ABSTRACT
Today's objective is to improve sentences stylistically in terms of their politeness. Being polite is crucial for successful communication. Although this is a universal fact and applies to all communication, the way in which linguistic communities express politeness can differ greatly. Belonging to the same linguistic family the Germanic languages, English and German have developed very similar methods of expressing politeness. Modal verbs, for example, play a key role and they will therefore play a key role in today's chapter, too. Additionally, little words like perhaps, maybe and please are very important, and we will look at them too. The most obvious linguistic contexts for politeness are questions (requests for help or advice) and suggestions (ranging from advice to orders).
