How To Talk On The Phone In English - Useful Expressions & Questions

hey student watch this video and learn how to talk on the phone in english you know don't panic learn the right expressions questions affirmative sentences so that you can talk to anyone anywhere anytime in english on the phone if you don't know me well i'm teacher prix thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to teach you you know so now let's dive into the content how to talk on the phone in english in this lesson i'm going to be giving you practical lessons practical expressions to help you better communicate on the phone this is something that you can actually practice you know maybe record yourself create some short dialogues using the expressions that i'm going to give you okay and even though nowadays we chat mostly we send messages or maybe audio messages to friends there may be occasions when you call support or when you call a company or when you need to make an appointment over the phone so it's interesting to learn some expression so that you don't panic so that you don't feel afraid if this situation happens to you because it has happened to me before you know i've had in in recent times when we don't make so many phone calls so it's interesting to know some useful expressions okay so here let's imagine you are calling a doctor's office to make an appointment or you want to talk to your doctor or maybe you want to talk to your lawyer or maybe you want to talk to a sales representative so here i have some options some of them may not be so formal some of them may be more informal okay so the first thing that you could say is hi this is priscilla can i speak to and the name of the person okay if you know the person's department you can say the department it depends on how formal the phone call is okay so always think in terms of formality this is the perhaps the simplest way to start a phone call in english hi this is priscilla can i speak to blah blah blah this person that person now if you are let's say you are having a conversation with your friend okay let's say i call my friend and i'm talking to my friend and then my friend has another friend or someone in common that i know and i want to talk to that person okay so i am having a conversation with jack and i want to talk to peter i know peter and jack live together they're friends okay so i can tell me hey i can i can tell jack hey jack is peter there can i talk to him real quick can i talk to him for a second this is very common in informal conversations this happens to me a lot when i'm calling this a funny hair baby hair here annoying me [Laughter] do you have hair problems you know bad hair day so that's me today so maybe this happens to me while in brazil mostly i'm talking to my parents to my parents maybe my dad or my mom then i can say hey is dad there you know is he over there can i talk to him for a second so this is very common or maybe you are calling someone in your in a different department maybe you're calling susie and you know that next to susie uh uh janet is there you know janet is always close to susie so maybe you're talking to susie about some documents about some some things you need to finish and then you can say hey um is janet over there or is janet there simple can i talk to her for a minute oh wonderful thank you okay or maybe she will transfer you to janet that is usually what happens oh no you know what i'll i will get to her you know i will transfer you to her one second hold on now i'm just calling a friend okay and i want to sound more yo more american more native speaker like so i'm calling my of my gringo friend my american friend my native friend and then i'm like jamie hey what's up jamie what's it going how's it going man you know hey yo what's up it depends on how formal you are okay how informal so if you're just calling a friend a a non-native speaker or a native speaker and you want to sound a little bit more natural then you can say hey hey jamie how's it going hey susie how's it going okay how's it going is a different way to say how are you okay so this is a little bit more informal you're talking to the person directly and in this case you don't need to identify yourself the person listening to you will recognize you okay should be like oh yeah this is priscilla i know that girl okay now if you are uh watching this lesson probably because you work at a company and you get phone calls or maybe you need to make phone calls i have a very important tip for you if you're making a business phone call to another company then you need to give a little bit more information about you okay about yourself so then if i were calling another company in a more business way okay in a more you know technical way so i would say oh the person would speak you know the person i'm calling maybe the the receptionist or the secretary oh jj company this is may i help you sir this is aj company may i help you and then i can say well hi this is priscilla from aj constructions i would like to speak to melinda barnes please then you have to be a little bit more formal if you're calling from your company hi this is priscilla from aj constructions i would like to speak to melinda barnes please if melinda barnes is not so popular then you have to say well i would like to speak to melinda barnes from legal from the legal department so from legal please oh okay one second so if it's a business call and you need to call someone from another company if the person is popular you don't need to say the department if the person is important that's what i mean if the person is not so important then you need to say the department well i would like to talk to melinda barnes from credit okay can i talk to her and there you have it then you identify yourself well i'm peter from aj constructions so this means either you are a client or a representative from the company that needs to talk to that person okay so these are some variations of how you ask uh to speak to someone in english over the phone okay so always be careful with the level of formality you don't need to be extremely formal like oh i would like to speak to may i speak to this is the 21st century you don't need to get to that level of formality you need to be polite okay so if you say this is priscilla from aj constructions can i speak to here i said i would like to speak to i was not paying attention but you don't need okay especially may may i speak to if you say can i speak to it would be fine okay so uh sometimes the students use may a lot so i would be very careful with the word may uh it may not be necessary to use such a high level of formality especially because when you call a company to be able to talk to someone you are going through the reception okay you're going through the secretary all right so you don't call the person