place it to

0:07

the man in the shop the Spanish

0:09

equivalent of hello please could I have

0:12

some tomatoes please and then my friend

0:16

said to him give me bread and I thought

0:19

wow that's a bit rude you see in certain

0:24

circumstances in Spain maybe that's okay

0:27

but in England you must never ask for

0:30

things by saying give me give me bread

0:33

so in this lesson I'm going to teach you

0:36

different ways of asking for things

0:39

without saying give me don't say give me

0:43

in English don't say I want in English

0:47

instead we say one of these beautiful

0:51

polite expressions let's go

0:58

right if you are new here subscribe to

1:01

my channel so you don't miss another

1:03

lesson from me and click that Bell

1:05

notification so you get notified when I

1:08

publish new lessons right when we are

1:11

speaking English

1:12

we must not be direct we always just

1:16

work our way around speech and questions

1:20

instead of being direct because if you

1:23

are direct in English you can easily

1:26

appear rude and we really don't want to

1:30

appear rude in most situations we don't

1:33

tell people what we want we ask if it's

1:36

possible to have it if you go to a bar

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you don't say give me a beer you don't

1:42

say I want a beer you say can I have a

1:46

beer can I have is it possible for me to

1:50

have a beer that's what we're asking

1:53

it's so indirect but we understand that

1:57

when somebody asks the possibility of

1:59

having a beer really they want a beer if

2:03

you're in a restaurant with me and you

2:05

say Greg give me the salt I won't be too

2:08

happy although I might give you the salt

2:11

I will probably like you a little bit

2:13

less however if you say Greg could you

2:17

give me the salt could you give me the

2:20

salt hypothetically hypothetically

2:23

because that's what could means could is

2:25

hypothetical could could you pass me the

2:29

salt when we're speaking English we

2:31

always have to be so indirect so let's

2:34

have a look at some expressions that we

2:36

can use instead of give me or I want

2:39

remember say them with a smile say them

2:43

with a friendly voice and always say

2:46

please at the end let's go could I have

2:50

could I have you're in a restaurant and

2:53

you ask the waiter could I have some

2:56

water please could I have some water

2:59

please

3:00

this is a little bit more polite than

3:02

can I have

3:04

can I have some water please can I have

3:07

some water please we could also say

3:09

could you give me could you give me

3:13

another knife please could you give me

3:16

another knife please again instead of

3:20

could we can use can can you give me

3:23

another knife please can you give me

3:26

another knife please

3:28

another expression it's simply saying

3:30

what you would like I would like I would

3:34

like it's a much more polite way of

3:37

saying I want so if we're asking for

3:41

something we always use this expression

3:43

I'd like I'd like the steak please I'd

3:47

like I would like

3:50

I'd like the steak please now saying

3:53

please is so important when you're

3:56

asking for things what we can do is we

3:58

can put please as the first word of the

4:01

sentence please can I have please can I

4:04

have okay please can I have the pizza or

4:09

please may I have please may I have is

4:12

even more polite than please can I have

4:15

please may I have the lasagna please may

4:19

I have the lasagna as I said earlier

4:22

instead of give we can use the word pass

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because give is a very direct word we

4:28

can say pass it it's much softer it's

4:30

much more gentle than give so instead of

4:33

saying can you give me the salt please

4:35

we say could you pass me the salt please

4:38

could you pass me the salt please

4:42

now a lot of these expressions I'm using

4:44

examples in a restaurant where obviously

4:47

you're asking for something and you have

4:49

to be polite but this is also true when

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you're with family or friends

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we still don't want to be direct because

4:57

it's still rude and we want to avoid

4:59

being rude even with your parents if I

5:03

said to my mother give me that pen she

5:06

would be surprised at how rude I was

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being so what I would probably say is

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this plasma not pen will you pass me

5:15

that pen

5:16

will ya if we add willya at the end of

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an imperative at the end of an order

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like pass me the pen or give me the pen

5:26

if we add William at the end it makes it

5:31

less direct it makes it more polite and

5:34

it's not very formal but it's a polite

5:37

way of speaking with people like family

5:40

or friends passed without pen will you

5:43

with this intonation merinov a moaner

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pass me that pen will you pass me water

5:48

will you take me to the train station

5:51

will you give me a pound will you give

5:53

me that last slice of pizza will ya

5:56

it's almost direct but at the very end

5:59

of the sentence we make it not direct

6:02

don't use it in formal situations but

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it's a nice way of being polite and

6:07

friendly with family and friends and

6:10

instead of saying will ya at the end we

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could say would you would you would you

6:16

would you okay when we're speaking

6:19

naturally we don't say would you would

6:22

you becomes would you pass me that

6:25

newspaper would you give me a beer would

6:27

you the next way is asking somebody if

6:30

they want to do it instead of saying

6:33

give me the report on Monday you could

6:37

say do you want to give me the report on

6:39

Monday this is a really really useful

6:42

expression that to use at work you are

6:45

giving your colleague an order but

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you're being very indirect about it so

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if your boss says to you do you want to

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call that client and I'll call this

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client they use this construction

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basically they're saying that you must

7:01

do it but they're being very polite and

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very indirect in asking you finally we

7:09

can use the expression

7:10

do you mind do you mind hypothetically

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would you be sad if I asked you to give

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me a glass of water do you mind giving

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me a glass of water

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do you mind bringing me a glass of water

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do you mind passing me that water from

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there please do you mind

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and

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we say it quickly do you becomes JA Djem

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and juh mind do you mind passing the

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butter do you mind giving me the butter

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please okay one golden rule in English

7:41

and that is the following when somebody

7:43

gives you what you have asked for

7:46

always always always say thank you

7:50

alright if you want to speak advanced

7:52

English then download my free ebook

7:54

English quick fix that is going to give

7:57

you 16 steps to speak advanced English

8:00

it's free and if you're at an

8:02

intermediate level and want to fix all

8:05

the typical mistakes that English

8:07

students make then get that book now you

8:10

can download it by clicking the link in

8:12

the description or at the end of this

8:15

video and be sure to subscribe to the

8:18

channel and click that Bell at

8:20

notification if you want to be notified

8:23

the next time I publish free lessons for

8:26

you okay thanks for being here I really

8:30

appreciate it and I'll see you in the

8:32

next English lesson bye for now

8:37

oh and do you want to watch this video

8:39

next remember that means you must watch

8:43

this video next but I'm being polite I'm

8:45

being indirect watch

8:50

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