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Lucas21c Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Natural conversation

1. Could you confirm whether the following conversation is right and natural?

Clerk: May I help you?
Customer: Yes. Do you have these shoes in size seven?
Clerk: I'm not sure. Would you mind waiting for a while? I'll be right back after I look in the stockroom.
Customer: Thanks. I'd like to try on a pair if you have them.

2. Can I replace the underlined 'look' with 'check'? Also, how about 'after looking in the stockroom' instead of 'after I look in the stockroom'?

3. If the clerk says, "I'm not sure. Would you mind waiting for a while? Let me look in the stockroom," does it sound also natural?
  

Top answer

1. Yes. One comment: "for a while" tends to sound like a long while, so it doesn't exactly sound encouraging to the customer.

— GPY

  • 1.
  • Yes.
  • One comment: "for a while" tends to sound like a long while, so it doesn't exactly sound encouraging to the customer.
  • "for a moment" would be more usual.
  • 2.
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2 Answers
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1. Yes. One comment: "for a while" tends to sound like a long while, so it doesn't exactly sound encouraging to the customer. "for a moment" would be more usual.

2. i) Yes. ii) It is perfectly correct English, but doesn't feel totally conversationally natural to me in that context.

3. Yes.
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I would expect "Let me check. I'll be right back."
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