Course: How to... Speak English / Unit 1 / Session 24 / Activity 1

William Hello and welcome to How To, the series all about useful English. My name is William Kremer.

Today, we re going to be looking at how to ask a favour that is, how to ask someone to do something for you out of kindness or generosity. For example, you might ask a friend to help you with your English. Or maybe you re going to go away and you want a neighbour to water your plants.

Now, on one level, this is easy. All you need to do is say:

EXAMPLE Can you do me a favour?

William Can you do me a favour? Or you could say:

EXAMPLE Can I ask a favour?

William Can I ask a favour? Say one of those things, and then say what you want the other person to do. Could you help me with my English? Can you water my plants next week? Now, this gets a bit more complicated because we tend to be very polite when we re asking favours. So instead of saying Can you do me a favour? what we might well say is:

EXAMPLE Could I ask you to do me a favour?

William Could I ask you to do me a favour?

EXAMPLE Could I ask you to do me a favour?