Please plus Verb for Offers and Commands in Emails
A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
How to use and how not to use the imperative for requests, orders/ commands/ instructions and (especially) offers in business and personal emails.
Lesson Plan Content:
Offers, commands and requests in emails
Label each line below with O for offer (= giving help) or C for command/ instructions/ order (= something they must do). A few could be both, but most are clearly one or the other.
- For more information, please click on this link.
- If you have any more questions, please let me know.
- If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
- If you need any more info, just drop me a line.
- Please accept our apologies for…
- Please arrange for someone to pick me up from the airport.
- Please be patient.
- Please book a hotel for me.
- Please call me if you’d like to talk about it.
- Please change the venue of the meeting.
- Please check my report and give me some feedback.
- Please clarify what you mean by…
- Please confirm if you’d like…
- Please confirm receipt of this email.
- Please contact your boss immediately and tell her…
- Please contact… for further details.
- Please feel free to cancel…
- Please find my homework attached.
- Please get back to me ASAP.
- Please give me a bell if more explanation is needed.
- Please go ahead.
- Please let me know if you’d like me to reserve a table.
- Please let me know straightaway if anything isn’t clear.
- (First of all) please let me say how sorry I am about…
- Please make sure you that you attach…
- Please postpone the meeting.
- Please reply to this email by Friday.
- Please see the attachment for more information.
- Please send me… right away.
- Please sort out this problem as soon as possible.
- Please take your time.
- Please let me know if that doesn’t answer your question.
- Please update the information and resend it.
- Please use this number if you get lost on the way.
- Please write back as soon as you can.
Which of the two functions do the phrases above with the word “if” have? Make sure that you have given that function to all the ones above with “if” (and maybe similar sentences without “if”). Then check all your answers as a class.
Rewrite commands above which aren’t polite enough, e.g. should actually be requests. Use as many different forms of request as you can (so not just “Could…?” all the time).
Check as a class or with the suggested answers.
Suggested answers
Ones which haven’t changed and probably don’t need to change are in italics.
- For more information, please click on this link.
- If you have any more questions, please let me know.
- If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
- If you need any more info, just drop me a line.
- Please accept our apologies for…
- Could you possibly arrange for someone to pick me up from the airport?
- Thanks for your patience./ Sorry for the delay.
- Would you mind booking a hotel for me?
- Please call me if you’d like to talk about it.
- Would it be possible to change the venue of the meeting.
- I would be grateful if you could check my report and give me some feedback./ Please tell me if anything needs changing.
- Could you clarify what you mean by…?
- Please confirm if you’d like…
- Could you confirm receipt of this email (because…)
- I would be very grateful if you could contact your boss immediately and tell her… (because…)
- Please contact… for further details.
- Please feel free to cancel…
- Please find my homework attached.
- Could you get back to me by… (at the latest) because…?
- Please give me a bell if more explanation is needed.
- Please go ahead.
- Please let me know if you’d like me to reserve a table.
- Please let me know straightaway if anything isn’t clear.
- (First of all) please let me say how sorry I am about…
- Can you make sure that you attach… (because…)?
- I would really appreciate it if you could postpone the meeting because…
- Could you try to reply to this email by Friday? This is because…
- Please see the attachment for more information.
- I would be grateful if you could send me… by… due to…
- I would appreciate it if you could sort out this problem by… in order to…
- Please take your time.
- Please let me know if that doesn’t answer your question.
- Could you update the information and resend it so that…?
- Please use this number if you get lost on the way.
- Could you write back by… so I can…?
Test each other on the sentences on the first page in pairs:
- Read out one sentence and see if your partner can identify its function
- Read out one sentence and see if your partner can identify its function and make it more polite if needed
- Read out one sentence and see if your partner can say how it could be used in a model email, changing it if necessary
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