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B1 Lesson 2 of 3 · Professional Emails & Writing

Requesting, following up and apologising

Make polite requests, follow up without sounding pushy, and apologise professionally for a delay or a mistake.

13 min · 7 activities

In this lesson you will

  • Soften requests with the conditional
  • Write a polite follow-up
  • Apologise and propose a solution
QuizFill inSentence builderWriting

Lesson summary

The key points to remember, for revision.

  • 1Soften requests: pourriez-vous…, je souhaiterais…, serait-il possible de… ?
  • 2Follow up: je me permets de revenir vers vous…, sauf erreur de ma part…
  • 3Apologise: je vous prie de m’excuser…, brief explanation, solution.

Key vocabulary

un devisa quote
relancerto follow up
un contretempsa setback, hitch
régler une factureto pay an invoice