Will you have coffee? would you have coffee?

Question

Hi,For making a polite offer or invitation, you use the modal 'will' like, "Will you have a cup of coffee?" Then can I say, "Would you have a cup of coffee?" to make a more polite offer? (I understand that "Would you like a cup of coffee?" is also a polite offer.) I would appreciate any help, especially from native speakers. Thanks!

Ivanhr · Accepted Answer

I'm not a native speaker but that doesn't sound good to me. I'd say

Would you like a cup of coffee?

"Would" doesn't usually work well with "have" at least not in this question.

BarbaraPA · Answer

I agree with Ivan.
Would you like... is the way to ask this question.

CalifJim · Answer

BamtoriFor making a polite offer or invitation, you use the modal 'will' like, "Will you have a cup of coffee?" Then can I say, "Would you have a cup of coffee?" to make a more polite offer?

This must be frustrating for you. Your reasoning is good, but it just doesn't work as you expected for this situation.

To me, "Would you have a cup of coffee?" said with the right intonation, suggests

Would you happen to have, by chance, a cup of coffee that you could give to me?

In other words, you believed that by changing will to would, you would be making the invitation more polite, but in reality, the change to wouldmight be understood as a change from an invitation to a request.

Note that we would normally add other words to "Would you have?" to make that 'request' meaning more clear:

Would you happen to have a cup of coffee?
Would you happen to have a cup of coffee for me?
Would you have a cup of sugar I can borrow?

These are all polite forms of "Do you have?"

CJ

Will you have coffee? would you have coffee?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions