 What do you say? What do you say? What do you say? Offering. What do you say when offering something to guests or other people? Well, it depends on the situation. There are lots of ways to offer things in English. Let's see how well you can handle these scenarios. Ready to start? Situation 1. You would like to offer your guest something to drink. What do you say? A. Do you want to drink? B. Do you like something to drink? C. Would you like something to drink? D. Would you like to drink something? Think about the best answer. Situation 1. Analysis. For each of these situations, we will highlight the best answer and give a natural response to it. We will also say what is wrong with the other answers. The best answer is C. Would you like something to drink? Sure. Water would be fine. What's wrong with the other answers? Do you want to drink? No, this is focusing on the wrong thing. It's focusing on drinking rather than what you're offering them, the drink. B. Do you like something to drink? There's a problem with the grammar here. When you say do you like, you're indicating your preference, what you like. If you're offering, you need to say would you like. D. Would you like to drink something? The grammar is also incorrect here. Would you like to drink something? Situation 2. You are at your office with a new client. You want to make him or her feel comfortable by offering a cup of coffee. What do you say? A. Can I get you a cup of coffee? B. Coffee, do you like it? C. Want a cup of coffee? D. How about drinking coffee? Analysis. The best answer is A. Can I get you a cup of coffee? No, I'm okay, thanks. What's wrong with the others? Coffee, do you like it? This is not an offer. It's asking about taste. C. Want a cup of coffee? The grammar is not correct here. Cup of coffee. Also it's too informal for a business situation. D. How about drinking coffee? The wrong message here. You're focusing on the drinking rather than on the drink. Focus on the coffee, on the drink itself. Situation 3. Your friend is at your place watching videos. You bring out a plate of cookies. What do you say? Please eat a cookie. B. Do you want cookie? C. How about it? A cookie? D. Here, have a cookie. The best answer is D. Here, have a cookie. Oh, thanks. What's wrong with the other ones? A. Please eat a cookie. This is too formal for an evening at your house. Also, eat doesn't quite work here. It's better to say have a cookie when you're offering something to someone. B. Do you want cookie? The grammar is incorrect here. It's better to say, would you like a cookie? C. How about it? A cookie. No, this one is too wordy. And make it into one sentence. How about a cookie? Situation 4. A customer comes into your store. What do you say? A. What can I do to you? B. Hello, may I help you? C. What do you want? B. You need something? The best answer is B. Hello, may I help you? Yes. Do you have any staplers? What's wrong with the other ones? What can I do to you? This is the wrong preposition. It should be, what can I do for you, not to you? That gives a different message. C. What do you want? This is impolite. If you say it like that, you'll lose customers. D. You need something? This is too informal. And it's obvious that they need something because they're coming into your store. Situation 5. You have several guests at your house and we would like to offer them some fruit. What do you say? A. How about some fruit? B. Fruit. Do you like it? C. What about fruit? D. Is fruit good for you? The best answer is A. How about some fruit? Sure. That looks good. What's wrong with the other ones? B. Fruit. Do you like it? Again, when you say do you like, you're asking for their preference. Are you asking for preference? Are you offering them something? Would you like some fruit? Sounds better for an offer. C. What about fruit? There's a subtle difference between this one and A. How about some fruit? What about fruit? A lot of times when you use what about something, you're asking for opinions or ideas. That's not what you're doing here. You're offering them some fruit. D. Is fruit good for you? This is the wrong question. You're asking them about the health issues rather than offering them something to eat. Situations 6. You have a wide variety of drinks for your guests to choose from. What do you say? A. How do you drink? B. Can you drink anything? C. What is your favorite drink? D. What can I get you to drink? The best answer is D. What can I get you to drink? How about some orange juice? What's wrong with the others? How do you drink? This is focusing on the activity of drinking. You need to focus on the beverage, not the activity. B. Can you drink anything? This means something like, what type of drinker are you? That's not what you want to do here. C. What is your favorite drink? That's not right for this situation. You're not making small talk. You're offering them something. Situations 7. The doctor will be delayed. You want the patients in the waiting room to feel comfortable by offering them something to read. What do you say? A. Do you want magazine? B. Can I get you something to read? C. Do you need a reading material? D. How about to read something? The best answer is B. Can I get you something to read? Sure. Do you have today's newspaper? What's wrong with the others? Do you want magazine? There's a problem with grammar here. Would you like a magazine? C. Do you need a reading material? Grammar's also a problem here. Would you like some reading material? D. How about to read something? This is the wrong word order. How about something to read? Situations 8. Your friend is unloading groceries from his or her car. You want to help. What do you say? A. Can I help you carry those bags? B. May you need some help? C. Do you want anything? D. How about giving you a hand? The best answer is A. Can I help you carry those bags? Sure. Thanks a lot for your help. What's wrong with the others? B. May you need some help? The grammar is incorrect here. Do you need some help or would you like some help? C. Do you want anything? To vague. Offer a specific service like helping them carry their bags. D. How about giving you a hand? This sounds a little bit strange. It sounds like you're focusing on yourself. You need to focus on the other person. Let's review some phrases for offering things in English. Here, have a cookie. Here, have some cookies. Or have some punch. This is very informal. If you're entertaining someone at home or just with friends, you can use this. Would you like a cookie? Would you like some soup? This is the most common way to offer things in English. Note, don't get this mixed up with would you like to? Go to the movie this weekend. When you say would you like to verb, you're extending an invitation to do something. If you say would you like a something or would you like some, then you're offering them something to eat or drink. Next, can I get you something to drink? Can I get you something to eat? Would you like something to eat or drink? The next one. What can I get you to eat? What can I get you to drink? When you say it like this, you're asking for a specific thing that they would like to eat or drink. The next ones are offering services. For example, when you go to the store, a lot of times people will say, may I help you? Or can I help you? Can I help you is a little bit more informal. What can I do for you? When you're responding to offers, we can respond affirmatively, which means positively or negatively. In the affirmative, when you're responding to an offer, you can say something like this. Yes, please. Sure, thanks. Or water will be fine. If you want to ask them for a particular item, you could say do you have orange juice? If you're not going to accept the offer or you can't accept the offer, you can simply say no, thank you. Or no, but thanks for the offer. You can also say I'm okay or I'm fine, thanks. Or nothing for me, thanks. Your turn. Practice offering your partner various things or services. Let your partner respond affirmatively or negatively. For example, here are some situations. Offer your partner a glass of wine. Offer your partner some birthday cake. Offer to help your friend carry something to the house. Offer to give your partner a ride to the airport. Offer your guest something from a list of food or drinks. Think of your own situations and practice offering in English. Go ahead and pause the video and take some time to role play these situations. Hope you enjoyed that. If you liked the video, please give us a thumbs up in the comment section below. And remember to subscribe to our channel. This video was brought to you by the following English learning websites. Thanks for watching. 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