At B2, politeness is a choice about the whole utterance. Practise speaking to one person with respectful distance while keeping the request clear; formality and friendliness can coexist.
The idea
Use siz for respectful address to one person as well as for plural address. Keep possessives and verbs consistent: sizin öneriniz, önerinizi paylaşın. The pronoun itself may be omitted. A conditional such as gönderebilirseniz çok sevinirim presents the requested action as something the other person may be able to do. In Size bir sorum olacaktı, the past-looking form can soften a question being introduced now; it need not refer to an abandoned question. Buyurun offers an invitation or the floor: here it welcomes someone to a seat. Tone, relationship and situation still matter; a longer sentence is not automatically more polite.
Examples
- Lütfen önerinizi bizimle paylaşın.Please share your suggestion with us.
- Buyurun, buraya oturun.Please, have a seat here.
- Size nasıl yardımcı olabilirim?How can I help you?
- Raporu bugün gönderebilirseniz çok sevinirim.I would be very grateful if you could send the report today.
- Size bir sorum olacaktı.I wanted to ask you something.
- Uygunsanız toplantıyı yarına alabilir miyiz?If it suits you, could we move the meeting to tomorrow?
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Watch out
Adding lütfen does not change the person marking. Lütfen dosyayı gönderir misin? is a request to someone addressed as sen; with siz, use misiniz. Familiar address can be courteous between close people, but mixing sizin with önerini unintentionally switches register within the sentence.
Try it yourself
Choose the form of “your suggestion” that agrees with respectful Sizin.
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önerinizi
önerinizi: the suggestion belongs to the person addressed as siz. The ending also marks the definite object of dinlemek; önerini would point to familiar sen here.
You are addressing one person as siz. Choose the ending for this request.
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misiniz
misiniz: the person is singular in the situation but addressed respectfully. Lütfen softens the request without replacing the person ending.
Use the respectful invitation from buyurmak to offer a visitor a seat.
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Buyurun / Buyurunuz
Buyurun / Buyurunuz: you are offering the visitor a seat, so this is an invitation to act. It is not a word to insert into every request as a substitute for “please”.
Choose the softened opening for a question you want to ask now.
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olacaktı
olacaktı: the speaker is opening a question now in a less abrupt way. Olmuştu would look back to a previous situation instead of serving this conventional opening.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Choose the form of “your suggestion” that agrees with respectful Sizin.
You are addressing one person as siz. Choose the ending for this request.
Use the respectful invitation from buyurmak to offer a visitor a seat.
Choose the softened opening for a question you want to ask now.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Keep your progress
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Write a request to a close colleague and a version for someone you address respectfully. Keep the action identical, check possessive and verb agreement, then add a condition that leaves the recipient room to respond.