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Hi, everybody.

My name is Alicia.

In this lesson, I'm going to talk about how to make negative requests by negative requests.

I mean, how to make requests for someone not to do something or to stop behavior.

So I'm going to talk about some formal and some very casual examples of this.

I hope that it's useful.

Let's get started.

All right.

1st 1 the 1st 1 is probably the most useful and the easiest to remember.

It's kind of polite a little bit, but it's also very clear and direct.

The pattern is Please don't verb.

Please don't worm.

So put any verb here in the regular like plain infinitive form No change to the curb.

Just please don't plus a regular for example.

Please don't take my pens.

Please don't fire her.

So in these examples, my verbs are take and fire.

Please don't take my pens.

Please don't fire her so we can make very simple ones too.

Like please don't sit there or please don't smoke.

For example, These are very quick.

Short, direct, easy to understand.

Requests to stop or not to do something.

Okay, let's go to a very formal expression.

You might see this on signs or you might see this in official rules and regulations Policies, for example.

This is not something that is commonly used in everyday speech.

Please refrain from verb i n g.

So we tend to used the i N g form of the verb here, please refrain from Please refrain from this refrain from means.

Don't Please don't.

And instead of using the regular infinitive form of the verb here, we used the i N G form here.

So this is like the more formal version of the first pattern.

Please don't for to make it more formal, please refrain from verb in examples.

Please refrain from feeding the pigeons.

So here feeding is in the I N G form.

Please refrain from feeding the pigeons.

If I want to use another simpler example like in this sentence I used, please don't smoke.

We could use that here.

Please refrain from smoking.

That's a very common one that you might see posted in restaurants like on signs.

Please refrain from smoking please refrain from I n g form for a formal way to say, Don't do this behavior.

Okay, let's go on to three examples that are very casual, these air ones you'll use with kids you'll hear among close friends, family members And in some cases, these are the easiest to use because they're so direct.

1st 1 stop verb.

Plus I n g.

So this is very, very direct.

There's no please, there's no Could you?

It's just stop.

So this is a very direct request.

Stop verb ing Examples, Stop hitting your sister.

Hitting is the I N G.

Form.

Stop hitting your sister.

Stop looking at me.

So these are very direct.

So we can imagine thes might be from, like a parent to their child or perhaps us to a close friend, for example.

So these air used in situations where we're very close to the listener Stop i n g in the verb form.

Okay, let's go to another one.

Don't plus a verb.

Sometimes if the verb is very clear, if the action is very clear, we drop the verb and we extend this Don't sound.

So let's look at some examples with a verb.

First, don't plus a verb.

It's just like this.

Please don't verb, but even more direct, more casual.

Don't put your elbows on the table, so elbows Remember this part of your body and putting it on a table like at a dinner table, for example, is considered rude.

So don't put your elbows on the table.

Don't bless our verb and some extra information here.

Don't put your elbows on the table.

Don't chew with your mouth open.

So chewing is the action.

This action of your mouth.

Ah, and chewing with your mouth open instead of closing your mouth as you chew is also considered rude.

So these air a couple quick, maybe reminders from a mother or father or other parent figure.

Don't put your elbows on the table.

Don't chew with your mouth open.

Don't plus a verb so you might hear especially young kids and kind of adults who are having a little bit of fun with language.

You might hear the verb getting dropped, so ah, great example would be like if a kid is fighting with their brother or sister and the kid is getting punched like there's someone like that's hitting the kid.

The kid might just say Don't So because the action they want to stop is quite clear.

Like Don't hit me is what is what the speaker the little kid means.

But they dropped the the verb because it's very clear the unpleasant action is very, very clear.

In those cases, you might hear speakers drop the verb completely.

Don't when it's very clear we know which action we don't want.

So you might hear that in lots of cases, though, we do include the bird.

Okay, let's go to another one now.

Ah, pair, Stop it and stop that!

Stop it and stop that!

So here the difference is it and that, um this just depends on the speakers feeling really?

Stop.

It means stop the behavior stop.

That also means stop the behavior stop.

That is probably used more when we want to, um, point out a behavior a little bit removed from us.

So if I'm watching bad behavior across the room, I could say Stop that.

Stop that.

I could say Stop it as well if I want to.

It just kind of depends on the speakers.

The speaker's mood a little bit so stop it or stop that are quick commands again, often from parents to mean.

Stop that behavior to stop that bigger.

Stop it.

Stop it!

So you can use both of those.

Um, maybe a question some of you might have.

Stop this.

Stop this.

We don't use that one very much.

Stop.

You could say stop this car.

For example, if you want to talk about an object or something that is moving that you want to stop moving, you could say stop this car or stop this bus, for example.

But when you're talking about behavior we don't use stop this.

We say Stop that or stop it.

Interesting point.

Okay, let's go along to a very casual kind of more common in the last maybe 10 to 15 years, I would imagine I'm not sure specifically, but this is when we see a lot on the Internet these days and a lot used among young people.

Could you not plus maybe do that?

Sometimes this is dropped.

So this is very similar to don't.

But what makes this interesting is it's phrased as a polite expression.

Could you could you is used in polite requests.

Here.

We're using?

Not though.

So could you not do something?

Could you not do that?

This is actually not used in formal situations.

Yes, we use could.

And you here making us think.

Oh, well, maybe it's formal, but this is actually a very casual expression.

Could you not do that?

We use this with that sort of intonation.

Could you not do that?

We use it with close friends on Lee.

So examples could you not post such embarrassing pictures of me online?

So this is used with someone that we're quite close to.

We make kind of a direct and slightly sarcastic, maybe request sometimes two people.

Um, so again, as I talked about with don't, if the action is very clear, we can drop this whole part of the sentence and just keep, could you not?

So if, for example, maybe a close friend is singing really, really loudly in my ear, I could say, Could you not?

Or I could say, Could you not do that?

Which means please stop.

Please stop.

So this is kind of an interesting, an interesting pattern.

It sounds kind of formal.

It seems like it could be formal, but it's not Actually, it's quite it's quite casual.

Okay, let's go on to the last one for today.

Ah, this one is a formal expression.

If you could, please, Not a verb.

We would appreciate it if you could.

Please Not were.

We would appreciate it.

So again, this might come from maybe service staff.

Or you might see this on a sign in a restaurant.

Or perhaps add like, um, I don't know, some other kind of gathering place where lots of people visit.

So if you could, please not regular verb form, we would appreciate it.

So a formal expression at the beginning and at the end.

So example, if you could please not feed the animals at the zoo, we would appreciate it.

So here's my verb.

Feed the animals at the zoo.

I have an object here.

We would appreciate it if you could Please not smoke.

We would appreciate it.

So this is a formal request not to do something.

And we include an appreciation expression, too.

So this is another nice formal expression you can use if you forget, though, this one is maybe the easiest to remember.

It's good and polite situations, good and casual.

situations.

Please don't burn Pretty simple.

So I hope that this was useful for you.

Of course, if you have some other patterns that you know of or if you have any questions, please feel free to let us know in the comments section.

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Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon.

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