directly if it's a very important person first you go through the the reception or the secretary or the assistant or whatever name it is but you go through someone before that then when you get to the person then you have to analyze how formal that person is okay if you're talking to a judge you know don't don't order order if you're talking to a judge then maybe okay if you're talking to someone who is much older than you and has a much higher position than you then maybe okay i used to work for a japanese company many many many years ago and there the level of formality was was high but it was a family business it was a very traditional japanese company so i was a little bit more formal okay now asking the caller's name maybe you are the receptionist maybe you are the secretary or maybe you are accidentally receiving a phone call so um i'm sorry i didn't catch your name could you repeat your name please i didn't i didn't write this down here but you could say i'm sorry can you repeat your name please i'm sorry i didn't get your name can you can you repeat your name please maybe the person didn't say the name but you don't need to say i'm sorry what's your name you can it's possible okay if you if you get nervous in the middle of a conversation and you forget everything what's your name okay always think of the solution of the work around i was talking about that yesterday so if the person spoke too fast and they're like um excuse me i didn't get your name or i didn't catch your name and if it's more informal you know those marketing companies always calling you hi priscilla blah blah blah who's that who is that you know who would you like to talk to who do you want to talk to so if you're being more informal if someone calls you and you're like who is that you can do this okay i've already gotten a phone call like that and i was like um who is that so this is a bit more informal but if you are at work and perhaps you uh are receiving an international phone call and you didn't understand the person's name you don't need to say oh what's your name you can say i'm sorry i didn't get i didn't catch your name can you repeat your name please oh that's wonderful and who would you like to talk to okay so you can direct the conversation so this would be some ways to ask the caller's name okay there are more formal ways to do that but it's not necessary especially that nowadays if you think about it you go through a filter you don't talk to the person directly in very rare cases you talk to the director directly and even in that case if you're talking to the director or to someone important it means you have some kind of business relationship okay now asking people to wait this can be used in formal situations or informal situations it depends on on whom you're talking okay uh now please hold the line i'm going to read this because i i put some examples here please hold the line i'll connect you to a member of our customer customer service and staff if you constantly receive phone calls in english and you always need to direct them to connect them to someone else to the customer service staff or to the help desk you know staff or to the human resources staff what are the departments in your company where you usually direct the customer to okay so you need to pay attention to that if you constantly receive phone calls and you always direct them you always connect them to the customer service that's what you need to have close to you maybe write a post it so that you don't forget so that you practice okay um here if you are working as a secretary and you are receiving a phone call to check if the doctor is available to talk for a few minutes or the director or another kind of business person so you can say please hold the line i will check please hold the line i will check if doctor if melinda barnes is available okay i would talk i would check if mrs barnes is available okay so this would be a way for you to say so please hold the line i will check if that person is available okay now maybe you need to tell someone to wait because you need to grab a piece of paper you need to grab a pencil or a pen so that you can take some notes okay so maybe the person asked you to to write down a message or a phone number today we can do that on the computer maybe you have a computer but what what if you don't what if you're on the street and someone calls you and you need to take some notes okay maybe we still need paper and pen okay paper and pen are very important in our society so you can say just a moment while i get a pen and some paper okay just just wait a moment while i can use wait a moment just wait a second or wait a moment while i find the file maybe you are at this at the office and you need to find a file a specific file okay maybe it's a physical file or maybe it's on the computer okay just i was with a student and i was looking for a file that i had to send as a student so i said oh just a moment while i find the file because my computer is totally confusing my computer is actually a mess you know i'm sorry about that so uh that's uh usually something that i can say just a minute oh just a minute i'm just i'm just getting let's say you are working with um customer service okay and someone is calling you on the customer service uh hotline or you know the the line the person usually calls the number so the person says oh my name is priscilla this is my id oh this is my protocol number so then you have to check just a minute i'm just getting your account up on my computer screen so maybe you work with customer service and then you can tell the person just a second while i i get your account on my screen and then i can give you more help more assistance or maybe you were someone is calling you to make an appointment maybe you are the assistant and you need to book an appointment for someone and then you tell the person just wait a moment i'm just checking the schedule i'm just checking melinda barnes schedule one second one minute just a moment please just a moment always please okay please always use please somewhere especially if you work with that okay if you are answering the phone international foreigners uh americans especially there they use the word please a lot depending on your culture i don't know where you're from but depending on your culture you may not be so familiarized with such with using so many formalities please please please but if you pay attention to american companies they use the word please like every two seconds they worry about that it's their etiquette okay so it's important to do the same when you are speaking english when you are talking to foreigners because you don't know what their culture is like ah but it might just so in some cultures people don't say please so they're rude well different cultures different people different