Refusing An Invitation Nicely (1)

When people ask you to do things they want to hang out with you... by the way, hang out just means to do something together in a casual way or go over someone's house and just be there maybe play video games together. If people ask you to do things together and you can't or you don't want to and you need to say no. You have to know how to do that politely. If you just say no, it's rude. You can't just say no! 💢You have to say it in a certain way so we're going to go over a couple of expressions.

If I offer you a piece of candy and you want to say no to that, fine. "Hey, do you want a piece of candy?" "Care for a piece of candy?" You can say, "No, no thanks." You can also say, "I'm good." I'm good means no. "Do you need anything? I'm going out to the supermarket." "I'm good. I'm good." Very polite. 

But when it comes to refusing an invitation, that's kind of a bigger thing. So we can't just say, "No, thanks." And we can't just say "No." We should say a little bit more. And it depends on the situation. So let's go over the following words to see what we can say "no" politely.

I'd love to, but...

If you're being honest, that's good. Maybe you really want to and maybe you really can't. You're so busy. This week is just crazy hectic. "Hectic" means really busy. 

"I'd love to but this week is just totally hectic. My whole week is booked. I don't think I can go. I'd love to but I can't." 

I wish I could, but...

You can also say "Next time I wish I could." "I wish I could. But I have to be in the office until 10:00 o'clock p.m. tonight." 

"I wish I could have dinner tonight but I'm actually leaving to drive to my hometown. It's a seven-hour drive so I have to leave earlier."

Unfortunately, I have other plans. 

In many situations, people will tell a little tiny what we call a white lie. This is where we really don't have something to do or maybe we're just going to go home and hang out. We just don't want to go with other people.😅 So we can say "I'd love to but I really just can't. I've got other plans." "I've got other things going." 

Those plans could be sitting at home and doing nothing, or watching a movie. 😈So you do have plans but they're not plans with other people. That's OK. Saying I've got other plans is better than just saying no.

(To be continued)