Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

I have an adult student who was wondering if there is any difference in degree of politeness in the following word comparisons:

will/would
can/could
shall/should

I am a little befuddled by this one... to me it seems to based upon content, but I feel a little ridiculous offering that to students all the time.

Suggestions?

Penguin style commentary not appreciated.

[J.B. Clamence]

Yes, the past forms are more polite because they convey less expectation.

For example, if I say "It can happen," it is more likely than if I say "It could happen." Thus if I say, "Can you" there is more of an expectation on this happening (ie - you doing it) than if I say "Could you". Thus the latter is more polite.

[chaz47]

thanks for your input. i intuitively thought as much... is this a textbook fact... is it citable?

[J.B. Clamence]

I'm not sure if it's citable. I'm in the habit of making my own sense out of grammar, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm usually right about it. If you want citations, you should be able to find it pretty easily by doing a web search. Or you can just tell them "JB said so."

[denverdeath]

There's a pretty good explanation here:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/auxiliary.htm

[chaz47]

hahaha... i often feel the same... is it just being a native speaker then that grants one the ability to intuit grammar? i like to tell my students that if i didn't know English i probably couldn't learn it due to its myriad growth down thru the centuries and its incessant need to compartmentalize and segregate various fields in jargon...

[mindmetoo]

Lacking polite verb conjugations, one of the more obscure tricks to english is using longer, more convoluted sentences adds a sense of politeness.

"Give me that" versus "would you mind terribly if I borrowed that for a quick second?"

[tony602]

May I???.....did we forget about that one??

[jajdude]

How about

"I will...."

vs

"I'm going to...."

?

[J.B. Clamence]