Useful Language. Making requests (in conversations & writing)

Welcome!

Here is some useful language for making requests and responding to requests. You should combine this with our episode devoted to saying thank you.

Listen to the sentences. Read the sentences.

More on the TP section of Useful Language.

Stories. "Ada" by Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was an experimental writer who explored language without any kind of fear, and joyfully. Have fun!

Listen to Ada.
Read the story and check out the TP webpage on Gertrude Stein, where you can also listen to her reading bits of her work.

Poems. "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams

Welcome to the TP podcast!
I love this poem. It’s so mysterious, and so honest. I don’t know what it means. I just know it means something mysterious and daily and beautiful, plus totally human.
Picture it as a post-it note on a fridge.
Hope you enjoy it!

Listen to the poem.

This Is Just To Say (1934)
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Copyright © 1962 by William Carlos Williams. Used with permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this poem may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher. (Thanks, New Directions!)

More on this autor at Poets.org

Useful Language. Saying You're Sorry (Apologies in Conversations & Writing)

Welcome again!

Sorry for taking so long to post another episode! :) (and sorry for posting several in a short time, which is what I'm about to do!)This audio includes "sorry" sentences you can use in conversations and in notes and letters/emails. It also includes some language comments, like the comment about the three different "that" words you can find!

Listen to this episode.

Read the sentences in this episode.

More: Apologies Accepted at TP and some sorry letters at the TP Writing section.