Page 445 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

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Another way of distancing suggestions from reality is to make them conditional or negative.
It would be better ifwe turned it the other way up. What if we stayed at home for a change?
Suppose I gave Alice a call?
Ifyou would come this way . ..
I wonder ifyou could lend me £S?
I don't suppose you want to buy a car, do you?
You wouldn't like to come out with us, by any chance?
You couldn't take the children to school, could you? (BUT NOT CtJltltbt'tytJlt
talee the ehildren UJ seh66l? This sounds like a complaint - see 435.4.)
politeness {3}: softening expressions quite. maybe. I think etc
We can express our opinions and intentions less directly (and therefore more politely) by using softening expressions like quite, rather, kind of, a bit, maybe etc.
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We can say that we are thinking of doing things, instead of expressing our intentions directly.
I think I'll go to bed in a few minutes.
I'm thinking ofgoing to London tomorrow.
I'd quite like to start thinking about going home.
We would like to ...
In a formal style, requests, invitations, suggestions etc are often introduced by would like instead of being expressed directly.
We would like to invite you to give a talk to our members on June 14th. I'd like to suggest that we take a vote.
I would like to congratulate you on your examination results.
politics a n d policy
Politics (usually singular but always with -s - see 524.3) is used to talk about government and related ideas.
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conditional and negative expressions
He's quite difficult to understand, isn't he? I find her rather bossy, don't you?
This music's kind ofboring.
For more examples. see 157.16.
I think 1'1/ •••
The food's a bit expensive. Maybe I'll go for a walk now.
I don't know much about politics, but I don't think this is a democracy. You talk beautifully - you should be in politics.
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