English Grammar, Third edition (2011)

The grammar of business English

Meetings

Interrupting

can, could

When you are participating in a meeting you can use can I and could I to interrupt politely. Could is more polite than can.

Can I ask a question here?
Could I just interrupt here for a minute?

Making suggestions

Can and could are also used for making suggestions.

Could we maybe develop a new payment system?
Can we ask Network Solutions to help?

To sound more persuasive you can use a negative question.

Couldn’t we ask them to come in for a demonstration?
Can’t we do this later?

Let’s …, Why don’t we …

You can also use Let’s … and Why don’t we … to make suggestions.

Let’s call it a day.
Why don’t we move on to the next point on the agenda.

Making requests

Can you …?, Could you …?

You can use Can you … or Could you … to ask someone to do something. Could is more polite than can.

Can you summarize the main points, please?
Could you explain that again?

Would you mind …

The phrase Would you mind following by the -ing form is also used to make polite requests.

Would you mind going back to the previous graphic?
Would you mind just waiting a minute while I answer that?

conditional sentences

Various conditional sentences can also be used in questions to direct a meeting in a polite way.

Would it be all right if we go over that again?
Is it okay if we leave this till later?
Do you mind if we start with a few introductions, please?
Would you mind if I investigate this a little further?

Disagreeing politely

Yes, but …

If you want to disagree with someone without offending them, you can use an expression of agreement followed by but.

Well, I agree but I see it slightly differently.
I see what you mean but I still don’t think it’s possible.
I take your point about the costs but we could still do it.

think, believe

If you want to contradict somebody, or say something that other people may disagree with, you can avoid sounding rude by using a reporting verb such as I think… (or I don’t think …) or I believe … (or I don’t believe …).

I think it’s time we stopped.
I don’t think that’s actually the case.
I don’t believe we committed ourselves to maintaining the price.

seem, appear

You can avoid sounding absolutely certain of your information by using the verbs seem or appear.

This seems to be the only possible solution to the problem.
It appears that the cost of the new system would be minimal.