Expressing Preferences in English
There are many ways to talk about your preferences in English.
You can use some common phrases and expressions below to
express your preferences:
Questions about preferences:
Which do you prefer, football or volleyball?
Which do you like better, tea or coffee?
Do you prefer hot coffee or ice coffee?
Would you prefer to go for a walk or see a movie?
Would you rather have dinner with me?
Expressing Preferences:
I prefer tea to coffee.
I’d prefer to have some water.
I like tea better than coffee.
I prefer reading books.
I prefer jogging to running.
I’d prefer living in a city to living in the country.
I would rather go home.
I’d rather stay at home than go out.
I’d rather take a nap than go for a walk.
I’d rather play football
We use would like or ’d like to say politely what we want,
especially when making offers and requests:
Would you like a biscuit with your coffee?
Can you order for Ellie? She’d like the Margarita pizza, please.
Verbs that follow would like are in the to-infinitive form:
Would you like to listen to that again?
I’d like to get a return ticket for tomorrow.
We use Do you like …? to ask about preferences in general. We
don’t use Do you like …? to make offers or requests.
Compare
Would you Would you
Do you like
Do you like rice? like some like to
dancing?
rice? dance?
asks about likes asks about likes
offers some invites you
and dislikes in and dislikes in
rice to dance
general general
Would like to have + -ed form
We use would like to have + -ed form when talking about things in
the past that we have missed:
I’d like to have watched the football but I had to go out. (I wanted
to watch the football, but I didn’t.)
I’d like to
We can use I’d like to as a short answer to an offer or invitation:
A:
You must have dinner with us.
B:
Yes, I’d like to.
A:
Good. Is Sunday night any good?....
Practicar a pedir cosas de una manera educada.
Hay que pedir de una manera educada. Utiliza I'd like o we'd
like (o I would like / We would like). Sólo añadir el verbo si aparece
entre paréntesis al final.
Ejemplo 1:
Ask the waiter for a bottle of sparkling water.
Respuesta:
I'd like a bottle of sparkling water, please.
Ejemplo 2:
Tell your friend you want to see the news on TV now. (see)
Respuesta:
I'd like to see the news on TV now.
ACTIVITY
Fill in the blanks with the correct expression.
1) Ask the waiter for a glass of wine.
____________________________________________a glass of wine, please.
2) Ask the bank manager to borrow some money. (borrow)
_____________________________________________some money, please.
3) Ask the ticket vendor to sell you two tickets. (buy)
______________________________________________two tickets, please.
4) Tell the shop assistant you want to see the black dress. (see)
__________________________________________the black dress, please.
5) Ask the waiter for some more coffee.
____________________________________________some more coffee, please.
6) You and your friend ask the waiter for the chicken. (have)
_____________________________the menu, please.
7) You and your friend tell the girl in the tourist office you want a
map.
___________________________________________a map, please.
8) You and your friend ask the travel agent for a holiday brochure.
(take home)
________________________________________a holiday brochure, please.
9) You and the other students in your class tell the teacher you
want some more English homework. (do)
______________________________some more English homework, please.
10) You and your friends ask the ticket VIP for six passes to the
disco.
___________________________________six passes to the disco, please.
Now write a poem to a special person for you, using would like and
like.
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