When someone asks you politely to do something and you want to do it, how do you answer?
I was using "ok", but it seemed too general and thought about "of course". I want to know how to answer naturally.
3 Answers
It depends on how important the request is (if it's "Please pass the sugar" you don't need to say anything, just do it!) and who you are talking to.
"Of course" "Certainly" or "Yes, I'd be glad to" are all-purpose polite replies; if your boss asks you to write a report you might say something like "I'll get started straight away/as soon as I've collected all the data". "OK" is fine for a trivial request or in an informal situation.
answered Apr 24 at 13:16
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@Lambie it's migrated from english SE. if someone has an account there but not on ELL, they'll show up as deleted– KaiaCommented Apr 24 at 16:59
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Like the other comment had mentioned, it all depends on who is doing the asking and the tone in which it was asked. If a close family member like my mother or my brother had asked I would reply with an "Okiee dokiee." LOL But if my boss were to ask, I would usually say, "Yes, okay. Not a problem." But if a coworker who I'm friends with would ask I would simply just say, "Sure, consider it done." Hahah Now these are just hypotheticals for me. I'm not usually the one to immediately WANT to do something someone asked. So my true answer usually would be...."Yeah, sure. I'll get to it sometime soon..." 😂
It would depend on who asked you, and the general tone of the conversation.
"OK" is terse, may be taken as rude. "of course" might be obsequious (submissive, flattering or 'brown-nosing') in some situations.
If your boss is asking, "of course" could be more appropriate.
If your buddy is asking, "Sure!" could work. But all depends on the context and tone of the conversation - sometimes "OK" would be sufficient.
