This is an All Ears English podcast. Listen to this episode, would ya? Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, And Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. Today, get a glimpse into English street language. There are two ways to make a request that some people would consider overly casual. but we'll learn them today. Listen in to expand your English options. This is your final chance to save $50 on the B1 English Fluency course. If you've been thinking, I understand English, but I still can't express myself the way I want, this is your moment. You'll practice speaking with real people, get live feedback, and finally build the confidence to speak clearly without freezing or overthinking. But this goes away tonight. The doors close March 1st at midnight. Go now to allearsenglish.com slash B1. That's allearsenglish.com slash B number one. Hey, Lindsay, how's it going? Hey there, Aubrey. Sorry, I was a bit late today. Yeah, get it together, would you? I will try for next time. I actually literally was a bit late today. That's funny. I wrote this tiny roleplay for us to use would you? But you were like one minute late. It was not a huge deal, but I'll try to avoid it next time. Right. This is funny. We in a recent roleplay, you said, hey, don't dawdle, would you? And we realize like we need to do a follow up about would you and will you? Yeah, this is going to be a fun one today where we show you real true real English. We use would you, will you to really joke around Aubrey and to tease, right? But they can sound pushy or rude. So context and intonation are really important. And these really are used more among close friends or co workers, you know, really well. You know, they're very informal. Yeah, it's funny. It's funny that we're saying it's, you know, they could sound pushy or rude. That offers an explanation to me because I was always confused when I was a kid. My dad used to always say this, will you, right? Go grab the skewer for the chicken on the grill, will you? Or would you? And my mom used to always berate him, like, don't say that, Vin. It's rude. And I never quite knew why it was rude, right? Like it doesn't sound rude to me. It's just dad. Exactly Like as a kid we observe our parents like maybe correcting each other or choosing certain language and we not sure why Right It interesting So interesting And coming up with examples for this episode it was interesting how some of them sounded so rude to me But then others I like okay I could hear that among friends but they were very informal. So context really matters. Guys, hit the follow button if you love our style. It's all about connection here on the show. Connection, not perfection. All right. Yes. And we are going to be talking about intonation a lot because that matters a lot too. A few of these, I'm definitely going to give kind of the rude intonation and the more polite intonation because they can come depending on the intonation you use. They often can sound rude when you don't mean to. Yeah. So we'll show you both ways to do it. We have options here. So starting then again with will ya. So again, it's very casual. It's very direct. We use this among friends when you expect the person to agree. It's not when you're asking for a big, like take care of my dog for three weeks, will ya? No. No, exactly. Right. So for example, you know, oh, close the door, will you? Like this is polite. This is you're just being you're just asking someone to close the door. Yeah. But then with different intonation, you can sound irritated and rude. Like, yes, like you think they should have closed the door and they didn't. Right. Close the door. Will you? Right. Very different. So we're saying it's really all about the intonation. We have to make sure these are with very small requests that are kind of already in the person's workflow a little bit maybe, right? It's interesting because I was trying to think of who would I say this to and who wouldn't I? Even at work, I would say this. Like if I, you know, we went in a room, oh, close the door, like that's polite. But if it were like a client I'm meeting for the first time, I wouldn't. I would probably say, oh, please close the door if you don't mind. Yeah, that's why this is not being featured on the Business English podcast. Exactly, right? It's just very informal. So it's not like you could only say it to the super closest friends, but depending on the intonation, right? You still, it's just quite informal. Or just asking for help. Give me a hand with this, will you? Right. So again, imagine if you said, give me a hand with this, will you? You can add irritation to your tone very easily. And if you're doing it accidentally, right? So it's sort of avoiding that sing-songy irritation, the sing-songy tone that sounds irritated. Yeah. So tone and who you're talking to and what you're asking them to do are kind of the three things we're looking at here. If I had three friends over for a barbecue and I needed help, I might ask my more longtime friend this way, but the new friend that's just coming over for the first time, I might not say that to them. Yeah. You might say, would you mind helping me with this? Yeah. Right. Exactly. And if you are irritated, I would avoid this. Yeah, because you're irritated to show up. Would you please close the door instead of close the door, will you? Right. I like it. I like it. What are some other ways that might sound pushy? Yeah. So it kind of does depend on the phrasing too, right? So if you're saying something that is clearly that you're irritated, adding will you is sort of even more rude. So for example, Knock it off, will you? Like you're asking someone to stop doing something and adding will you makes it a little more abrasive. Yeah. Or if someone just talking talking talking they not listening to you which can drive you nuts right You could say just listen for a second will ya Right So that you can sense that irritation in my voice Exactly Right The context the words we already seeing Because if not you would say can you please listen for a second? Right? With no irritation. Adding the will ya. Yeah. Just like, there's no way you can say, just listen for a second, will ya? Drives home the irritation. sound irritated. Or if you maybe walk slower than your partner