This paper identifies two requestive forms in the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English, let statements and if statements, and the contextual conditions—linguistic, pragmatic, discourse and social—that co-occur with these forms. The analysis reveals a complex interplay of linguistic forms and contextual factors. The variables of social distance, social power, contingency, entitlement and specific discourse functions all influence the forms a speaker chooses when requesting, but not at the same time for both forms nor in equal measures. Rather, two or three contextual features become more or less relevant at a time, creating a distinct profile for each form.