Expressions to Use when Speaking to a Stranger Basic English Grammar

hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson i’m going to talk about

expressions to use

when speaking to a stranger i’m going to

talk about some expressions you can use

in service situations and also just if

you need a little bit of help on a

street for example

let’s get started okay the first

expression

is excuse me excuse me please make sure

when you approach someone you don’t know

to ask a question

or to ask for guidance you use excuse me

sometimes i hear people say i’m sorry

i’m sorry you might use i’m sorry to

interrupt you if for some reason

someone’s working on a computer or

they’re doing something

you might say i’m sorry to interrupt you

but

generally excuse me is better

also please consider the way you say

this

expression if you say excuse me

it sounds a little bit apologetic it

sounds like you don’t

want to bother the person but you have a

question

if you say excuse me it sounds a little

bit aggressive

so it might sound like you’re upset or

you’re angry about something

so generally if you want to ask a

question if you need some help

it’s better to sound a little bit

apologetic like excuse me

so try to sound a little bit apologetic

i think that’s

a little more polite when you need to

ask someone

a question and you don’t know that

person so

after you say excuse me there are a few

different

things you might need to ask this

stranger

this is a very polite pattern you can

use

would you happen to know would you

happen to know we begin our question

with this would you happen to know

some information after this we’re going

to use in many cases

what’s called an embedded question an

embedded question

so i’m starting a question here would

you happen to know

information so that’s a question and

inside this question

is another smaller question so we use

these patterns this question inside a

question

to make very polite questions so let’s

look at some examples

would you happen to know where i might

find a coffee shop so this where

i might find so this sounds very polite

as well where i might find where it’s

possible for me to find

i’m not sure exactly where the coffee

shop is maybe do you know

about where there’s a coffee shop so

would you happen to know where i might

find a coffee

shop or would you happen to know where

the library is

or would you happen to know what this

line is for

so maybe you see a big line of people on

the street and you’re curious

would you happen to know what this line

is for

or would you happen to know what floor

the restroom is on so you could use this

in a department store

or another tall building would you

happen to know

who the manager is so you could use this

in a business situation or in a shopping

situation

or would you happen to know if this

transportation

goes to destination so transportation

here means bus or train

or maybe car i suppose subway

goes to so if this bus or if this

train goes make sure to use goes here

because we’re talking about

train or bus singular transport

so if this train goes to destination

the place you want to go would you

happen to know if this train

goes to third street would you happen to

know if this bus goes to la

so there are many points i want to talk

about with these examples

first a pronunciation point when you say

this

expression would you happen to

know we push the sounds together we

reduce these sounds so not would you

happen to know but would you happen to

know would you happen to know

so this sounds much more natural also

you’ll notice the grammar especially in

these sentences

is a bit different from a regular

question

this is a special kind of grammar for

embedded

questions i have it in this note here

if a form of the verb to be

is used in an embedded question

the verb changes its position in the

sentence

it follows the noun so

when you excuse me when you’re making

regular questions

the verb be comes before the noun so

let’s look at some examples let’s look

at this one

in this sentence i’m using the verb be

here i’m using

is so would you happen to know where the

library is

so this kind of question is something i

hear many learners struggle with at

first but it’s an easy fix

in a regular question you would just say

where is the library right where is

the library so is comes before your noun

where is the library

in an embedded question however where

the library

is b follows

my noun here so this is something we do

for embedded questions when we’re

putting a question

inside another question we follow this

grammar pattern

another example what this line is for

what this line is for so here again

if i see a line of line of people on the

street

i might say directly what is this line

for what is this line for and this 4

means like

the purpose what is the purpose of this

line in other words what is this line

for

in an embedded question however is in

this case again

comes after the noun what is this line

becomes uh would you happen to know what

this line

is for so we change the position of the

be verb

same thing here would you happen to know

what floor

the restroom is on in a regular question

what floor is the restroom on in an

embedded question

would you happen to know what floor the

restroom is on

