How do I make a polite request in an English email?
Wrap the request in a question: "Could you please…?" for everyday asks, "Would it be possible to…?" for favours, "I would appreciate it if you could…" for very formal requests. State the deadline with "by", not "until".
- Three formulas: "Could you please…?", "Would it be possible to…?", "I would appreciate it if you could…".
- Deadlines take "by Friday" — "until" describes a duration, not a deadline.
- "I would like", not "I want" — direct German phrasing reads as demanding in English.
B1 · Business Writing · 10 minPolite email requests, taught brick by brick.
A structured ten-slide lesson for B1 learners. Hear a polite request in context, meet the three key formulas from a human tutor, then practise them across six interactive drills — including the German "bis" trap with deadlines — before a final five-question quiz. The whole arc is under ten minutes and nothing requires a signup.
- CEFR levelB1 · Intermediate
- Time to completeAbout 10 minutes
- SkillsWriting, Listening, Speaking, Business English
- Bricks10 blocks
01 / 06
Why English requests are wrapped in questions
German business culture treats directness as respect for the reader's time: "Schicken Sie mir bitte den Bericht" is a perfectly polite German email. Translate it word for word — "Send me the report, please" — and an English reader hears an order, not a request. English politeness works differently: it signals respect by giving the other person a visible way out. A question — "Could you please send me the report?" — pretends, grammatically, that the reader might say no, and that small fiction is exactly what makes it polite. In reality almost nobody is free to refuse, and everyone involved knows it; the form matters anyway. This is the single most important adjustment German speakers make in English correspondence. The content of your request can stay just as clear and just as firm as it would be in German — only the wrapper changes. Keep the directness in your facts and deadlines, and put the softness into your grammar.
02 / 06
The three request formulas, ranked by politeness
For B1 email writing you need exactly three chunks, and it pays to learn them as fixed formulas rather than building each sentence word by word. Formula one, the everyday workhorse: "Could you please + verb" — "Could you please send me the March figures?" Use it for routine requests to colleagues and familiar contacts; "Can you…?" does the same job in informal messages between people who know each other well. Formula two, for favours: "Would it be possible to + verb" — "Would it be possible to extend the deadline by two days?" It works whenever you are asking for something the other person could reasonably refuse. Formula three, the most formal: "I would appreciate it if you could + verb" — "I would appreciate it if you could confirm the delivery date." Reserve it for suppliers, customers, senior managers, and situations where an earlier request went unanswered. Match the formula to the size of the favour — not to your mood.
03 / 06
Deadlines: by, not until — the German 'bis' trap
German uses one word — "bis" — for two different English ideas, and that single gap produces the most common deadline error in German business emails. English "by" marks a deadline: the action must happen no later than that point. "Please send the contract by Friday" means Friday is the last acceptable day. English "until" marks a duration: a state continues up to that point and then stops. "I am out of the office until Friday" means the absence lasts through the week. Write "Please send the contract until Friday" and you have described a strange, continuous act of sending — the sentence immediately reads as foreign. The test is simple: if the verb is a single action (send, confirm, sign, deliver, reply), the deadline takes "by". If the verb describes a state that lasts (be away, stay open, remain valid), use "until". And soften a hard deadline by adding the reason: "by Wednesday, as the audit starts on Thursday" — a deadline with a reason reads as organised rather than bossy.
04 / 06
Common German-speaker mistakes
Beyond the "bis" trap, four other transfers from German do reliable damage. First, "I want": both "ich will" and "ich möchte" steer learners toward "I want", but in an English email "I want the April figures" reads as a demand. The polite standard is "I would like" — the same content, defused. Second, the false friend "bekommen": "I become the report" announces a transformation, not a delivery; the verb you need is get or receive. Third, the imperative-plus-please pattern: "Please send me the report" is softer than a bare imperative but still an instruction — fine from a manager to her own team, risky upward or outward. When in doubt, make it a question. Fourth, register mixing: "Dear Ms Weber" at the top and "Can you fix this asap?" further down. The cure for all four is the same habit: reread your draft asking not "is this correct?" but "how does this land with the reader?"
05 / 06
Polite but still clear: context, attachments, one request
Politeness is not vagueness — and some B1 writers over-correct: they wrap the request in so much padding that the reader cannot find it. A good request email has three visible parts. First, one line of context so the reader knows which file, order, or project you mean: "Regarding our June order (no. 4711) …" or "As discussed on the phone this morning …". Second, the request itself as one clear question, ideally in its own paragraph — never buried in the middle of a long block of text. Third, any material the reader needs, announced politely: "I have attached the order confirmation" or the more formal "Please find attached the signed offer." Resist the urge to stack several requests into one email; one email, one main ask is the rule that gets answers. If you genuinely need three things, number them — a short list is polite precisely because it saves the reader effort.
06 / 06
Four workplace situations, ready to use
Here are the four requests B1 learners write most often at work, each with a sentence you can lift directly. Documents from a supplier: "Could you please send us the updated safety data sheets for our June order? We would need them by Wednesday, as our audit starts on Thursday." Figures from a colleague: "Could you please send me the March figures for the Berlin office? I need them for Friday's management report." A deadline extension — the request where softness matters most, because you are asking for a favour: "Would it be possible to extend the deadline to the end of next week? The test results arrived later than planned." Access from IT: "I would appreciate it if you could set up access to the project drive for our new colleague, Ms Krause, by Monday." Notice the pattern in all four: a polite question, a concrete object, a "by" deadline, and a one-line reason.