realities we need to understand them now guys if you're enjoying this lesson make sure to share it with your friends you know hit the like button when you hit the like button it really helps my channel grow so it means that you are understand you are being able to catch the information i'm sharing here so that means a lot to me now moving on taking messages taking dictation this may also happen okay so imagine this class as if you are having a phone call you're talking on the phone and maybe at some point someone is gonna tell you to take a message or to write down a number or an email okay they're gonna dictate oh that's my email my email is contact teacherpricks.com so the person is dictating an email to you or maybe a phone number oh my phone number is zero zero two three four five six eight nine so the person is dictating that number to you okay so maybe i ask uh i call an office and i ask um uh to talk to melinda barnes but then she's not there and then i tell the person look can she call you back and i say yes she can call me back well does she have your number i don't know and then you say your phone number so these are things that you can ask during a phone call because maybe we tell people hey call her back she'll call you back but then you don't know if the person has the number so if you are working in a company and you usually take phone calls this is an important question okay if you say oh we are going to get back to you sir but get the phone number okay i know that some some phones they have the caller id the identification you can see the number but maybe they have a better phone number okay maybe a cell phone number maybe it's urgent so always confirm even though we have the caller identification in many companies it's is smart to ask because maybe they have a different number where they prefer to receive the phone call okay now can i take a message so i call melinda barnes but she's not available so then i can uh i can offer can i take a message i'm the secretary and i say can i take a message i am offering to take a message or maybe i call a friend and then her mother answers the phone oh she's not here right now so i answered her phone then i can say oh can i take a message you know oh sure can you tell her to call me back on this number yeah yeah this number is fine and then the person is called call back when they can okay he's going to call back when they can can i leave a message this this is the moment when you you are calling and you want to leave a message so again i go back to melinda barnes so i am priscilla from aj constructions i call melinda barnes and she's not available so the secretary says i'm sorry but i'm afraid she's not available at this moment then i can interrupt her and i can say well can i leave a message in general secretaries are usually trained to ask would you like to leave a message okay can i take a message okay but if they don't or if you are in a hurry and you want to say can i leave a message you can okay and then you say the message okay so can you ask her to and here i give you some examples can you tell her that i'll be 10 minutes late for our meeting can you tell her that i i've already finished the proposal the document the project proposal can you tell her that the project was approved and i need her to call me can you tell her that can you tell her that is a way to start the message can you tell her that blah blah blah we have just made a deal with the peterson's company she needs to know maybe she needs to know so can you ask us a question can you ask her to send me the contract again maybe she knows what contract i am talking about okay can you ask him to call me back or her can you ask her to call me back okay usually when you say that then the secretary or the receptionist or the assistant will say well does she have your phone number if you don't think so then you can say well i don't think so my phone number is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and then you tell your phone number so guys i if i strongly recommend that when watching this lesson take notes because here i'm talking about possible situations uh when you were talking on the phone and as i told you at the beginning of the lesson because we are in a more modern society where most conversations are casual and we are using whatsapp we're just sending messages we don't we don't call people anymore these conversations will probably be at workplaces or because you're booking an appointment or even if you're calling a restaurant to make a restaurant reservation yes not all reservations are online okay so these are some possible scenarios of conversations on the phone okay now with it and here i have some other situations okay that may happen when you are making a phone call when i say when someone tells you can i take a message uh you can just say no it's it's okay i'll call i'll call i'll call back later you know i can call her later i can call her back later and here you can ask a question do you know when she will be back so this is a question you can ask on the phone if you call the person and the person was not there so you want to know well do you know when he or she will be back because i really need to talk to them so this is something that you can say during the phone call okay but maybe again the person is not there oh i'm afraid he's not here yet would you like to leave a message then no it's urgent i'm sorry it's urgent do you have his cell phone number because let's go back to the situations here probably most of the situations are a little bit formal so maybe you asked you called the business number but the person is not there and you really need to talk to that person because it's quite urgent so you can say do you have his personal number his cell phone number her cell phone number but only use this if it's really an emergency okay that's very important and maybe someone calls your director or your boss and he's in a meeting you can say i'm sorry he's in a meeting but that person is not so important you can talk to a different person maybe you are calling the car insurance okay let's say you are traveling around disney in orlando florida and there is a problem with your car and you have one contact then you call the contact the secretary answers and she says oh i'm sorry mr anderson is in a meeting right now but then you can say well but i need help it's urgent is there anyone else i can speak to about my car insurance i've just had an accident i need help so there you can call well if you if you have a car accident in orlando you shouldn't be calling the the representative of the the car insurance you should call you should call 9-1-1 that's basically who you call but i understand that maybe you want to talk to someone or maybe you had an accident and now you are having a problem with your car