If you are a manager, you probably ask people to do things all the time! But if you ask a friend to do something out of kindness or generosity, you are asking a favour. This is quite easy to do in English, but it's complicated slightly by the fact that we tend to be very polite when we're asking favours.
Don't forget to practise what you've learned with the activity further down this page.
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Asking a favour
Note that we tend to be very polite when we are asking favours, using longer sentence structures:
Can I ask
a favour?
Could you do me
Could you possibly do me
Could I ask you to do me
I was wondering if I could ask you to do me
Exaggerate the favour
We do this to make our friend feel important:
Could you do me
a really big
favour?
a massive
a huge
Thanking your friend
Don't forget to thank your friend for offering to do you a favour!
Thank you so much
Add emphasis to your words by showing how important the favour is:
You're an absolute life-saver! or You've saved my life
After you've thanked your friend, you can say that you owe him / her a favour...
I really owe you (one)
... or you can promise a reward...
I'll buy you a drink sometime (to say thanks)...
...or you can promise to do the same favour for your friend:
I'll return the favour sometime or I'll do the same for you one day... I promise!
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?
Quiz
Choose the 5 words which complete each sentence.
Click on the words and drag them into the right spaces. If you make a mistake, try again! Click 'next' to move through the quiz.
Flash not working? You can download a pdf version of the quiz at the bottom of the page.
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