 How to say no in English. Here's the deal. Every day at work you're going to get different requests from your boss, from your co-workers, but you're not going to be able to handle all of these requests, right? So you're going to need to say no, but you need to still sound professional and polite and and also use natural expressions like a native English speaker. I'm Jennifer from jforisenglish.com and in this video, I'm going to show you six natural and professional ways that you can say no to a business request in the workplace. All right, let's jump right in. Let's use a simple example throughout this entire video for all of these expressions. So let's say your co-worker comes to your desk at the end of the day and says, can you stay late and help me finish this report? And you want to say no, but at the same time, you don't want to hurt your co-worker's feelings. You don't want them to feel like you're not a team player or that you're being rude. So you want to say no in a polite and professional way. So let's look at the different expressions that you can use. Expression one, I'm sorry, I can't. This is a very simple, but very powerful expression. In the first part, we're simply saying, I'm sorry. We're expressing regret for the situation. This sounds very polite. It will leave your co-worker feeling good, knowing that you have some regret for not being able to help in this situation. Now, notice my facial expression and my tone of voice when I say this, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So you can see the regret and hear the regret in my voice. That is really important. So make sure that your tone of voice and your facial expression shows the regret. And of course, we're using a contraction here like a native English speaker would. I'm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't. So at the first part, we're expressing our regret, but at the second part we're being firm. So we're letting the person know clearly that no, I can't. So that's where the no comes in with the I can't. But if you simply said, I can't, well, that might be a little rude to be honest. But when you add, I'm sorry, with that tone of voice and facial expression, I'm sorry, I can't. So we have regret, but firm. So very useful, very powerful expression you can use in pretty much any situation. Expression two, sorry, I have a deadline. Notice here, it's very similar to the first one at the beginning of the expression. We're simply dropping the subject and the verb to be, I'm, we're just getting rid of it and we're just starting with sorry. Now, this is totally acceptable and you could do it in the first expression as well. You could just simply say, sorry, I can't. Again, with this, make sure you have that tone of voice and facial expression to show your regret. Sorry, I have a deadline. So notice what's different in this situation. I'm expressing my regret, but instead of simply stating no, I can't, I'm providing a reason. Now, providing a reason is very powerful as well, because it makes the person feel good about being rejected, basically, because they understand that it's not your choice. It's not your option. There's a situation, a circumstance, a scenario that is making it impossible for them to help you. So it is very polite to provide a reason. Sorry, I have a deadline. Now, I have a deadline is an excellent reason because it's very broad. It's not being specific. Generally, when you provide a reason in this situation, you don't want to be too specific. You can simply say something more general. Now, I have a deadline. That deadline could be anything. It could mean I have a meeting, I have a presentation to prepare for, I have a report to finish, I have an email to reply to, I have a client call. So it could mean a lot of different things, but it's strong enough that the person understands that the deadline is important and it's not optional for you to change it. So very powerful reason. Sorry, I have a deadline. Expression three. Unfortunately, I can't today. This is very similar to expressions one and two. Instead of using I'm sorry or sorry, we're expressing regret differently. And we're using unfortunately. Now, unfortunately implies that the situation isn't going to happen. Unfortunately, and again, look at my facial expression and tone of voice. Unfortunately, I can't today. So by saying I can't today, in a way, I'm letting the person know that there's some something happening today that is preventing me from helping. So in that sense, the person is going to interpret the reason themselves. So they might assume I have a deadline or they might assume I have another meeting or a report to write. So I'm leaving it to the person to interpret the reason themselves. Now, you might want to be a little cautious with this one by saying I can't today, because the person might come back and say, how about tomorrow? And then you might be obliged to say yes, because generally we don't like to reject somebody twice in a row, right? We just don't like to do that. So be careful by saying today, it might get you into some trouble. Expression for I'd love to, but I have another commitment. This is a great expression. It's very polite. So let's look at the beginning part. I'd love to I'd I'd. So what do we have here? Well, we have I would love to and we're taking I would and we're forming a contraction I'd I'd love to. So notice how soft that D is I'd. But when I say it with