Polite English: 10 Ways to Make Offers (formal → neutral → casual)

So, imagine this.

You have been working at a company for three months.

You decide to invite your boss over for dinner.

Your boss knocks on the door, you open the door, and your boss is taking off his coat.

What do you say to offer to take his coat?

You could say, "Do you want me to take your coat?"

Which is quite informal, and not rude, but you really should only say that to someone

you are quite familiar with and comfortable with, or, "Would you like me to take your

coat?"

Which is much more polite, and a little more neutral, and is more appropriate in this situation

than "Do you want me to?"

Okay?

So, what we are talking about in this video is politeness when we make offers to people.

So, what I am going to do is teach you ten ways to make offers from the most polite to

the most casual.

All of these are useful, they are used, it just depends on your relationship with the

person you are making the offer to.

So, again, if you, you know, you talk to your boss, who you've known for three months, it's

probably a good idea to be a little more polite.

If you are just with your friends, you can ask them, "Hey, do you want a drink?"

That's fine.

All right, so let's start from the most polite, the most formal, to the most casual.

So, the most polite way, "Shall I?"

Shall I get you some tea?

Shall I take away your plate?

So, in this case, you are almost asking for permission from the person to do something

for them, you're offering to do something, but you have the intention of doing it, you're

just asking, it's like, "Is it okay?

May I do this for you?

Is it okay if I do this for you?"

But you have every intention of doing it.

So, if you offer someone some tea, "Shall I get you some tea?", "Shall I take away your

plate?"

And this is quite formal, and you might hear it in a show like Downton Abbey or something

like that, for example.

You can use it in your day-to-day life, but I recommend using something a little less,

well, I guess formal.

Let's move on with the next one.

Allow me to continue.

So, with "allow me to", which is still a very formal phrase, you have every intention of

completing the action.

So, for example, "Please, allow me to take your coat."

If you are making this offer, if you are saying this to someone, you're probably already reaching

out your hands to take their coat.

You're offering to do it, you want to do it, you have every intention of completing the

action.

We'll get to this one later, but the informal equivalent of "Allow me to do something" is

"Let me do something", and we'll talk about that one a little later.

So, "Allow me to introduce you to my wife."

Now, again, in this case, you are not giving the person much choice in the matter.

You are going to introduce your wife.

So, "Allow me to introduce you to my wife."

This is my wife, Joanna, for example, and you're just being polite by kind of offering

your permission, asking for permission to introduce your wife, but you're going to introduce

your wife in this case.

All right?

So, "Allow me to", still quite formal, you have every intention of completing the action,

and it's quite polite, and you can use it in a formal situation with colleagues, with

people that maybe you don't know really well, maybe at a restaurant or at a dinner party,

and someone you've met for the first time, and you just want to show that you are polite,

you are kind, and you want to upgrade your level of formality.

Let's move on to the next one.

"May I help you with something?"

So, "May I" is courteous but neutral.

It is very common in the service industry.

So, if you have a customer service job, maybe you work on the phone, maybe you work at a

restaurant, fast food chain, you will hear this, and you can use this if you have clients

or customers.

So, "May I offer you a drink?"

A waiter or waitress might ask you this if, you know, you are at a nice, fancy restaurant,

or any restaurant, really.

It's courteous but neutral.

You can use it with acquaintances, with strangers, with clients.

Basically, I don't really use this with my close, close friends, because if I'm with

my close friends, we're familiar with each other, and we use much more casual language

to make offers.

So, "May I" is, again, courteous but neutral, very common in the service industry, so you

might hear it when you go to a restaurant or when you order food.

So, let's go on to the next one.

"Would you like me to continue?"

"Would you like me to" is polite, and you are asking if the other person would like

you to do something.

You are offering your services in this situation.

For example, "Would you like me to open the windows?"

Like, I see that you are very hot, so, "Would you like me to open the windows?"

I can do it.

I don't mind.

It's okay.

