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Listen to this episode, would ya?
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Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Today, get a glimpse into English street language.
There are two ways to make a request that some people would consider overly casual, but we'll learn them today.
Listen in to expand your English options.
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going?
Hey there, Aubrey.
Sorry I was a bit late today.
Yeah, get it together, would you?
I will try for next time.
I actually literally was a bit late today.
That's funny.
I wrote this tiny role play for us to use.
Would you?
But you were like one minute late.
It was not a huge deal, but I'll try to avoid it next time.
Right.
This is funny.
We in a recent role play, you said, hey, don't dawdle, would you?
And we realized like we need to do a follow up about would you and will you?
Yeah, this is going to be a fun one today where we show you real true, real English jokes.
We use would you, will you to really joke around, Aubrey, and to tease, right?
But they can sound pushy or rude.
So context and intonation are really important.
And these really are used more among close friends or coworkers you know really well.
You know, they're very informal.
Yeah, it's funny.
It's funny that we're saying it's, you know, they could sound pushy or rude.
That offers an explanation to me because I was always confused when I was a kid.
My dad used to always say this, will ya, right?
Go grab the skewer for the chicken on the grill, will ya?
Or would ya?
And my mom used to always berate him, like, don't say that, Vin.
It's rude.
And I never quite knew why it was rude, right?
Like, it doesn't sound rude to me.
It's just dad, huh?
Exactly.
Like as a kid, we observe our parents like maybe correcting each other or choosing certain language, and we're not sure why.
Right.
It's interesting.
So interesting.
And coming up with examples for this episode.
It was interesting how some of them sounded so rude to me.
Yeah.
But then others, I'm like, OK, I could I could hear that among friends, but they're very informal.
So context really matters.
Guys, hit the follow button if you love our style.
It's all about connection here on the show.
Connection, not perfection.
All right.
Yeah.
And we are going to be talking about intonation a lot because that matters a lot to a few of these.
I'm definitely going to give kind of the rude intonation and the more polite intonation because they can come depending on the intonation you use.
They often can sound rude when you don't mean to.
Yes.
So we'll show you both ways to do it.
Right.
We have options here.
So starting then again with will ya.
So again, it's very casual.
It's very direct.
We use this among friends when you expect the person to agree.
It's not when you're asking for a bit like take care of my dog for three weeks.
Will ya?
No.
No, exactly.
Right.
So, for example.
You know, oh, close the door, will you?
Like this is polite.
This is you're just being you're just asking someone to close the door.
Yeah.
But then with different intonation, you can sound irritated and rude.
Like, yes, like you think they should have closed the door and they didn't.
Right.
Close the door, will you?
Right.
Very different.
So we're saying it's really all about the intonation.
We have to make sure these are with very small requests that are kind of already in the person's workflow a little bit maybe.
Right.
It's interesting because I was trying to think of who would I say this to and who wouldn't I?
Even at work, I would say this.
We went in a room, oh, close the door, will you?
That's polite.
But if it were a client I'm meeting for the first time, I wouldn't.
I would probably say, oh, please close the door if you don't mind.
Yeah, that's why this is not being featured on the Business English podcast.
Exactly, right?
It's just very informal.
So it's not like you could only say it to... the super closest friends but depending on the intonation right you still it's just quite quite informal or just asking for help give me a hand with this will you right so again imagine imagine if you said give me a hand with this will you like if you're you can add irritation to your tone very easily and if you're doing it accidentally right so that's it's sort of avoiding that That sing-songy irritation, the sing-songy tone that sounds irritated.
Yeah.
So tone and who you're talking to and what you're asking them to do are kind of the three things we're looking at here.
If I had three friends over for a barbecue and I needed help, I might ask my more longtime friend this way, but the new friend that's just coming over for the first time, I might not say that to them.
Yeah, you might say, would you mind helping me with this?
Yeah.
Right.
Exactly.
Or and if you are irritated, I would avoid this.
Yeah.
Would you please close the door instead of close the door?
Will you?
Right.
I like it.
I like it.
What are some other ways that might sound pushy?
Yeah.
So it kind of does depend on the phrasing too, right?
So if you're saying something that is clearly that you're irritated, adding will ya is sort of even more rude.
So for example, knock it off, will ya?
Like you're asking someone to stop doing something and adding will ya, makes it a little more abrasive.
Yeah.
Or if someone's just talking talking talking, they're not listening to you, which can drive you nuts, right.
You could say, just listen for a second, will you?
Right.
So that you can sense that irritation in my voice.
Exactly right.
The context, the words we're already seeing because, if not, you would say can you please listen for a second?
Right.
With no irritation.
Adding the will you like.
There's no way you can say just listen for a second, will ya?
Drives home, doesn't sound irritated no, no.
And or if you, maybe you walk slower than your partner or something.
I think usually one partner walks faster than the other.
Always it's very awkward.
Yeah, you could say yo, hurry up, will you relate?
Right, that's rude, that's showing a lack of patience right irritations, exactly because if you were being patient, you'd say could you please hurry, we're late.