a word after it, the sounds very much blend together. I'd love to. You almost don't hear it. But a native English speaker, we hear it. Our ear understands that sound and you need to hear it because the expression would not be grammatically correct if you didn't have that. Even though it's such a soft sound, it makes the sentence grammatically correct because without it, you would simply say, I love to. But that's not the expression. That's a present simple statement. That's not what we want. We want I would love to I'd love to. So if you're having trouble with that pronunciation at first, you can simply say I would love to. But I'll be honest, a native English speaker isn't going to say that. We use contractions. So you're going to hear from us I'd love to. So I encourage you to work on that pronunciation and tell you feel confident using the contraction. Now, be careful with this one, because if you say I'd love to, the person is going to think you're accepting their request because we use I'd love to and notice my tone of voice is happier. It's upbeat. I'd love to. That's how we accept a request. So for this one, you have to use the but I'd love to with regret. In my face, I'd love to, but I have another commitment. This is an excellent reason, again, because it's very broad. It's not specific. I have another commitment. A commitment could be both socially or professionally. So perhaps your commitment is you have to pick your kid up from school or your commitment is you have tickets to the movies tonight. So it could be socially. It could also be professionally. Your commitment is you have to send the report to your boss by five o'clock. You have to call your client and provide them with an update. So again, you're not specifying the commitment, but you're letting the person know that this commitment is important and I have to follow through. So it's a very strong reason and it's a very polite reason. It's one that you can use in many different situations. I'd love to, but I have a commitment. Expression five, I'd like to help, but I'm already booked up. Expression five, this is similar to expression four. Notice how we're saying I'd, I'd like to, I would like to. So we're using that modal would I'd like to. But here I'm saying I'd like to help. So I'm including the verb because remember in our question, it was, can you stay late and help me finish the report? So we're in our answer. I'd like to help. I'd like to help you finish the report. Now, a native English speaker will always express their ideas in the quickest, easiest way, so we're not going to repeat the entire request. That's just not going to happen. But I might include the verb again. I'd like to help, but I'm already booked up. OK, to be booked up. So as you know, you can book a hotel room. You can book an airline ticket. You can book any other ticket as well. But you can also book time in somebody's schedule. So when I look at my schedule and I see that, whoa, I have meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting, I would say, wow, I'm really booked up today. I'm really booked up today. Or I could say I'm really booked today. The up turning this into a phrasal verb by using up, it's optional. It's not required. If you say I'd like to help, but I'm already booked. That's OK to booked, booked up. They're the same. But again, you're not specifying how you're booked. You're not saying you have a meeting at five o'clock and then a report to submit and then a phone call with a client. You're just letting them know your schedule is full. Expression six, I wish I could, but I have other plans. I wish I could. So here we're using the modal could. And again, we use could for hypothetical situations. So by saying I wish I could, the person instantly knows right there that I can't because could is a hypothetical. So if I say, I wish I could, I don't need to say, but I can't. It's implied already. So instead, I just simply can provide my reason. I wish I could, but I have other plans. So this, again, is being very general in your reason why you're not specifying what those plans are. However, if you say you have other plans, it does imply socially. So it implies that your plans are something that's taking place after work, not necessarily for work purposes. So if you want to use one that implies both work and socially, you can use the commitment or a deadline instead. So it's your choice. Feel free to mix and match these reasons and mix and match the expressions as well. Have some fun with it. All right. So now you have six very natural, very polite, very professional expressions that you can use the next time you need to say no to your coworker. And if you want to feel even more confident using these expressions, I want you to go to my website and download your free speaking guide, how to speak English fluently and confidently in six easy steps. This guide will share with you some really great tips and advice that will help you feel very confident using these expressions out loud when you're speaking in English. So go to my website, jforceenglish.com and download your free guide now. All right. So you have these six expressions. I want you to write in the comment which expression you like the most and which one you plan to use next. Thank you so much for watching. If you found this video helpful, please like it, share it with your friends. And of course, subscribe. And until next time, happy studying.