Better Ways to Say Yes, No, Maybe, and I Can't in English

Hi, I'm Anne Marie with Speak Confident English and welcome to you're Confident

English Wednesday lesson. I want to start with a question for you: imagine that one

of your English-speaking colleagues at work invites you to a party this weekend

and maybe you really don't want to go or maybe you're not sure if you can go but

you don't want to be offensive, you don't want to be rude; you just maybe need to

have some time to think, maybe you need to check your schedule, or you just need

to say no. How can you do that in English politely?

In today's lesson, we're focused on polite ways to say yes, no, maybe, or I

can't in English and these are perfect for situations at work or even

situations with people who you know your neighbors or friends. Now you might be

thinking: is there really more than one way to say yes or no in English? Yes!

There is more than one way and we have some words or expressions that are great

for casual, easy, everyday conversations with people that you really know well and

then we have others that are perfect for more professional situations. So let's

take a look at a few examples in each of those categories. Let's start with the

word yes and a couple of casual examples. So maybe your colleague that you see

every day, you have lunch with every day, asks you for some documents. She sends

you an email and says could you send me the documents before lunch? And you could

say: yeah, sure, no problem. Yeah, sure, no problem. Or, yeah I'd be happy to.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. In those examples, I used yeah which is just an informal, more

casual way to say yes. Now if it is a new client asking you for some documents, you

might not want to be so casual. So instead you could say, yes of course I'll

get those to you this afternoon. Or certainly, I'll send those to you before

lunch. Now unfortunately there are times when we have to say no. No, we can't come

to the party this weekend. No, I can't change the date of the meeting. But the

reality is, just saying no isn't always polite. So let's look at a few other ways

that you can do that. Simply adding those words - thank you - can help a lot. For

example, no but thank you. I really appreciate the offer. No but thank you so

much for inviting me. Unfortunately we already have something planned this

weekend. I wish I could but I just don't have time right now.

I wish I could but we have other plans this weekend. Not right now but maybe

another time. Maybe we could do that this weekend. And

finally, if you want to be really casual, you can use nope which is a very

informal way of saying no. For example, do you want another piece of cake? Nope! I've

had enough. Now in professional situations let's look at some more

formal ways of saying no that are also very polite. I'm sorry but we won't be

able to change the date of the meeting. I'm sorry but we won't be able to and

whatever the request is. I'm afraid that's not possible. I'm afraid that we

can't change the date. Now, what if you have an invitation, an offer, a request

and you're just not sure. Maybe you want to think about it, maybe you really don't

know your schedule and you need to verify if you're free or not free to do

something. Here are a few very simple words that you can use to say maybe, to

say that you're not sure, you're not ready to commit. For example, perhaps I

can make it. Let me check my calendar. Or perhaps it'll work. Let me think about it

a little bit. I'm not sure if I can come on Saturday. I'll double check my

calendar. And finally, let's talk about how to say I can't. For example, imagine

that your boss asks you to do something at work, maybe to meet a deadline or to

get a project finished earlier and the truth is you can't. But

when we say that, when we use those words - I can't - especially in professional

situations, it sounds a little bit like a failure. And I can't sounds very negative.

But we can change the words just a little bit. And this little change

removes some of the negativity and it makes it sound like you're doing what

you can to accomplish the goal, to finish the project, meet the deadline, it's still

in progress. And those little words are: I'm unable to or I'm not able to. For

example, I'm unable to complete this this afternoon but I'll have it for you first

thing tomorrow morning. Or I'm unable to complete this until I get more

information from the accounting office. I'm unable to meet with you tomorrow but

I would love to next week. Just that little change takes away some of that

strong negativity, it softens the language so that it's more polite to use.

And now you have several new ways to politely say yes, no, maybe, I can't in

English and I have more examples for you in the online lesson. So after you've

watched this video, review the other examples and then as always I have a

challenge question for you at the end. Don't miss this opportunity to practice

using the language, join the conversation and get feedback from me. Thank you so

much for joining me and I'll see you next Wednesday for your Confident

English Wednesday lesson.