The last post said that the ideal one is student who learning English as foreign language should use polite command and prohibition. But, if  we emphasize on learning language into habit, agree or disagree, we have to let command and prohibition are practised by the students not in a polite formulation. Instead of they don’t take action because they are not able to give command or prohibition politely, they’d better ‘shout’. To formulate command and prohibition politely needs knowledge. If command and prohibition have been fluent  in classroom interaction, it will be a right time to shape them more polite. Be optimistic is a must. That’s why, on this moment you read and learn 4 Useful Ways to Shape Command and Prohibition Politely.

First, Use Please.

As we know command and prohibition are types of sentences expressed to order or forbide someone for doing or not doing something. If they are not shaped to soften, command and prohibition sentences are usually expressed strictly. An easy way to formulate command and prohibition is to use the word ‘please’. You can use ‘please‘ before the imperative forms or after imperative forms. Here are the examples :

Second, Use Modals or Specific Expressions.

We can use modal verbs, such as would, would you like to, would you mind, can, could and should. We can also use several specific expressions include You had better (‘d better)…, You are supposed to… or I want you to to change a strict command into a polite request. We want you to remember that if you use Would you mind, please make sure to add ending -ing after a verb that takes as the imperative form. For example : Would you mind going to market now? It is different with Would you like to go to market now? Here, the verb go cannot be used with ending -ing. Study the following table

To give prohibition politely is easy too. Just  think a verb without ‘to’ then speak or write it but you have to combine with some modals in negative forms and some specific expressions above in the negative forms too. For examples : can’t, mustn’t, may not, not allowed, not permitted, not supposed to or I want you not to. Please study the following table.

Third, Use Second If Conditional Sentence.

Other way to soften a command or prohibition in English is to use Second If Conditional sentences that modified. The conditional sentence is a sentence consisting of If Clause as a hypothetical situation and main clause as its result. For example : If you closed the window (If Clause), I would appreciate (Main Clause). Instead of using verb in the Main Clause, you can also use a number of adjectives for deserving praise, respect and admiration too. For example : If you ate this, you would be satisfied. Here are the following adjectives :   great, enormous, true, admirable, happy, impressive, awesome, surprising, amazing, fancy, honourable, magnificient, majestic, marvelous, noble, OK, spectacular, splendid, stunning, worthy, etc. We were thinking you should study the following pattern for command and prohibition on the table.

Fourth, Use Past Progressive Tense.

In everyday English we can only use the past progressive to tell ongoing activity in the past but also to formulate a polite command and prohibition. Please make sure to remember Past Progressive pattern. Let’s study the following patterns and examples below:

Hope you feel better to read this post and we are sure you have a great will to practise. Always remember Good practice makes perfect. The next post, we will  write how to show compliment and regret. Always get in touch