Being polite when communicating in English is important and often when we talk about education or lack thereof, we are referring to what is considered normal in a society rather than the character of individuals.
This becomes much more relevant and meaningful when the inhabitants of entire regions or nations are described as “educated” or “ill-mannered”. It is not uncommon that by the expressions used a person can be labeled.
Want to be polite in English?
Read on and Funtalk will let you in on all the secrets.
How to be educated in English?
Our goal is not how to teach you to be polite, since clearly every atom of your body gives off education.
The purpose we intend to accomplish is that you avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings.
Having clarified this, let’s move on.
Let’s start with how we can ask for something politely: Can I have a burger, please We could also say: A burger, please As you have probably deduced since you are a very intelligent person, the word “please” is very important. It is even more relevant if you omit the “Can I have”.
To make it clearer, imagine walking up to a hamburger counter and saying: “A hamburger” A bit harsh, isn’t it?
On the other hand, something you should know is when you ask for something outside of a person’s duties, such as asking for change for a vending machine.
Could” is often used instead of “Can” as it shows more formality: Could you give me change, please? The “Could” is the past tense of “Can”, as you may already know (and if you didn’t, now you do).
This is used to talk about the hypothetical and is considered more polite.
Ways to say thank you in English
Saying thank you in English is perhaps the best known expression in the language.
We can probably also classify it as one of the most important.
Let’s see more about it:
- Thank you: This is the classic form we all know
- Thanks: This is a more colloquial version of saying it
- Cheers: It is considered a more British way of saying it.
- Ta: Perhaps this is the one that may be the most unfamiliar.
It is a colloquial form that certain British people of a certain age have.
Other phrases to be polite
In case what we have already explained is not enough, we give you some more phrases to help you to be polite in English.
Here they are:
- Can I help you?
- Do you need anything else?
- Is everything fine?
- Excuse me, please. : Permesso, por favor.
- Glad/nice to meet you: Encantado de conocerle
With these phrases you will be able to get out of a few situations that may occur in everyday life.
We hope it has been useful and now you have a little clearer how to be polite in English and you can avoid intercultural misunderstandings.
Being thankful is a good thing to be born well It doesn’t cost you to add a thank you or please to your sentence!
See you in another installment Thank you very much for your time!