Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Would you mind and do you mind

416f

Would you mind

and do you mind are used in polite requests. Most occurrences of would

you mind

in conversation are in requests:

[A and family are eating on their terrace; B, a guest, arrives]

A: 

Would you mind eating out here with us?

B: No, good heavens, no.

Do you mind speaking up

, cos we can’t hear you.

✪

Note how speaker B answers no, not yes in the first example. This is the normal, polite

answer to requests with mind (to mind means ‘to object’, thus: No, I have no objection

to, or problem with, your request.). 

Û

415e above

✪

Note the use of the -ing form, not the infinitive:

Would you mind moving your car? 

(Would you mind to move your car?)

A–Z

53 Mind

698 | Speech acts

Cambridge Grammar of English

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