I'm not bothered by it.

Next, "Would you like me to send it again?"

So, maybe this can be in an email response or a text message if someone says, "I don't

think I got the attachment," or "I don't think I got your email," or "I don't think I received

the picture."

Say, "Oh, would you like me to send it again?"

It's usually not a problem for you.

You're just being courteous, you're being polite by offering your services in this case.

Let's continue.

Oh, wait.

Informal equivalent, "Do you want me to?"

So, at the beginning of the video, we talked about, you know, "Would you like me to take

your coat?" or "Do you want me to take your coat?"

The informal equivalent of "Would you like me to" is "Do you want me to?"

I would use this with my friends, like, "Hey, do you want me to open a window?" or "Do you

want me to prepare some tea?"

I don't drink tea much with my friends, but sometimes we do.

Again, I can use "Would you like me to" with my friends as well if I want to be a little

more polite, and maybe if I am the host of a dinner party, but typically, I just say,

"Do you want me to?"

Because I'm still offering my services, but just a little more relaxed, in a more relaxed

way.

Now, let's continue to the next one.

"Would you like to hear some more?"

So, "Would you like" is neutral and polite.

It's the safe option.

If you are not sure about the level of formality in a situation, no one will ever wonder if

you are being too polite or if you're not being polite enough if you say, "Would you

like something?"

So, "Would you like some coffee?"

This is an offer maybe to someone who is at your home or, again, at a cafe, a restaurant.

"Would you like fries with that?" is a very, very common question in a fast food restaurant,

for example.

So, again, neutral, still polite.

"Would you like some more?

Would you like fries with that?

Would you like anything else?"

Very common to hear that from a server.

"Would you like," you know, "option A or option B?"

So, if you are given two options, maybe of phone plans, for example, "Would you like

to go with option A or would you like to go with option B?"

So, they are offering you different options, and "Would you like" is the most neutral,

safest, but still polite way to make an offer to someone.

Okay, let's continue and get a little more informal.

Oh, wow, okay.

This is good.

I can work with this.

"Can I?"

So, "Can I" is the informal equivalent of "May I?"

So, this is common among friends, but it is also in popular usage among the service industry.

So, if you order a coffee at a Starbucks or any other cafe with a casual vibe or semi-casual

business, formal attire, you'll hear "Can I?", right?

So, "Can I take something off your hands?"

Now, what this means is if someone, you know, enters your home and you see that they're

carrying a lot of bags or a lot of stuff and you want to offer to help them with those

objects, you can say, "Hey, can I take something off your hands?"

Right?

Like, "Can I help you carry that?"

Next, "Can I get you anything else?"

Very common if you go to a diner, a casual restaurant.

Not like a very fine, formal restaurant.

A fine, formal restaurant might ask you, like, "May I get you anything else?" or "Would you

like anything else?"

But if you go to a diner, you know, they're giving you another coffee.

Maybe a breakfast restaurant, very casual, and they might ask you, yeah, "Can I get you

anything else, another coffee, you know, some more eggs?" or something like that.

So, the formal/informal equivalent of "May I?", hmm, I wonder what I'm going to wear

next.

"Do you want to learn more ways to make offers?"

So, hey, I think I can wear this to a backyard barbecue or something like that.

So, "Do you want" or "Do you need", this is very informal, casual, very common among friends

and co-workers, colleagues, colleagues/co-workers, couples with your girlfriend, your boyfriend.

So, "Are you cold?

Do you want a blanket?" for example.

It's often shortened in speech to "You want?" or "You need?"

So, let's look at the two examples here.

"Do you want a hamburger?"

"Ah, I am at a backyard barbecue, and maybe I'm the host."

Or, "Hey, Fred, do you want a hamburger?" or "Hey, do you want a hot dog?

Do you need...

Do you need any help?"

Now, you can also shorten it in speech, "Janice, want a hot dog?

Frank, want a hamburger?

Want a drink?

