Business Skills:

How To Use
Diplomatic
Language In Your
Next Business
Meeting in English
Part 1
by Shanthi Streat | 24 Nov, 2016 | Business
English, Learning Tips, Skills | 24 comments
Yesterday I had a live lesson on my Facebook
Page on what you need to do business with the
British. You can see the lesson recording here. I
shared 10 tips with my audience and one of them
was to be diplomatic. In other words, it was
about how to use polite and diplomatic language
when dealing with the British.
The English Language originates from Britain
and as the British place so much importance on
politeness its no surprise that the English
Language evolved to reflect this obsession.
Were real sticklers about using please and
thank you but we also insist on using diplomatic
language when dealing with people both
privately and professionally.
 The real challenge for many non-native speakers
is how to sound diplomatic when doing business
in English. Is it a cultural thing or can non-native
speakers actually learn to be diplomatic?
The good news is that there are language (verbal)
techniques, as well as non-verbal techniques,
that will allow you to get a much more successful
response than you might have had before.
Culture does have a role to play in the use of
diplomatic language in English. For example, the
British prefer to use indirect language whereas
the Americans are more direct. Nevertheless
putting the cultural differences aside, they do
share common expressions for certain situations
and this is what I want to share with you in this
post.
Lets take a look at some situations
where diplomatic language would be important if
you were doing business in English.
Giving bad news
Making requests
Giving a command
Making an objection
Negotiating
Making suggestions
 Blaming someone
In all the above situations, youd want to soften
your language. Well, youd be expected to soften
your language if youre using English as the
language of communication.
So how can we soften the tone and language
and sound more diplomatic?
Here are 7 techniques.
1. Using softeners
Consider this sentence.
I have to cancel the meeting.
This is direct with no apology for giving bad news.
If you were delivering this to a superior or a client
this would sound harsh. Wouldnt you rather hear
this instead?
Im afraid I have to cancel the meeting.
Im so sorry but I have to cancel the meeting.
Unfortunately, somethings come up and I have
to cancel the meeting.
Actually, I have to cancel the meeting.
To be honest, Ill have to cancel that meeting.
Softeners come at the beginning of the sentence
and prepares your listener or reader to the bad
 news you are giving them. They are a linguistic
tool to soften the tone of your content or to show
politeness when youre speaking.

2. Modal Verbs
Imagine you are giving an order or making a
request, using modal verbs like would, could,
may or might would be of huge help.
Making a Request
I want more time. (rather demanding)
Try this instead
I could do with more time.
It would be so helpful to have more time.

Giving an order
Give me an answer by tomorrow (how rude!)
Try this instead:
Could you give me an answer by
tomorrow? (much better)

3. Rephrasing a negative sentence

You can rephrase a negative sentence to make it
sound more positive.
Im afraid I havent finished the report.
 The use of Im afraid softens the bad news but
we can soften it even more by doing this.
Im afraid Ive not been able to finish the
report yet.
Using be able highlights your attempt to finish
the report was stopped by circumstances beyond
your control, for example, heavy workload,
awaiting more data and so on, and NOT by your
failure. Using the word yet emphasises your
willingness to finish the report and that youre still
working on it.
Negative sentences formed
with cant or wont can make you as a speaker
sound especially unhelpful and negative.
I cant deliver the goods on time.
I wont have the report ready by then.
How about trying this?
I wont be able to have the report ready by then.
Im not in a position to say when the goods will
be delivered.
Im not able to say when the goods will be
delivered.
Similarly, affirmative sentences containing words
with a negative meaning can be rephrased to
 soften the message and have a more indirect
effect:
I am unhappy with this arrangement.
I am not entirely happy with this arrangement.
I am not totally happy with this arrangement.
Here the negative adjective unhappy is replaced
with its positive opposite happy, modified with
an adverb such
as entirely, totally or completely, and the
sentence is changed to the negative form.
(Source: My English Teacher.eu)
And now if you combine some of these
techniques, you get the best example of
diplomatic language in use.
Im afraid I havent been able to get through to
our suppliers, so Im not in a position to tell you
when we can expect the delivery. Could you give
me a little more time?
4. Using qualifiers
Qualifiers are words used to modify other words
and they increase or decrease the quality of the
other words. Heres a simple example:
It is very expensive.
Here the qualifier very modifies the word
expensive and increases its quality.
 If we use qualifiers to decrease the quality of a
word, they make great softeners like in
technique one.
Other examples of qualifiers that can make great
softeners are:
a little, a bit, a little bit, slight, slightly, small,
one or two.
These qualifiers will help you especially when
you have to give bad news to your superiors or
a client.
We are having problems with the new medical
device.
We are having one or two problems with the new
product.

Were going to run over budget

Were going to run slightly over budget.
The launch plans are behind schedule.
The launch plans are a little bit behind schedule.

5. Negative Question Forms

 Ahh, I love this one because having been a
woman in a mans world (Finance) for many
years, I learned early on that when making
suggestions, I would be better off using this
technique instead of being too direct. This is not
only a linguistic issue but a gender one too.
I was told that my male colleagues wouldnt
appreciate a suggestion delivered in this way:
We should change the wording of the investment
warning in our brochures. (too direct and
aggressive!)
Instead, I should say this:
Shouldnt we change the wording of the
investment warning in our brochures? (Much
better, Shanthi. Remember youre a woman and
must sound more feminine!)
From a language point of view, yes it does sound
a lot better, especially if you talking to a superior
or a client. What weve done is to take a forceful
sounding statement and turned it into an indirect
suggestion by adding not and making it into a
negative question.
We use shouldnt, wouldnt and couldnt for
this purpose.
 We must inform the shareholders immediately.
Wouldnt it be a good idea to inform the
shareholders immediately?
Couldnt we arrange to inform the shareholders
immediately?

6. Using the Past Continuous (Progressive)

You could also use the past continuous tense to
sound more diplomatic.
I hope we can come to an agreement today.
I was hoping we could come to an agreement
today.
The past continuous makes the sentence sound
more hypothetical and hesitant, and therefore
less direct. Here are a few more examples:
I think we should offer Sally the job.
I was thinking we should offer Sally the job.
I plan to organise a conference call to discuss
this issue.
I was planning to organise a conference call to
discuss this issue.
 7. Passive Voice
While I advise my clients to avoid using the
passive voice in business writing, it can be useful
to use it to soften your language and introduce
more politeness.
You have broken your promise!
This active voice sentence is brutally direct and if
your aim is to avoid confrontation then you might
consider using the passive voice to reduce the
emotion in the sentence:
A promise has been broken!
Here we are removing the subject (you) from the
sentence completely and focusing on the object
(the promise) and the action. The effect here is
to place the blame on the action and not the
person.
Lets have a look at a few more examples of
diplomatic sentences using the passive voice:
You said you were going to sign the contract
today.
We were told that you were going to sign the
contract today.
You agreed to lower your fees.
 It was agreed you would lower your fees.

Now that your language tool box is full of

phrases, youre fully equipped to be a diplomatic
ambassador for the English Language!
Good luck!!!
Until next week, ciao for now

Shanthi
PS I am indebted to MyEnglishTeacher.eu for
their invaluable resource in helping me write this
post.