How can I let "Can you tell me...?" more polite? There are many sentences we can choose to ask for help, such as "Can you tell me...", "I want to know...", "I wonder..." and so on. I am a little confu

Lori Hxu

How can I let "Can you tell me...?" more polite? There are many sentences we can choose to ask for help, such as "Can you tell me...", "I want to know...", "I wonder..." and so on. I am a little confused and I think some of them are impolite. Would you like to tell me how to speak more politely and formally?

Jan 4, 2020 2:05 PM

Answers · 6

All the above are ways to ask for help. If you change "I want to know.. " into "I would like to know..." then that sounds more polite and less like you are demanding an answer. Adding "please" or "excuse me" at the start of "Can you tell me" also softens the sentence and makes it sound more polite. Best wishes, Sally

January 4, 2020

None of these are impolite as such but we would add to them in order to be more polite, for example Excuse me, can you help me please, I want to know where .........

January 4, 2020

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