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