Learn how to use the English modal verbs "can," "could," and "may" to express ability or possibility
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Daniel: Hello, this is Daniel. |
| Chihiro: Hi everyone. Ordering Pizza Part 3. |
| Daniel: Chihiro, what are we looking at today? |
| Chihiro: In this lesson, you will learn how to make a complaint. |
| Daniel: This conversation takes place on the telephone |
| Chihiro: The conversation is between the boss of the pizza shop and a customer. |
| Daniel: The speakers have never met, but the conversation is casual. |
| Chihiro: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Boss: Rock 'n' Roll Pizza! May I help you? |
| Yu: Yes. I'd like to file an official complaint against one of your delivery guys. |
| Boss: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What happened? |
| Yu: Well, your delivery guy was more than an hour late and the pizza was cold. I hate cold pizza. |
| Boss: How could you not like cold pizza? It's the best. When you get up in the morning, all tired, it's the best thing in the world…. |
| Yu: Did you guys rehearse?!?!?!? Ugh. Anyway, that's not my point. He came really late and brought me food I couldn't eat. |
| Boss: Well, I'm real sorry to hear that. We'll make sure it never happens again. |
| Yu: And when I complained about his tardiness, he made up excuses and lies! |
| Boss: That is really unacceptable. |
| Yu: What are you going to do about it? |
| Boss: We'll train our delivery personnel and send out warning e-mails to all staff to make sure it never happens again. |
| Yu: That's not good enough. I've been a regular customer for more than five years. I deserve better treatment. I think I deserve a free pizza. |
| Boss: I'm sorry sir. We don't do that. |
| Yu: Do I get a free Coke at least? |
| Boss: Nice try. |
| Yu: So you're not going to make up for your terrible service? You're losing a great customer. I order pizza every Friday…(gets cut off) |
| Boss: Keep on Rockin' with Rock 'n' Roll Pizza! |
| (hangs up) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chihiro: I guess the complaining didn't do much after all! |
| Daniel: Yeah, how bad is that!? People will usually complain about a service if they think it is poor. If the complaint is made in a restaurant or about food, the customer usually receives something free. |
| Chihiro: This could be anything from a free meal, drink, or dessert, and it's to keep the client happy and satisfied for future possible business. Poor service businesses like the one in the dialogue that do not address the complaint is bad customer service... |
| Daniel: ... And bad for business as well. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chihiro: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. What’s the first word? |
| Daniel: official [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: describing something approved by authority |
| Daniel: official [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Daniel: official [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| complaint [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: statement that you are unhappy with something |
| complaint [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| complaint [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Daniel: delivery [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: act of taking something to a person or place |
| Daniel: delivery [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Daniel: delivery [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| guy [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: man |
| guy [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| guy [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Daniel: to rehearse [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: to say or do something several times in order to |
| practice |
| Daniel: to rehearse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Daniel: to rehearse [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| tardiness [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: act of being late |
| tardiness [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| tardiness [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Daniel: excuse [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: explanation for mistakes or bad behavior |
| Daniel: excuse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Daniel: excuse [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| unacceptable [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: not pleasing, not acceptable |
| unacceptable [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| unacceptable [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Daniel: personnel [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: people who work for a company |
| Daniel: personnel [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Daniel: personnel [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| to deserve [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: used to say that someone should be given something |
| to deserve [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| to deserve [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chihiro: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Daniel: The first phrase we’ll look at is, “To file an official complaint.” This is a phrase used by people when they want to criticize something in a formal manner, and often the person expects something in return. In the dialogue the customer says, “I'd like to file an official complaint against one of your delivery guys,” which means that he wants to |
| criticize the delivery guy in a formal way and that he also expects something in return to make up for the |
| bad service. |
| Chihiro: ...Which he pushed for but didn't get in the end. Here's another example, “I filed a complaint about the |
| noise next door.” Here, I perhaps called the police about the disturbance next door, and I expected the |
| noise to stop. Daniel, what are some other variations of this phrase? |
| Daniel: To issue a complaint, to submit a complaint, and to lodge a complaint. |
| Chihiro: Right. Now let's take a look at the grammar point for this lesson. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chihiro: “Can,” “could,” and “may” are modal verbs, which are a form of auxiliary verbs. They are used before other verbs to show ability or possibility. We'll look at “could” and “may” in this lesson. |
| Daniel: “Could” is used to talk about the past. For example, “She could ride her bicycle at an early age.” In the dialogue, the negative form is used. “He came really late and brought me food that I couldn’t eat.” |
| Chihiro: “Could” is often used to make polite requests as well. For example, “Could you take care of our dog while we’re on vacation? “May” is an even more formal way to make the same request as in, “May I use the restroom?” |
| The phrase “May I help you?” in the dialogue is a common phrase used for any type of customer service. |
| Daniel: Some people believe that using “can” and “could” for asking permission are not correct. However, in recent years, it has become common. |
| Chihiro: Since the word “could” is a modal verb, it is also an auxiliary verb and sentences with it follow the pattern of other auxiliary verbs. In statements the word order is, subject + “could/may” + verb. For example, |
| Daniel: “I could play basketball.” |
| Chihiro: In questions, the order is, “could/may” + subject + verb, as in, |
| Daniel: “Could you swim?” |
| Chihiro: When using modals like “could,” the word “to” is not used before the infinitive which is the dictionary verb form like with other kinds of verbs. For example, “I could play piano” is never “I could to play piano.” |
| Daniel: They also don't have “-s” when the subject is 3rd person singular. For example, “He could dance” is never “He coulds dance.” |
| Chihiro: And the last point is that questions and negatives do not use the word “do” with modals. For example, “Could you finish the report?” is never “Do you could finish the report?” |
Outro |
| Chihiro: Well, that just about does it for today. |
| Chihiro: See you all later. |
| Daniel: Bye. |
| REPETITION OF DIALOGUE |
| Boss: Rock 'n' Roll Pizza! May I help you? |
| Yu: Yes. I'd like to file an official complaint against one of your delivery guys. |
| Boss: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What happened? |
| Yu: Well, your delivery guy was more than an hour late and the pizza was cold. I hate cold pizza. |
| Boss: How could you not like cold pizza? It's the best. When you get up in the morning, all tired, it's the best thing in |
| the world…. |
| Yu: Did you guys rehearse?!?!?!? Ugh. Anyway, that's not my point. He came really late and brought me food I |
| couldn't eat. |
| Boss: Well, I'm real sorry to hear that. We'll make sure it never happens again. |
| Yu: And when I complained about his tardiness, he made up excuses and lies! |
| Boss: That is really unacceptable. |
| Yu: What are you going to do about it? |
| Boss: We'll train our delivery personnel and send out warning e-mails to all staff to make sure it never happens again. |
| Yu: That's not good enough. I've been a regular customer for more than five years. I deserve better treatment. I |
| think I deserve a free pizza. |
| Boss: I'm sorry sir. We don't do that. |
| Yu: Do I get a free Coke at least? |
| Boss: Nice try. |
| Yu: So you're not going to make up for your terrible service? You're losing a great customer. I order pizza |
| every Friday…(gets cut off) |
| Boss: Keep on Rockin' with Rock 'n' Roll Pizza! |
| (hangs up) |
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