
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 :
Imperative Form | Use Please Before Imperative Form | Use Please After Imperative Form |
COMMAND | ||
Take notes | Please take notes | Take notes, please |
Write this | Please write this | Write this, please |
Sit down | Please sit down | Sit down, please |
PROHIBITION | ||
Don’t take notes | Please don’t take notes | Don’t take notes, please |
Don’t write this | Please don’t write this | Don’t write this, please |
Don’t sit down | Please don’t sit down | Don’t sit down, please |
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
Imperative Form | Can you… | Could you… | You should… |
COMMAND | |||
Close the window | Can you close the window? | Could you close the window? | You should close the window. |
Eat now | Can you eat now? | Could you eat now? | You should eat now. |
Open the window | Can you open the window? | Could you open the window? | You should open the window. |
Would you… | Would you like to… | Would you mind… | |
Open the door | Would you open the door? | Would you like to open the door? | Would you mind opening the door? |
Drink now | Would you drink now? | Would you like to drink now? | Would you mind drinking now? |
Close the door | Would you close the door | Would you like to close the door? | Would you mind closing the door? |
I want you to… | You are supposed to… | You’d better… | |
Clean the board | I want you to clean the board. | You are supposed to clean the board. | You’d better clean the board. |
Take the book | I want you to take the book. | You are supposed to take the book. | You’d better take the book. |
Read the book | I want you to read the book. | You are supposed to read the book. | You’d better read the book. |
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.
Imperative Form | You cannot… | You must not… | You may not… |
PROHIBITION | |||
Don’t close the window | You cannot close the window. | You must not close the window. | You may not close the window. |
Don’t eat now | You cannot eat now. | You must not eat now. | You may not eat now. |
Don’t open the window | You cannot open the window. | You must not open the window. | You may not open the window. |
You are not allowed to… | You are not supposed to… | You are not permitted to… | |
Don’t open the door | You are not allowed to open the door. | You are not suppose to open the door. | You are not permitted to open the door. |
Don’t drink now | You are not allowed to drink now. | You are not supposed to drink now. | You are not permitted to drink now. |
Don’t close the door | You are not allowed to close the door | You are not supposed to close the door. | You are not permitted to close the door. |
You’d better not… | I want you not to… | ||
Don’t clean the board | You’d better not clean the board. | I want you not to clean the board. | |
Don’t take the book | You’d better not take the book. | I want you not to take the book. | |
Don’t read the book. | You’d better not read the book. | I want you not to read the book. |
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.
Second If Conditional | ||
COMMAND | ||
Model | Model A | Model B |
Pattern | IF + YOU + VERB (Past)…, | IF + YOU + VERB (Past)…, |
SUBJECT + WOULD + BE + ADJECTIVE. | SUBJECT + WOULD + VERB (Present). | |
Examples | ||
Close the window | If you closed the window, It would be OK. | If you closed the window, I would appreciate. |
Eat this | If you ate this, you would be satisfied. | If you ate this, I would give you a present. |
Clean the board | If you cleaned the board, class would be happy. | If you cleaned the board, I would continue it. |
Pattern | IF + YOU + WERE + ADJECTIVE…, | IF + YOU + WERE + ADJECTIVE…, |
SUBJECT + WOULD + BE + ADJECTIVE. | SUBJECT + WOULD + VERB (Present). | |
Examples | ||
Be nice | If you were nice, everything would be OK. | If you were nice, I would work. |
Be polite | If you were polite, it would be honourable. | If you were polite, I would appreciate. |
PROHIBITION | ||
Model | Model A | Model B |
Pattern | IF + YOU + DID + NOT + VERB…, | IF + YOU + DID + NOT + VERB…, |
SUBJECT + WOULD + BE + ADJECTIVE. | SUBJECT + WOULD + VERB (Present). | |
Examples | ||
Don’t close the window | If you did not close the window, It would be OK. | If you did not close the window, I would appreciate. |
Don’t eat too much | If you did not eat too much, It would be great. | If you did not eat too much, your brother would eat. |
Don’t take the book | If you did not take the book, It would be great. | If you did not take the book, your brother would study. |
Pattern | IF + YOU + WERE + NOT + ADJECTIVE…, | IF + YOU + WERE + NOT + ADJECTIVE…, |
SUBJECT + WOULD + BE + ADJECTIVE. | SUBJECT + WOULD + VERB (Present). | |
Examples | ||
Don’t be noisy | If you were not noisy, everything would be OK. | If you were not noisy, I would call him well. |
Don’t be quick | If you were not quick, it would be impressive. | If you were not quick, he would finish it. |
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:
Past Progressive Tense | |
COMMAND | |
Pattern | SUBJECT + WAS/ WERE + VERB + -ing…, |
SUBJECT + COULD/ SHOULD + VERB… | |
Examples | |
Close the window | I was hoping you could close the window. |
Eat this | I was agreeing you should eat this. |
Clean the board | I was thinking you should clean the board. |
Pattern | SUBJECT + WAS/ WERE + VERB + -ing…, |
SUBJECT + COULD/ SHOULD + BE + ADJECTIVE … | |
Examples | |
Be nice | I was thinking you could be nice. |
Be polite | I was hoping you should be nice. |
PROHIBITION | |
Pattern | SUBJECT + WAS/ WERE + VERB + -ing… |
SUBJECT + COULD/ SHOULD + NOT + VERB… | |
Examples | |
Don’t close the window | I was hoping you could not close the window. |
Don’t eat too much | I was thinking you should not eat too much. |
Don’t take the book | I was agreeing you should not take the book. |
Pattern | SUBJECT + WAS/ WERE + VERB + -ing… |
SUBJECT + COULD/ SHOULD + NOT + BE + ADJECTIVE … | |
Examples | |
Don’t be noisy | I was agreeing you should not be noisy. |
Don’t be quick | I was thinking you should not be quick. |
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
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