Learn English: Can I / Could I / May I

Hi, everybody.

I'm Esther and in this video I'm going to teach you how to ask someone for permission

Okay so before I teach you that,

let's first talk about what permission means.

Okay so...

When you want to ask someone if it's okay to do something, you're asking for permission.

Okay again, you want to do something, you don't know if it's okay, so you ask someone.

For example, maybe you want to borrow something.

Then you should ask someone.

If you just take it that's stealing, right?

So you have to ask.

Is it okay? Alright?

So there are three ways to ask for permission in English.

The first way is to say, "Can I...?" "Can I...?" Okay.

The second way is "Could I...?" "Could I...?"

And the third way is, "May I...?" "May I...?" Okay.

So 'can I', 'could I', and 'may I' are all good ways to ask for permission.

But the third one, 'may I', is more polite. Okay.

So if you want to ask somebody who has more power,

maybe your parents, may be your teacher,

then you should say 'may I'.

Maybe even to somebody that you don't know very well,

it's better to say may I because again it's more polite.

So let's look at these examples.

Okay so I've written 'can I', 'could I', and 'may I' on the board.

Remember, after these three, you have to say a verb.

Okay so let's look at the verbs.

'help' 'see' 'have' 'call' 'borrow' 'go' 'speak' and 'go' again.

Okay so I know I went through that a little bit quickly but

we're going to go through it slowly now.

Okay so here's what we'll do.

I'm going to read and try to switch some around. Okay?

So... "Can I help you?"

"Can I help you?"

let's try that a little bit faster.

"Can I help you?"

"Can I help you?"

Now remember, you can also say 'could I' and 'may I'.

For example, if you're walking through a department store,

and the salesperson comes to you,

they would probably say, "May I help you?" because they want to be polite to the customer.

So again, "May I help you?"

Okay.

"Can I see you again?"

"Can I see you again?"

A little bit faster.

"Can I see you again?"

Maybe you like someone you met them and you like them

and you want to see them again next time,

So you say, "Can I see you again?"

Okay.

"Can I have some water?"

"Can I have some water?"

A little bit faster.

"Can I have some water?"

Okay.

Let's try a couple with 'could'.

"Could I call you later?"

"Could I call you later?"

Again, remember, you can use all three, but we're doing 'could'.

"Could I call you later?"

"Could I borrow some money?"

Okay. You usually borrow money from a friend or somebody that you know,

so that's why it's better to say maybe 'can I' or 'could I'.

"Could I borrow some money?"

Okay.

"Could I go?"

"Could I go?"

You want to leave, so you're asking if it's okay.

"Could I go?"

Okay and remember 'may I' is polite okay

you want to say that to someone who's a little bit more important,

maybe someone you don't know.

Again you would use 'may I'.

So "May I speak to mr. Kim?"

Maybe you called his office, okay, so you say,

"May I speak to mr. Kim?"

And the last one -

"May I go to the bathroom?"

This one is maybe if you're asking a teacher.

Right? You're in class and you have to go, you can ask a teacher

"May I go to the bathroom?"

Again, 'can I' 'could' 'can' and 'could' are both okay.

But maybe it's more polite....

If you want to be polite, you should say,

"May I go to the bathroom?"

And I'm sure the teacher will like that better because you're being polite.

Okay. So...

In this video we learned three ways to ask for permission.

Let's go through them one more time.

can I

could I and may I

Okay well I hope I helped and I'll see you guys next time bye.