How to Respond to Offers and Suggestions

What’s up everyone!

The lesson we are going to focus on today is related to answering offers and suggestions that people might put to you. We’ll look at what the best ways to answer them in a polite way are.

How to answer a proposed offer

It is very common to use the conditional when answering offers to be as polite as possible whether you are accepting the offer or not.

Examples:

• Yes, that would be great
• Yes, I would love to
• Thank you, that would be appreciated

Obviously, we sometimes have to refuse people’s offers but we should always try to do so in a polite manner.

Examples:

• No thank you, I can manage
• I appreciate that, but it’s okay
• Thank you but don’t worry, I can do it

Is responding to a suggestion different from an offer?

The answer is no- it is not too different. However, if the suggestion is made in the first person plural imperative with “let’s”, then there can be slight changes.

Examples:

• Yes, let’s
• Yes, let’s do that
• Okay, that sounds good to me.

If you wish to respond in a negative manner all you have to do is include “not” after let’s and you maintain your answer as a polite response.

How to practise answering

A good way to put these into practice is to memorise a few options for both offers and suggestions in affirmative and negative and from there you can build on your vocabulary. In addition to this you can sign up for free with ABA English and check out unit 46 for more information.