Page 96 - Starting Strong: English Essentials

Language Focus

Modals to Invite and to Request

Here are some modals that can be used to invite and request.

To Invite

We use “would” a lot for inviting:

“Would you like to come to our Reading club basecamp for discussion?”
“Would you like to buy some snacks for the meeting tomorrow with me?”
“Would you like to celebrate Chinese New Year with Mandarin corner?”
“I would like to invite you to …”
“I would like to come to …”

To Request
We use “could” … as polite ways of requesting:

“I’m a bit busy. Could you take a message, please”

"We're going on vacation next week. Could you water the plants for us?"
"I'll be traveling for work next month. Could you please cover the team meeting for me?"
"We're thinking of booking a flight for June. Could you tell us if there are any special deals

available?"
"I'm going to be in the lab all afternoon. Could you grab my package from the mailroom for me
later?"

"I'm confused about the reading for next week's lecture. Could you meet up to go over it with
me sometime before class?"

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