Today's English Expression 5/30 · Stage: Opening an Issue. All example sentences were made up for this article. They are not taken from actual repository comments, and feature names are examples.
Table of Contents
- At a Glance
- 1. Meaning and Nuance
- 2. Examples
- 3. Similar Expressions and Differences
- 4. Common Mistakes by Korean Speakers
- 5. One-Line Practice
- Sample Answer
- References
At a Glance
| Expression | Would you be open to + gerund/noun? |
| Meaning | Would you be open to (considering) doing...? |
| When to Use | Feature proposal issues, design discussions, questions before opening a PR |
| Politeness | High, but not excessive, making it suitable for professional conversations |
1. Meaning and Nuance
open to means "being receptive to something," meaning "willing to consider." Dictionaries define open to suggestions as "willing to consider new ideas." Adding Would you be open to creates a polite question meaning "Would you be willing to consider...?"
The reason this expression is useful in open source is leaving the decision to the other person . When an external contributor directly sends a large refactoring or new option as a PR, the maintainer bears the burden of having to reject the effort already put in. By asking Would you be open to ...? first, the maintainer can comfortably reply "sounds good," "a different approach is better," or "out of scope." In fact, many repositories require opening an issue first and reaching a consensus before submitting a PR.
Pay attention to the grammar. Since to is a preposition, it is followed by a gerund (-ing) or noun. It is not Would you be open to add ... but Would you be open to adding ... .
2. Examples
Situation 1: Feature proposal issue
Would you be open to adding a
--dry-runflag to the restore command? I'd be happy to send a PR if this sounds reasonable.
Adding "I'd be happy to send a PR if this sounds reasonable" after the suggestion makes it clear that you are not pushing the work onto them.
Situation 2: Proposing a design alternative
Would you be open to a small refactor here? Splitting
reconcile()into two functions would make the new check easier to test.
Situation 3: Expanding the scope during a review
Would you be open to handling the IPv6 case in this PR as well, or would you prefer a separate one?
It is smoother to add or would you prefer ...? to give options.
3. Similar Expressions and Differences
- Would it make sense to ...? Means "Would it make sense to...?", asking about validity rather than the other person's intent. It is followed by the base form of a verb.
- Would you accept a PR that ...? Has a more direct intent. Used when your plan to submit a PR is already clear.
- What do you think about ...? The most open question. Used to ask for opinions when there is no concrete proposal yet.
4. Common Mistakes by Korean Speakers
- Would you be open to add a new flag? Used the base verb form after to.
- Corrected sentence: Would you be open to adding a new flag?
- I humbly request you to please kindly consider my suggestion. Combining humbly, please, and kindly results in an overly subservient tone. It actually sounds unnatural in professional English business conversations.
- Corrected sentence: Would you be open to this approach?
- I will make PR for this feature. Feels like an uninvited notification without consensus, and the article a is missing.
- Corrected sentence: Would you be open to a PR for this? I'm happy to work on it.
5. One-Line Practice
Translate the following Korean sentence into English.
How about adding a link to the troubleshooting guide in this error message? If you are okay with it, I will submit a PR.
Sample Answer
Would you be open to adding a link to the troubleshooting guide in this error message? If so, I'm happy to send a PR.
"If so" is a concise translation for "If that's okay with you." Calling instructions for resolving issues a "troubleshooting guide" sounds natural in documentation terminology.
TT's Tip. Asking for direction in one line before writing code can save you from a rejected PR.
References
- Vocabulary.com, 「open」(open to suggestions): https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/open
- Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, 「open-minded」: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/open-minded