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hello everyone this is Andrew from crown Academy of English today's lesson is about polite requests and questions so a request is when we ask someone for something and since we are asking for help it is important to be polite okay we must be polite when making a request and therefore we must avoid being too direct so the language that we use must not be direct when we are asking for something when we are making a request here are some examples of being too direct I want help pass me the salt can you carry my bags okay so these are all correct but they are too direct this type of language and structure it is too direct for making a request so these are not polite requests and people will be offended so if you say to someone pass me the salt then okay they will understand you they will probably give you the salt but they won't like it they it's it's not polite it's rude and they will be offended and even if we add the word please it is still too direct so if I say pass me the salt please it's still not polite okay so in this lesson you will learn several methods to make a polite request so I will teach you how to use better language to make a polite request the first structure is could you and the form is could you then the base form of the verb and then the rest of the question example could you carry my bags and of course so this is polite and we can make it even polite sir if we add the word please could you carry my bags please but even without the word please it is still polite could you give me some advice could you carry these boxes and we can add the word possibly to be even more polite let's look at an example could you possibly hold my drink could you possibly hold my drink so we add the word possibly after could you and before the base form of the verb so possibly would go here okay so it just makes it even more polite so could you is a very good way of requesting something of asking for help would you mind would you mind followed by the ing form of the verb and then the rest of the question example would you mind carrying my bags would you mind carrying my bags so we're asking someone to help carry my bags would you mind means would it be a problem for you okay so it's very polite would you mind giving me some advice would you mind giving me some advice notice that we are using the ing form of the verb this is not the base form this is the ing form carrying giving would you mind helping me would you mind taking my photograph okay so this is very useful expression and it's very polite would you mind followed by the ing form of the verb notice here that we say giving me some advice an advice is singular but we say some so why is that why don't we say some advices well the answer is in English advice is an uncountable noun okay so it's not like some other European languages in English advice is uncountable so it is always singular we never say advices and I have another video which explains uncountable and countable nouns and I will give you a link to that video at the end of this lesson I wonder if you could I wonder if you could followed by the base form of the verb and then the rest of the question example I wonder if you could mine my bag I wonder if you could mind my bag to mind something it means to keep something and to protect it and to take care of it okay I wonder if you could give me some advice I wonder if you could give me some advice notice that when we are saying I wonder if you could it's really very indirect so it's very polite I wonder if you could help me and again for this structure we can add the word possibly to be even more polite I wonder if you could possibly take me to the airport I wonder if you could possibly take me to the airport so we add the word possibly after I wonder if you could and before the base form of the verb so it goes here okay so it just makes it slightly more polite negative statements with question tacks you couldn't followed by the base form of the verb the rest of the question and then we say could you at the end which is a question tacked this is the question tag and this part is the negative statement example you couldn't help me could you you couldn't help me could you notice that at the end when we say the question tag we we raise our voice the voice rises slightly to indicate that it is a question because this part is a statement but this part is the question so we the voice we raise our voice at the end only slightly if you listen you couldn't help me could you you couldn't help me could you and when we write it there is a comma here which indicates a pause when we say it so when we say it there is a slight pause between me and could you you couldn't help me could you we can also say you wouldn't plus the base form of the verb plus would you example you wouldn't take me to the airport would you you wouldn't take me to the airport would you again we raised the voice and there is a pause a slight pause and this is a good one I don't suppose you could followed by the base form of the verb followed by the question tag could you example I don't suppose you could clean the bathroom could you I don't suppose you could clean the bathroom could you so if we want to ask someone to clean the bathroom and we want to ask them very politely in a very indirect way without being aggressive then we can say this I don't suppose you could clean the bathroom could you okay now let's look at a polite request in written English because all the other examples they were mostly for spoken English this is a structure for when we are writing so here is a good expression for formal emails and letters I would be grateful if you could followed by the base form of the verb and then the rest of the sentence example I would be I would be grateful if you could send me your price list I would be grateful if you could send me your price list so this is something that we could write in an email to a company for example it's a very polite way of asking them to send us to send us their price list it is better for example if we write send me your price list please the company will understand that but it does not look professional it's too aggressive it's too direct okay and for this structure we can add the word most to be even more polite I would be most grateful if you could send me the reports I would be most grateful if you could send me the reports so as you can see we write the word most between the word bee and grateful okay notice the the grammar here notice that these are not questions there are actually statements we are saying I would be thankful if you could do something it's almost like a conditional it's if you could send me something then I would be grateful grateful means that I appreciate it I am I would be happy I would be pleased so it's almost like a conditional and so they are not actually questions it is a request but the actual the grammar is it is a statement therefore we do not write a question mark at the end notice here that there is just a full stop or a period there is no question mark so that's just something to be careful because these are these are written requests so it's important not to write the question mark at the end okay so there we are that's the end hope you enjoyed it and here are some other videos which you might be interested in