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I was asking someone to do me a small favour last week, and I know he didn't do it yet. So, I would like to ask him very politely if he did it or not, so he will remember to do it.

Which is the right (and polite) way?

  1. Could you have set up the meeting?
  2. Were you able to set up the meeting?
  3. Could you set up the meeting?

Please help me out here.

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"Were you able to set up the meeting?" is the best of the three options: as there is an implied follow-up question:

  • if "Yes", then can you tell me the details please? (where, when etc)
  • if "No", then why not?

There is an assumption here that if they were able to do it then they should have done it.

So, if they were able to do it, but didn't do it for some reason (eg they forgot) then they have clearly messed up. This is only implied, and so it's still polite. It's very hard for people to answer a question like this in the negative without saying "No, sorry, ... <some reason or excuse>"

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