finally one more here would you happen

to know who the manager is

regular question who is the manager

embedded question

would you happen to know who the manager

is so

i’m using this one for today’s lesson

because it sounds very polite

and it’s probably better to try to be

polite when you’re speaking to a

stranger

but if you want to use this polite

pattern you need to keep in mind

you’ll be using an embedded question and

your grammar

will need to change so yes you can use a

direct question

like where might i find a coffee shop or

where is the library or what is this

line for

or what floor is the restroom on and so

on those are all

perfectly fine those are great questions

they are very clear

you can say excuse me where’s the

library you can

absolutely say that there is no

communication problem at all

but if you want to level up your speech

make it sound

more polite that make it sound more

natural you can use

this pattern with this more advanced

grammar

okay let’s continue to the other side of

the board

here just a couple of other clear

questions

uh yes or no questions a few of them

this one

is this the train or bus or subway and

so on

for destination so this is another

question

about where transportation is going so i

introduced this pattern would you happen

to know if this

bus goes to la so you can use a very

polite pattern like that

or this one is a little less polite

excuse me

is this the bus for la or excuse me

is this the subway for third street

that’s also very polite

and the person can say yes it is or no

it’s not it’s that one

so you can use this uh if you don’t want

to use this long pattern

this is still perfectly nice perfectly

polite it’s okay

it’s not as polite as this one but this

one is very clear and very direct

another pattern i’m looking for

person or location or

item this is something that you will

probably use in

shopping situations you need to talk to

staff somewhere or perhaps you’re just

in a really

big building you’re visiting a client or

you’re visiting some other business

contact

and you need to find another person or

you need to find a place

so you ask someone who is working there

so you can use

people you can use specific places or

you can use

objects in this pattern i’m looking for

the manager

or i’m looking for this person or i’m

looking for the restroom

or i’m looking for the break room or i’m

looking for a pen

or whatever it is you need you can use

i’m looking

for something and then

if you want to be polite you can say do

you know where i

could find or do you know where i

might find him her or

it him and her refers to

a person in this case you might also

hear them

depending on the situation some people

prefer to use the word

them to refer to themselves do you know

where i could

find him or her or them or for a place

or an item do you know where i could

find it so

you can use one of these to clearly ask

a question

so i’m looking for this person or i’m

looking for this item

do you know where i could find it so

this could and might i have these two

things here

the difference is small in this case do

you know where i

could find him or do you know where i

could find

it means do you know where it’s possible

to find that thing in other words this

is a very polite way of saying

where is he or where is she do you know

where i

might find him that sounds like there’s

a possibility

that person is in that location or

there’s a possibility that

object is in that location this one

it just sounds more polite in this case

both of them mean where is it where is

he where is she

where are they and so on so they’re just

different levels of politeness to ask

this question

okay sometimes uh you need to ask a kind

of direct yes or no question

to someone like are you

name or are you job title

so you could use this if you meet like a

famous person or you think you see a

famous person

or you could use it if you’re looking

for someone who has a specific

job title like are you the manager

or are you hugh jackman so if you run

into a famous person somewhere or

someone you know but you have not met

like are you the designer of this

fashion line you could use a pattern

like this to ask them that question

finally if you are in a shopping

situation and you need some

help but you don’t want to accidentally

ask another customer you could ask this

question

excuse me do you work here do you work

here so that means

do you work in this store that i’m in

right now excuse me do you work here

so if you’re not sure if someone is

staff or not

this is the question that you can ask

them so i hope that this lesson gives

you some patterns that you can use

when you need to speak to strangers

especially when you need to ask

strangers for a little bit of help or

guidance so

of course there are other expressions

that you can use when speaking to

strangers if you have some more ideas

please feel free to leave those

in the comment section of this video

also if you have any other questions or

comments or if you want to practice

making some sentences

especially with this embedded question

pattern please feel free to do so in the

comment section of this video

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thanks very much for watching this

lesson and i will see you again soon

bye-bye