Just say what you need: Would you mind…? and polite requests in team chat
About this lesson
Students ask for help with Would you mind…? and polite requests in this B1 English for IT lesson plan on team chat and email.
- Grammar
- Could you…? + verb, Would you mind + -ing, Would it be possible to…? and indirect questions in statement order: Do you know if it works on iOS?
- Topic
- Asking busy colleagues for help in chat and by email at a fictional payments startup, with words such as thread, context and pleasantries.
- Activities
- The “no hello” story and two chats to read, a talk between meetings, self-checking drills, a chat and a wheel, then messages and an email to write and a voicemail to record.
What's inside
Chapter 1Warm-up: Hi… Are You There?
Chapter 2The Story: Please Don't Just Say Hello
Chapter 3At Work: Six Hours or Six Minutes?
Chapter 4Listen: Ten Minutes Between Meetings
Chapter 5Grammar: Could You Tell Me…?
- Study the scheme: polite requests and indirect questionsGrammar schemeTry it
- Fill in the gaps: make the indirect questionFill in the gapsTry it
- Choose the correct form to complete each requestChoose the optionUnlock
- Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
- Drag the words into the gaps in Amara's emailDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 6Speak Up: One Clear Message
Chapter 7Homework: Your First Message
- Read your phrase bankReal-life documentUnlock
- Choose the polite and correct messageQuizUnlock
- Sort the phrases: chat or email?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Write three clear messages and a short emailWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
- Record a voicemail asking a colleague for helpSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock
Team chat vocabulary
12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.
+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words
- mention someone
- a reaction
- interrupt
- context
- put someone on hold
- back-to-back
- pleasantries
- a subject line
- get to the point
Grammar: polite requests and indirect questions
A chat message carries no voice and no face, so the words of a request set its tone. Learners watch the word that comes after each request: a base verb after Could you…?, -ing after Would you mind…?, to after Would it be possible…?, and statement word order after Do you know…?
Polite requests and indirect questions
Ask politely, and put the whole question in your first message. After Do you know… or Could you tell me…, use statement word order.
Can you, could you, would you mind?
Can you…? is friendly and Could you…? a little more polite; both take the base verb: Could you send me the list? Would you mind takes -ing: Would you mind sending an email? Would it be possible and Do you have a minute take to + verb.
| Request | Next word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Can you…? (friendly) | base verb | Can you check the build? |
| Could you…? (more polite) | base verb | Could you send me the list? |
| Would you mind…? | verb + -ing | Would you mind sending an email? |
| Would it be possible…? | to + base verb | Would it be possible to get it by Friday? |
| Do you have a minute…? | to + base verb | Do you have a minute to look at my message? |
Indirect questions keep statement order
After Do you know…? or Could you tell me…?, the subject comes before the verb, and do, does or did disappear: What does this error mean? becomes Do you know what this error means? A yes/no question needs if or whether.
Indirect questions: statement word order
| Direct question | Indirect question |
|---|---|
| Where are the logs? | Can you tell me where the logs are? |
| When is the release? | Could you tell me when the release is? |
| What does this error mean? | Do you know what this error means? |
| Why did the build fail? | Do you know why the build failed? |
| Does it work on iOS? | Do you know if / whether it works on iOS? |
| Is the API down? | Do you know if / whether the API is down? |
Indirect questions: three rules
- After Do you know…?, Could you tell me…? or Can you tell me…?, the subject comes before the verb: where the logs are.
- do / does / did disappear, and the verb takes their form: what it means, why it failed.
- A yes / no question needs if or whether: Do you know if it works?
One message, the right tone
Put the greeting, the context and the request in one message. In chat, Can you…? and Could you…? are fine; in an email to people you don't know, Would it be possible to…? sounds more polite. To say yes to Would you mind…?, answer Not at all.
