How do I ask my manager to repeat something politely in English?
Ask for the part, not the whole message. Sorry, I missed the part after the deadline, could you say that again? gives your manager something specific to repeat, and it costs her five seconds rather than a minute.
Ask for the part, not the whole message. Sorry, I missed the part after the deadline, could you say that again? gives your manager something specific to repeat, and it costs her five seconds rather than a minute. Add a readback when the instruction has more than one part, and keep the reason short: I want to get the owner right is enough. Politeness in English comes mostly from the form of the question, so could you and would you mind do the work that a softer tone of voice might do in your first language.
Channel matters as much as wording. On a video call, ask while the document is still on screen and point at the part you missed instead of describing it. On audio only, ask in the first ten seconds after the instruction, before the next agenda item begins. In writing, quote the sentence you did not follow and put one question under it. If you have already asked twice, stop asking and read back instead: one readback replaces the third question.