Business English Asking a Favor Advanced Professional English

hi i’m vanessa from speak english with

vanessa calm do you mind if i ask you a

quick question let’s talk about it today

we’re gonna talk about three ways that

you can politely and professionally get

someone’s attention if you work in an

office where you have to use english or

you’re planning on doing that in the

future you’re probably gonna need to ask

people questions and those other people

aren’t just sitting around waiting for

you to ask them questions maybe your

coworker is working on a project maybe

your team manager is on the computer

doing something else

how can you politely get their attention

and let them know you have a question or

you want them to help you with something

let’s talk about the first way that you

can politely get their attention the

first question i already used at the

beginning of this video

it is excuse me do you mind if i ask you

a quick question do you mind if i ask

you a quick question and if they’re busy

they’ll say oh can you come back in five

minutes or if they’re not busy they’ll

say sure go ahead what’s your question

do you mind if i ask you a quick

question

even if your question isn’t so quick you

can try to find a quick way to ask it or

maybe a quick introduction like when is

a good time to talk to you more about

this because it isn’t so quick but i

want to schedule a time when it’s

convenient for both of us do you mind if

i ask you a quick question excuse me

it’s a great way to start it let’s

imagine that you’re walking down the

hall of your office and you see a

co-worker and you remember oh yeah i

want to ask that co-worker a question or

i need their advice about something

or maybe they need to approve of

something that you’re doing how can you

ask them to help you well this is a

little more direct it’s still really

polite and professional but slightly

more direct because you’re not asking

can I ask

you a question you are actually asking

the question you’re saying when you have

a moment if you have a moment could you

look at this report when you have a

moment could you take a look at my

screen when you have a moment

could you we can change this slightly if

you have a moment could you or if you

have a second could you help me with

this email I’m not sure exactly how I

should respond could you super polite

it’s a little more direct because you’re

asking the question immediately but we

can use this combined with our first

question

do you mind if I ask you a quick

question and when they say yes you can

say oh oh well if you have a second

could you take a look at this report

beautiful we can use these all together

the third expression is best if you’re

not talking with your boss if you’re

talking with someone who is your

coworker or maybe you’re a team manager

and you’re talking with someone who

works under you this is great to use in

those equal or maybe with someone

slightly under you you could say can i

grab you for a moment

grab here is not physical you’re not

grabbing someone but it just means can I

have your attention for a moment

Can I grab you for a second and that

means I want to ask you a question it’s

not gonna take long and because the word

grab is slightly less formal it’s still

great for business situations but it’s a

little more direct I recommend using

this with a co-worker or maybe someone

on your team oh do you mind can I grab

you for just a second can you look at

this okay thanks

really polite but best for people who

are equal or a little under you so now

it’s your turn to use these three

expressions in the comments below this

video I want you to try to use one two

or all three of these polite

attention-getting expressions

you can use them in a business situation

you can use them with a friend you can

use them in a lot of ways but I want to

let you know that it’s great to use

professionally so in the comments make

your own questions make your own

statements and I’ll try my best to give

you some feedback thanks so much for

learning with me and I’ll see you the

next time bye the next step is to

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thanks so much for learning with me bye