From Amara's day
- Do you know if you have data on failed card payments?Amara, in #payments-help
- Could you tell me what the most common reasons for failed payments are?Amara, in #payments-help
- Would it be possible to get a short list by Friday?Amara, in #payments-help
- Would you mind sending me a short email with the details?the payments developer
- Do you have a minute to look at my message?Amara, to Diego
No hello, and the right tone
Put the greeting, the context and the request in ONE message. In chat, Can you…? and Could you…? are fine. In an email to people you don't know, Would it be possible to…? and Would you mind + -ing? sound more polite. To say yes to Would you mind…?, answer “Not at all” or “Sure”.
Typical mistakes
Could you tell me when is the release?
Could you tell me when the release is?
statement order: subject + verb
Would you mind to check the logs?
Would you mind checking the logs?
mind + -ing
Do you know does it work?
Do you know if it works?
if / whether, no does
Can you tell me where are the logs?
Can you tell me where the logs are?
the verb goes after the subject
More lessons on this grammar: Questions lessons and exercises
Try the would you mind exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 11 auto-checked exercises
- 3 games
- 2 teacher-checked tasks
- 3 real-life documents
- 1 article
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 set of word cards
- 1 audio clip
- 1 picture
- 1 transcript
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- make a request with the right next word: Could you check the build? Would you mind sending me the link?
- ask indirectly in statement word order: Could you tell me where the logs are? Do you know if it works on iOS?
- choose a friendly request for chat and a more polite one for an email to another team: Would it be possible to get a short list by Friday?
- write one clear first message with a greeting, the context and the request, not a bare Hi
Lesson 16 opens unit 6 of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, Remote and async, on clear messages across time zones. It builds on asking for help with Could someone…? in lesson 6 and the softeners of lesson 11 (maybe, I wonder if); lessons 17 and 18 move on to time zones and async updates. In chat, nobody hears your voice, so a request's form carries its tone.
Open boxes of questions come first, then twelve word cards with pictures and audio, from a direct message to get to the point. The story explains the “no hello” habit. At work, Amara's direct messages with Diego open with a bare “Hi” and take almost six hours, while one clear post in the payments team's channel gets an answer in six minutes. In an AI-voiced talk between meetings, Diego helps her polish that post.
Four self-checking drills follow the scheme: indirect questions to complete, the right form after each request, words to order and an email to the payments team with words to drag in. In the chat, students play Amara asking Diego for a test build, and a wheel deals out requests, from moving a call to asking for a file.
Homework starts with a phrase bank, then a quiz and a chat-or-email sort that check themselves. Students then rewrite three unclear first messages, write a short email to a team they don't know and record a voicemail asking for help, all for the teacher to review.
- Grammar:
- polite requests · indirect questions · would you mind + -ing
- Topic:
- remote work · chat and email · no hello
Teaching tips
- Put the two chats side by side: the direct messages that open with a bare “Hi” and the single post answered in six minutes, and ask students what made the difference.
- Drill the answer along with the question: after every Would you mind…?, the partner replies Not at all or Sure, never a plain Yes.
- In an in-company group, collect the vague openers people get, such as You got a sec? or ping, and have pairs rewrite each one as a single clear request.
- One-to-one, read the learner's draft aloud, as Diego does in the talk: stop at anything bossy, such as Send me the list by Friday, and let them rephrase it.
Liked it?
Teach the whole lesson in edio
25 exercises in 7 chapters, ready to teach. edio is an online platform for language schools and teachers: ready-made interactive lessons, live classes, homework and student progress in one place.
Start a free trial
7 days, no credit card.
Open the lesson
Find it in the library of 621 ready lessons. Teach it as it is, or copy any chapter into your own lessons.
Teach it live or as homework
Students work in their own accounts, in sync with you during the lesson, and the practice exercises check themselves.
The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team
24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course
Unit 1 Hello, team
roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms
Unit 2 The daily standup
updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to
Unit 3 Bugs and tickets
clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers
Unit 4 Code review
kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional
Unit 5 How it works
explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses
Unit 6 Remote and async
chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous
Lesson 16 · you're hereJust say what you needPolite requests and indirect questions
Lesson 17Your 9 a.m. is my noonFuture forms for plans across time zones
Lesson 18Write it downPresent perfect continuous for status updates
Unit 7 Users and clients
user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons
Unit 8 Your next job
resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional
