Name: Polite Phrases in English┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go
Uploaded: 2025-07-19T22:55:57.000Z
Duration: 26 min 41 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

To-infinitive

I'm Rachel and I make this podcast to help non-native speakers learn how to speak English and understand Americans and sound more American if that's their wish.

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This week, I'm sitting down with my husband, David, and we're reflecting on a recent trip that we took to Italy where we were struggling to find the phrases to be polite.

So today, we're going to talk about phrases in English that you can use in various settings like a restaurant or a store.

When you're interacting with people who work for the restaurant or store, how to be polite, how to ask for things, and how to thank people for things.

David, one thing I'm thinking about is, remember in Rome, there was that supli shop on our street?

There were always, any time of day, it was crowded.

So we decided, okay, obviously, we need to eat whatever is in there.

So one evening, I went in, it was probably like 9 or 10 or no, Stoney.

It was just a counter where people could buy all sorts of deep fried things.

So David and Stoney were waiting for me outside.

And after like 10 minutes, I came back out and I said, I can't do it.

My Italian skills aren't good enough to figure out how to butt in.

So actually, for me, there were two things happening there.

There was culturally, I didn't know how it worked because no one was getting behind somebody.

And then also, I was just way too intimidated to say, in America, what would I say in that situation?

If it was chaos and there was just a group of people with no sense of line forming.

What I would say is, I think I was next or something like that.

What would you say in a situation like that in America?

If let's say you're at a grocery store at the deli counter getting some ham sliced thin for some delicious sandwiches.

I would, I might say, oh yeah, I think I was next.

But I mean, part of what's interesting is that as a native speaker, you have a whole range of things that you could say that have a lot of nuance to them that hopefully we're going to be able to talk about today in the podcast.

In other words, at the deli counter, I might say, oh, I'm sorry.

Or the situation might call for being a little bit more pointed just with a subtle intonation maybe.

Or an expression, body language too would play in big.

So this is where culturally I think we're seeing a difference too between Italy and America.

You would be expected to get into a line and wait your turn.

And in Italy, it seems just a little bit more casual than that.

Whereas in America, it seems like, you know, if you're approaching a deli counter and there's already somebody there that you kind of stand behind them somewhat.

Or if it's just a couple, it's not a big deal.

But as soon as it started getting like more popular, more people there, then there would really be a sense of a line forming.

And I think if there was usually some order to it, I realized this is later in the trip where I was a lot more comfortable and probably had picked up on some of the cultural cues.

But when I went to that market in Genoa and got the bread at that bakery.

I remember you telling me about David saw this swarm of people.  And he knew, OK, I need to go buy whatever is being sold there.

There were three different bakeries at the market, I think, but the one had people swarming around it.

I paid attention to who had swarmed in after me and everybody else had done that, too.

And so there was there was some paying attention to who was there next.

Did it seem like people selling were paying attention to who was there next or were they relying on you guys to do that?

So she was, you know, she's packing up bread and bringing people up.

And she didn't have the ability, I don't think, to manage the line.

But people, for the most part, were, you know, deferential to each other.

But there was a sense of like, if you're going to be in here screwing around or don't know what you want or whatever, or you're not going to take your turn, I'll take it if you're not taking it.

Which is funny because another phrase I'm thinking in America that you could use if this was happening is you could say, like, if the person who is selling whatever starts giving you the attention, I've definitely seen this happen.

So rather than taking your turn, you direct it to whoever had been there before you.

So those are things that you could you could use in in that situation.

You could also say, oh, actually, I was here first.

And if you're in a rush and need to get out, I think in many cases you would probably just let that person cut in front of you.

Another thing I was thinking about in this situation is I could have just like as soon as I sensed as soon as I saw the guy hand a package across the counter to somebody and I knew he was ready, I could have just sort of blurted out what I wanted.

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Polite Phrases in English┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go

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