English Lessons - Intermediate - 1 of 5

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Hi, my name is Stephen.

I'm going to be your teacher.

Welcome to aupairfamily.com

I'm going to teach you some vocabulary.

Some phrases and some grammar.

That will hopefully help you with your time with your family.

OK, we're going to start with requests.

Asking someone to do something.

Maybe the children or a friend.

Or asking permission if you can do something, like the family.

So let's start with asking someone to do something.

We have four possible ways to ask someone to do something.

Two are informal and two are a little bit more formal.

So we have;

„Could you possibly____“

Or „Do you think you could____“

And after these two phrases,

we are going to use the infinitive of the verb.

So we're going to say.

Could you possibly go to the shop?

Do you mind if you could clean your room?

Could you possibly wash the dishes?

Could you possibly do your homework?

Do you think you could turn off the TV?

Do you think you could help me?

These are a little bit more formal and polite.

Let's look at the other two ways.

So we have:

„Would you mind?“ and „Do you mind?“

Now after these phrases, they're followed by a verb (ing).

The form of the verb with (ing).

So sou might say:

Would you mind going to the shop? or

Would you mind cleaning your bedroom?

Do you mind helping me?

Do you mind washing the dishes?

So sou can use these phrases to

ask someone to do something for you.

You want them to do something.

What if we want to ask if WE

can do something?

It's a little different.

We're asking for permission to do something.

Maybe, it's the weekend and you want to go on holidays

or your friend is coming to visit and you want to know if they can stay with you in the house

or if you want to have a friend for dinner, or maybe you want to go out in the evening

and you want to ask your family is it ok that you do this.

You've got five ways that we can ask this.

So this is a little easier, after all of these phrases,

We're going to use the infinitive of the verb.

So there's no ING form in these phrases.

„Can I____go to the cinema?“

„Could I possibly have a day off?“

„Could I possibly go for dinner?“

„I wonder if I could have a friend over?“

„Could I possibly invite my friend for dinner?“

„Is it alright if I go to my friends house?“

„Is it alright if I invite my friend here?“

„Do you mind if my friend comes?“

„Do you mind if I go out tonight?“

So hopefully these phrases have helped you,

if you want to ask someone to do something

or if you want to ask if you can do something.