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