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Soylista Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Do you want to~ = Please ???

Hi there,

I want to have some opinions about an expression, "Do you want to ~?" in terms of "Please". How often do you use this expression when you want to ask someone to do something? I'm pretty confused with this, because usually I say or hear "Would you ~" for requests.

E.g. In the situation like you have so much in your hands and want to ask someone to open doors for you. Do you say, "Do you want to open the doors?" meaning, "Please open the doors."?

Or like, you have a coffee cup in your hand, but you want to re-tie your shoe laces. Do you say to your friend, "Do you want to hold this for a sec?"?

If you do, is it universal or more like regional?

Thanks bunch for your help!!

soylista
  

Top answer

" It makes it sound like it would just make my day to open the door or hold the coffee, rather than the very natural act of simply asking for a favor. " -- That's very different and much more natural to me. )

  • " It makes it sound like it would just make my day to open the door or hold the coffee, rather than the very natural act of simply asking for a favor.
  • " -- That's very different and much more natural to me.
  • )
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4 Answers
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I can't say I find it very natural, and I'd be tempted to say something like "Well, it's no burning desire on my part, but I'm happy to." It makes it sound like it would just make my day to open the door or hold the coffee, rather than the very natural act of simply asking for a favor.

"Would you mind opening the door?" "Would you mind holding this?" -- That's very different and much mo
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Hi Grammar Geek,

Thank you so much for your quick reply! This has confused me quite a bit, so I'm glad I asked this question here.

Thanks again!
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That turn of phrase is very casual and is usually said as
D'juh wanna ( [open the door / hold this a sec / gimme a hand with this / get back to me on that] ) ?
and only to people you know well.
It's part way between Open the door! and Could you please open the door? in tone.

I thought it was universal, but I could be wrong. It's possible that it's more co
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Jim, I must be a more sarcastic human being than you Emotion: smile

I'm enough of a jerk that if someone said that to me I'd be thinking

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