Modals & Polite Requests (Diplomacy & Politeness)

Business English Learning 20 Phrases for Polite Requests presents twenty phrases for making a request at work, with the strategies that make each one sound respectful and professional. The video runs for about nine and a half minutes, and its page points to the channel's related videos of business phrases and its listening practice for meetings and presentations.

100% Free (unlimited): The video is open to anyone on the channel, in full, with no account and no payment, and the related videos of business phrases and of listening practice are open in the same way.

ChatterFox How to Make Polite Requests in American Business English breaks a polite request into three parts: a softener, the request itself in plain words, and a reason where one helps. It then gives four patterns, from could you to would you mind, I was wondering if and do you think you could, sets each beside the direct command it replaces, and carries the patterns into email with a sample message.

100% Free (unlimited): The article is open to any reader, in full, with no account and no payment, and the other articles on American business English published on the same blog are read in the same way.

ESLgold Modal Verbs in Business English is a video lesson of about ten minutes on can, could and must at work. It explains can for ability and informal permission, could for polite requests and past ability, and must for requirements and strong deductions, gives three grammar rules for modal verbs, and draws its examples from client correspondence, project planning and compliance. Ten practice questions with explanations close it.

100% Free (unlimited): The video can be watched in full by anyone on the channel, with no account and no payment, and the other lessons on the channel are open in the same way.

Learn English with NETOL Making Different Types of Requests at Work is a workplace lesson built around requests: what a request is, the modal verbs can, could, will and would, the line between formal and informal language, and fourteen types of request an employee makes at work. Audio recordings, matching activities, three dialogues about one employee's shift change and a ten-question quiz run through it.

100% Free (unlimited): Every part of the lesson is open without an account: the audio recordings, the reading, the matching activities, the dialogues, the poll and the quiz, and the other lessons in the Learning Corner are read the same way. The mailing list and the contributions are optional.

Perfect English Grammar Modal Verbs Exercises gathers the site's exercises on modal verbs on one page: ability, obligation, probability in two parts, past modals with could have, should have and would have, and negative modals. Each title opens a short exercise that marks the answers as they are entered, and the page also leads back to the explanations of the same modal forms.

100% Free (unlimited): Every exercise listed on the page, and the grammar explanations they link to, are open to any visitor with no account and no sign-up, and each exercise can be repeated as often as a learner wishes.

SAT Idiomas Modal Verbs for Polite Requests, Suggestions, Possibility and Necessity is a topic from an open B1+ business English course, in its lesson on customer service and client relations. It opens with warm-up questions on politeness across cultures, follows with a reading on why politeness matters to a business, and then presents the modal verbs used to make requests, offer suggestions and express possibility and necessity.

100% Free (unlimited): The topic page and the lessons of the business English course it belongs to can be read by any visitor, with no account and no payment, and the warm-up questions, the reading and the grammar sections are all on the page itself.

Speak Confident English Kind and Polite English for Work presents four strategies for sounding considerate at work: modal verbs, changes to the grammar of a request, vague language, and negative questions. Each strategy comes with workplace examples that set a blunt version beside a softer one, and the written lesson is paired with a video from the site's Confident English series.

100% Free (unlimited): The complete written lesson, every example and the video are open to any reader, with no account and no sign-up, and the whole archive of Confident English lessons on the site can be read in the same way.

The Art of Business English How to Make Polite Requests sets out the four request patterns can you, will you, could you possibly and would you mind, with example sentences for each and the replies that follow them. The written lesson on the episode page explains that would you mind takes a verb in the -ing form and shows how an answer to that pattern works, and the episode itself is on the page to listen to.

100% Free (unlimited): The episode and the written lesson on its page are open to anyone, with no account and no payment, and every other episode of the podcast can be listened to in the same way on the site or through a podcast application.

The English Center Diplomatic English for Business gives ten ways to soften what you say at work: modal verbs, minimizing adjectives, saying sorry, owning an opinion, please and thank you, conjunctions, compliments, acknowledgment phrases, signaling bad news, and matching the level of politeness to the person. Each tip comes with examples of the same sentence said directly and said diplomatically.

100% Free (unlimited): The article is open to any reader, complete, with no account and no payment, and the other business English articles published by the English Center are read in the same way.

UVic English Language Centre Study Zone Modals of Polite Request explains the four question forms would you, could you, will you and can you, and separates the two more polite forms from the two more casual ones. The page sets out the pattern each one follows, gives workplace and everyday examples, lists positive and negative answers to a request, and notes that may is not used when you is the subject.

100% Free (unlimited): The Study Zone pages of the University of Victoria's English Language Centre are open to any reader without an account, including every grammar explanation and the exercises at each of the five levels.