Right, there are kinder ways to say this.
Adding that will ya, as long as we know what we're saying.
Right, language choices are just based on personality.
As long as we know exactly what we're implying, right.
So so far, the pro tip is don't add will ya if you are irritated, right.
If it's like a non-irritated oh, close the door, will ya.
That's fine, right?
I'm not irritated.
The tone's going to be fine, but don't use it if you're irritated.
What about would ya?
Would ya?
So this one's a little more, we can get away with this a bit more, right?
Yes, more polite.
Maybe, but still tone matters.
Softer, more polite.
The use here is similar to will ya, but again, it is a little more respectful, a little more polite.
Now, just like saying will you do this for me is a little more direct than would you do this for me in the same way, which is a little less direct and a little more polite.
Yeah, I agree.
Would is always going to be more indirect than will.
Totally.
So you could say, pass me the salt, would you?
Yeah.
And as long as you're not irritated, right?
Oh, pass me the salt, would you?
Or pass me the salt, will you?
Yeah, fine.
But if you're if you've asked four times already and then you're like, pass me the salt, would you?
Then it's clearly you're irritated and it's still even would you can sound impolite.
Yeah, yeah.
Or if you're in a movie theater and you're getting shushed.
You know how some people like to shush people.
I hate that, by the way.
I hate it when people shush people.
But don't be that person is making loud noises in the movie theater.
You don't need to be sure, would you right?
And again, so a little more polite, but still it's casual.
It's a little like it's not like, because there are nicer ways to say this.
Right, whoever you say this to is going to assume you're really irritated.
Right, lower your voice a bit, would you like that?
Would you added it is more impatient, like you said, more irritated because you could say can you please lower your voice a bit?
Yeah, for sure.
There's different choices of words we could make.
Right, for sure?
Yeah Um, or would you mind waiting a second?
Right.
You could say, can you please wait a second?
You can say, Oh, would you mind waiting a second?
And if you're not irritated and there's no irritation in your tone, that's fine.
Among friends.
Yeah, no problem there.
No problem there.
Um, so why wouldn't we, why are we not featuring this on over on our other podcast business English Aubrey?
Why would we not use these at work?
It's interesting.
It is extremely informal, right?
In a meeting, Instead of saying, you know, hand me that, would you?
You know, or maybe you'd say, could you hand me that, please?
Right.
It is OK among co-workers in very casual situations in the break room, maybe.
But in a meeting, even before the meeting, right, to say, would you, will you?
It's like playground talk.
It's like everyday conversation while you're out running.
It's very everyday.
It's good.
This is everyday street talk, right, Aubrey?
And I think that's why, I think that's really why my mom used to berate my dad for saying it.
She didn't want him using everyday street talk.
She wanted him to speak a little bit more elevated, I think.
Your poor mom.
My mom, too.
And then she'd be like, oh, it's where you're from.
She'd have all kinds of commentary on it.
Oh, that is funny.
So as long as our listeners have a clear picture here of what we're talking about, What else, Aubrey?
Yeah, so stick around.
We're going to do a role play right after the break to show how these might look in just a casual conversation.
Nice.
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All right, let's get into a role play.
This should be fun.
So here we are, sisters.
Yes, all right, i'll start us.
Yeah uh, turn the music down, would you?
Oh yeah sorry, i could use headphones if you want.
I'd appreciate that.
Thanks, i gotta study for this test.
My headphones are there on your dresser.
Toss them to me, will you?
Yeah.
Sisters, totally fine.
Maybe roommates, totally fine.
If you've gotten to know each other well.
We're not formal with our roommates, right, in life.
Absolutely.
This is fine.
This is polite.
It's interesting.
If this is the first time I'm asking you to turn down the music, I'd probably just be like oh, turn down the music, would you?
Totally polite.
It's fine.
But if I had already asked you three or four times and you couldn't hear me, then it might be like turn down the music, would you?
Irritation is there.
You're going to stick with that same phrase, but get a little bit more firm.
Exactly.
Right.
You hear the difference in the intonation.
I love that.
And then the final end of the role play was my headphones are there in your dresser.
Toss them to me, will you?
And maybe if you had asked a few times and I hadn't heard you, then maybe there would be that irritation in your tone, right?
Toss them to me, will you?
Especially among sisters.
You maybe would you know close friends, siblings.
You're willing to sound irritated?
We're not trying to, you know, be careful with their feelings, always not as much as we should, maybe.
No, no one tries to impress their sibling, right?
No, for sure not.
You've got a whole lifetime of being siblings.
Great one today.
Really interesting how in this episode, it clearly is kind of street language, right?
And so we have options.
You guys have options for ranges of vocabulary choices depending on who you're with, what you're asking them to do and what your relationship is with that person okay.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And we definitely want to have you check out that first episode that inspired this, where the role plays don't dawdle, which is 2554.
Scroll up for don't dawdle with your English goals.
Oh, I like that title.
Good stuff.
All right, Aubrey.
Thanks for hanging out today.
We'll see you back here very soon.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Have a good one.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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