Or you want a drink?"

So, you can do a lot of different things with this.

You can take off the "do", you can say "You want?" or you can just say "Want?" in casual

speech.

So, as you can see, we are getting a little more casual.

But you know what?

I really like this shirt, so I'm going to continue wearing it, but let's see what the

next phrase is.

Come here.

Let me show you something.

So, next, we have "Let me".

So, "Let me" is the informal equivalent of "Allow me", and the other person often doesn't

have a choice in the matter, with some exceptions.

So, for example, if you say "Let me help you", like you really want to help the other person.

You're offering your services, you want to help them, and you kind of...

They do have an option in that case.

They also have an option in this case.

This is a very polite...

Not polite, but a neutral, kind of casual email phrase.

"Let me know if you need anything."

Now, you can use this in an email.

You can also use this when you're talking to someone and you're, you know, the host

of a dinner party.

We're back to the dinner party, or the backyard barbecue.

Yeah, we're in the barbecue.

So, "Let me know if you need anything.

Let me know if you want something else.

Let me do it."

Right?

So, in this case, maybe you see someone is trying to fix something on their phone and

they can't delete something, and you're like...

And you get kind of annoyed.

So, you're not offering.

You are offering, but it's like a fake offer.

You have every intention of just taking the phone from them and fixing the problem, because

you are so annoyed.

Maybe it's an older relative or something like that.

Like, "Okay, let me do it.

Let me take that for you."

And you're already reaching for the thing that you want to take from them, basically.

Okay.

So, "Let me continue", "Allow me to continue", whichever one you feel is more appropriate

in this case.

Let's go.

We got two more?

Yeah, two more.

Let's go.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Oh, you've got to try this.

Have one.

So, have one, have some.

In this case, you're making a command.

You're using an imperative, and you're just putting something into someone's hand or just

showing it in front of their face.

Don't those look delicious?

What are these called?

Raspberries.

And these?

These are blueberries.

I haven't tried these, so I'm going to try one now.

Also good.

Also very good.

I really wish I could give you one.

Okay.

So, you can say, "Oh, these cookies are amazing.

Here, have one."

Or, "You look a bit tired.

Have some water."

So, if you have a water bottle, imagine it's full, have some water, and you're offering

it to the other person.

So, again, you can specify what you want the other person to have.

You can just say, "Have one" or "Have some", or you can specify, "Have a drink", "Have

an apple", "Have some water", "Have a cookie".

Parents say that to, you know, their kids maybe after they do something good, and they

want to give them a reward.

And your reward is going to be one more board like this, like B-O-A-R-D, not B-O-R-E-D.

Okay, let's go.

I'm going to go down.

Whoo.

Okay.

Hey.

Here, take one.

And actually, here, take this one, too, and yeah, you can take all these, yeah, take them

all.

You can share them with your friends, right?

And if you want more, and if you want your friends to get more, just go to EnglishAlex.com

or check out the link attached to the video, I guess.

That would be useful.

So, take one, take some.

These are the most direct ways to offer something to someone.

You're not giving them much of a choice.

You're kind of putting it in their face.

Similar to have some, have one, and you're inviting them to, here, use your hand to grab

this from me.

Come on.

Take it.

Take one.

Take some.

Please.

If you want to be polite, you can always add please.

Very important.

So, hey, these are great.

Here, take one.

So, the blueberries, the raspberries I showed you, take more than one.

You can give some to your friends.

You might see someone, like, distributing pamphlets, maybe for a club or something.

Here, take one.

Take one.

Take more than one.

Give some to your friends, right?

Alright, that is it.

I hope you found this video useful, and if you did, and if your mind is blown by how

I changed clothes so quickly, the magic of film editing, of course.

Or was it?

Or am I a wizard?

An English wizard?

No, I...

Too much credit.

It's okay.

Let's...

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Until next time, I'm out of breath, I don't usually jump, so that's probably why, and

I'll see you soon.

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