student asking question

Is "Could I please ~" a common expression?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes, "could I please" is common and is a more polite way to say "can I please". "Could" can be used in replacement of "can" to sound more polite when making requests. This is because "could" is a conditional verb and is used to express possibility instead of certainty like "can". Ex: Could I have a glass of water?

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