or something, usually one partner walks faster than the other. Always. It's very awkward. Yeah. You could say, yo, hurry up. Will you? We're late. Right. That's rude. That's showing lack of patience. Right. Irritation. Exactly. Because if you were being patient, you'd say, could you please hurry? We're late. Right. There are kinder ways to say this. Adding that will ya as long as we know what we're saying, right? Language choices are just based on personality, as long as we know exactly what we're implying. Right. So, so far the pro tip is don't add will you if you are irritated, right? If it's like a non-irritated, oh, close the door, will you? That's fine, right? There's no, I'm not irritated. The tone's going to be fine, but don't use it if you're irritated. What about would you? Would you? So this one's a little more, we can get away with this a bit more, right? Yeah, it's more polite. Maybe, but still tone matters. Softer, more polite. The use here is similar to will ya, but again, it is a little more respectful, a little more polite. Now, just like saying, will you do this for me is a little more direct than would you do this for me in the same way, which is a little less direct and a little more polite. Yeah, I agree. Would is always going to be more indirect than will. Totally. So you could say, pass me the salt, would you? yeah and as long as you're not irritated right oh pass me the salt would you or pass me the salt will you yeah fine but if you're if you've asked four times already and then you're like pass me the salt would you then it's clearly you're irritated and it's still even would you can sound impolite yeah yeah or if you're in a movie theater and you're getting shushed you know how some people like to shush people i hate that by the way i hate it when people shush people but don't be that person that's making loud noises in the movie theater either. Don't need to be shushed. Right, right. So lower your voice a bit, would you? Right. And again, so a little more polite, but still it's casual. It's a little like, it's not like buttoned up language. Because there are nicer ways to say this, right? Whoever you say this to is going to assume you're really irritated, right? Yes. Lower your voice a bit, would you? Like that, would you added, it is more impatient, like you said, more irritated because you could say, can you please lower your voice a bit? Yeah, for sure. There's different choices of words we could make. Right. For sure. Yeah. Or would you mind waiting a second, right? You could say, can you please wait a second? You can say, oh, would you mind waiting a second? And if you're not irritated and there's no irritation in your tone, that's fine. Among friends. Yeah, no problem there. No problem there. So why wouldn't we, why are we not featuring this on over on our other podcast, Business English Aubrey? Why would we not use these at work? It interesting It is extremely informal right In a meeting instead of saying you know hand me that would you You know or maybe you say could you hand me that please Right It is okay among coworkers in very casual situations in the break room maybe but in a meeting even before the meeting right To say would ya will ya It like playground talk. It's like everyday conversation while you're out running. It's very everyday. It's good. This is everyday street talk, right, Aubrey? I think that's why, I think that's really why my mom used to berate my dad for saying it because- She didn't want him using everyday street talk. She wanted him to speak a little bit more elevated, I think. Your poor mom. And then she'd be like, oh, it's where you're from. That's sweet. She'd have all kinds of commentary on it. Oh, that is funny. So as long as our listeners have a clear picture here of what we're talking about. What else, Aubrey? Yeah. So stick around. We're going to do a role play right after the break to show how these might look in just a casual conversation. Nice. All right. Let's get into a role play. This should be fun. So here we are sisters. All right. I'll start us. Yeah. Turn the music down, would you? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I could use headphones if you want. I'd appreciate that. Thanks. I got a study for this test. My headphones are there on your dresser. Toss them to me, will you? Yeah. Sisters, totally fine. Maybe roommates, totally fine. If you've gotten to know each other well. We're not formal with our roommates, right? In life. Absolutely. This is fine. This is polite. It's interesting. If this is the first time I'm asking you to turn down the music, I'd probably just be like, oh, turn down the music, would you? Yeah. Totally polite. It's fine. But if I had already asked you three or four times and you couldn't hear me, then it might be like, turn down the music, would you? The irritation is there. You're going to stick with that same phrase, but get a little bit more firm. Exactly. Right. You hear the difference in the intonation. I love that. And then the final end of the role play was, my headphones are there in your dresser. Toss them to me, will you? Yeah. And maybe if you had asked a few times and I hadn't heard you, then maybe there would be that irritation in your tone, right? toss them to me, will you? Especially among sisters, you maybe would, you know, close friends, siblings, you're willing to sound irritated. We're not trying to, you know, be careful with their feelings always, not as much as we should maybe. No, no one tries to impress their sibling, right? No, for sure not. You've had a whole lifetime of being siblings. Great one today. Really interesting how in this episode, it clearly is kind of street language, right? And so we have options. You guys have options for ranges of vocabulary choices, depending on who you're with, what you're asking them to do, and what your relationship is with that person. Okay? Exactly. And we definitely want to have you check out that first episode that inspired this where the role plays, don't dawdle, which is 2554. Scroll up for don't dawdle with your English goals. Oh, I like that title. Good stuff. All right, Aubrey, thanks for hanging out today. We'll see you back here very soon. Awesome. See you next time. Have a good one. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. Bye.