insurance they are not helping you so you call your your guy the guy that sold you the insurance but he's not there so you can oh is there anyone else i can talk to because it's urgent i need to speak to someone about my car insurance so is there anyone else i can speak to so this is an alternative maybe you call person a but person a is busy so you're like okay i need to speak to someone else is there anyone else i can speak to about my car insurance or about whatever problem you're having okay so this would be some uh other situation options okay and and then guys here i'm not talking about calling your best friend if you pay attention as i i emphasize at the beginning emphasizes again a few minutes ago and i am emphasizing now this is a call that we make for business purposes okay where maybe you're calling someone to talk about a business deal or maybe book an appointment okay and finally ending phone calls maybe you work with sales and you gave an explanation to someone and then they're like is there anything else i can do for you today this would be something because then the person ends the the conversation there no not really oh so thank you very much have a good day that's it so is there anything else that i can do for you today that i can help you with this is usually an ending line the person understands you are ending the call okay in whatever area you refer to okay business areas now uh if you are at work and someone is talking to you and you're like oh i gotta go so uh you can say well i'm afraid i have a meeting in a few minutes so i gotta prepare i have to prepare if you wanna be a little bit more formal so i have to prepare you know so if you excuse me thank you so much call me if you need anything so you see i can connect phrases when i am ending the call i'm sorry i'm afraid i have a meeting in a few minutes i really need to finish a presentation so i have to go i need to go oh sure sure sorry thank you so much okay oh thank you bye-bye okay another way uh maybe it's this is more informal okay this is a bit more informal maybe you're talking to your uh international friend you know in english you're practicing and uh even if it's a whatsapp call you know like a casual call you're like um anyway oh it's been great talking to you we should do this more often you know but you know i have to go but you know let's talk soon and why am i repeating that you know you know you know because that's what they do in real life okay i was watching a justin bieber's interview just random interview and he repeated the word you know so many times that i was like oh my god i know so when you are ending a casual phone call you are going to be casual oh anyway sweetie i love talking to you we should talk more often you know but listen listen but listen i have to go now okay i got stuff i've got stuff to do i got things to do okay i i got things going on here so i gotta go i gotta go this is more informal so you can say you can use this during a phone call okay maybe you're talking to a sales person on the phone and i've done that in english okay from brazil i buy many international courses to study so that i can become a better teacher so one day a sales representative called me you know a few months ago actually and then i was like yeah that's good all right all right sure yeah uh-huh totally yes of course but listen i would love to talk more about this but i'm afraid i have a meeting so i have to go okay but thank you so much thank you so much for taking the time okay i really appreciate it oh and then the person oh yeah sure let's talk a little bit more i'll send you an email yeah sure thank you you can do that okay thank you very much have a good day okay so here especially in if you are at work okay if you are at work you can say hey we can talk more about that later but i'm afraid someone has just come in okay and i i have to talk to that person i it's a customer a customer has just come in a customer has just come in and i i gotta i have to i have to see him or her i have to talk to him or to her okay can i use gotta if it's a colleague just a colleague then totally okay then you can if it's your boss or a client then i wouldn't use god depending on the level of relationship okay and if you want to end again a business call maybe someone is offering you something you can say well that's great so that would be all thank you for your time i will let you know if i need anything else okay so maybe they want to sell you a course or a product or something and you want to finish so you're like well you know that would be all thank you so much thank you for your time i will let you know if i need anything else okay and that is uh really it and in a little bit more informal maybe you're talking to your friend best friend husband wife whatever someone informal um i'm sorry i have to hang up but i'll talk to you later okay maybe you're talking to a colleague or friend oh sweetie i'm sorry then you can make it a little bit more human oh sweetie oh dear i'm really sorry but i have to hang up yes i'll talk to you later okay bye-bye you can make it a little bit more personal it depends on who you're talking to oh honey i'm listen i'm sorry i have to hang up yes oh thank you i'll talk to you later okay bye-bye that's basically what you do if the call is a little bit more informal so make it a little bit more human okay if you're talking to someone you know and you want to hang up okay so all these phrases that i have given you here i is strongly recommend that you sit down go through them take notes if you work take notes on the most important phrases for you and practice read them aloud okay that's the the idea uh of of this video because sometimes you may be traveling and you need to call someone you need to you need to make a an appointment at a doctor or dentist or lawyer uh something happen you need to check the car insurance so these are some possible expressions for you to use you never know when someone is going to call you in english okay other than that my friends it was lovely to see so many familiar names and new ones thank you so much share this lesson with your friends and i'll see you tomorrow for another one thank you guys bye-bye

Channel: Teacher Prix

Views: 2,504

Keywords: english, speak english, teacher prix, preintermediate english, english for intermediate speaker, english lesson, learn english online, conversation in english, phrasal verbs with to be, verb to be lesson, vocabulary practice, vocabulary in englih, words in english, how to talk on the phone, talking on the phone in english, expressions to talk on the phone, how to speak on the phone in english, speaking on the phone, english phrases, english phrases on the phone, speaking

Id: R_5yFmYjkp0

Length: 31min 15sec (1875 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 23 2021