Hey there! This is TOP episode 83: Shall We? Offers
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. It’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! I’ve been there. I was unable to speak English for many reasons that now I call a language blockade. Today I teach people like you how to speak English with confidence. Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello hello, welcome back. It’s going to be a short episode this time. I mean, all of them are short. But it might be the shortest ever. Barring episode 0, that one was the shortest. Today we are talking about the word ‘shall’ and how to use it to make offers. Stay till the very end because there will be a practical part, that is 15 sentences for you to repeat out loud. Shall we start?
Offers can be expressed in many ways, we can use: What about? How about? Let’s, Why don’t we? May I? Would you like to? Today we’re looking at a different option. Shall. First of all, make sure to use ‘shall’ with the first person either singular or plural, but only the first person. So it’s:
Shall I …?
Shall we …?
Remember we are talking only about offers and suggestions. I’m not commenting on using ‘shall’ in the same way as ‘will’. It’s a fascinating topic, however not for today.
We are only focusing on a common way of expressing offers or suggestions. Shall I help? Shall I open the window? Shall we start? Shall we go? These are only questions. The offers expressed in a form of question start with ‘shall’. Shall I help?
Shall in offers and suggestions can be also found at the end of a sentence, as a question tag, for instance: Let’s go home, shall we? Let’s start the meeting, shall we? Note that both examples contained ‘Let’s’. That’s not a coincidence. Use shall as a question tag in a sentence where the main verb is ‘let’s’.
One more thing! You might come across a very short phrase with shall, that this:
Shall we?
That’s it. Shall we? It’s used in a situation when you assume everybody is ready to start doing something. Maybe you’re all at the table, the dishes have all been served, you’re all ready to tackle in. It’s a perfect occasion to say? Shall we? That means: Are we all ready? Can we start eating? Or maybe you are standing somewhere and you’re about to go somewhere. To encourage others to move on, you can say: shall we? It’s also natural to reinforce it with some body language gestures, show the way, or simply nod the head.
This is all I have for you today. What’s left is practise. Please listen and repeat out loud:
Shall I make some lunch?
Shall we help you with your bags?
Shall I water your plants while you’re away?
Let’s go home, shall we?
Let’s start the meeting, shall we?
Shall we go to the park later?
Shall we have something to eat?
Shall we dance?
Shall we take a taxi home?
It’s cold. Shall I close the window?
Shall we go now?
Let’s go to the beach, shall we?
I shall make the arrangements for you.
Shall we start?
Shall I help you?
Amazing job! I’m glad you’re still here. Now go to your inbox and find a worksheet I’ve sent and complete it. If you’re not a member of TOPeople, no worries, we can fix that. Go to teacherola.com/83 and download the worksheet. Doing that you subscribe to my list and from now on you will receive your worksheet each week.
Thank you for listening, and please share this episode with just one person. Your friend, your family member. Let’s spread the message. No matter how enormous your language blockade is, no matter how big trauma you carry from school, how teachers failed you or how shy or introverted you are, you can start speaking English fearlessly.
Subscribe to this podcast if you haven’t yet, please rate it in iTunes and I’ll see you here next Wednesday. We will be taking about this situation when you have to speak English, but there are other near you and you can feel it. They are judgemental. Hm, how to embrace this? Be here next week and find out.
Till then, happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud. Bye!