Professional English: 17 Expressions to Use in Meetings

Today, we're going to look at phrases, useful phrases for meetings; how to start the discussion,

how to contribute your idea.

It's functional language for people who use English at work, but also for people who just

want to share in the exchange of ideas and shape discussions more.

Let's get going.

How to start like a boss.

You might say something like, "Morning, everyone.

Lovely to see you all here today.

Hope you're all doing well and have been enjoying blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

Talk about something they've been doing, maybe compliment them on something they've done.

Right, let's get cracking, shall we?

Cracking, meaning to get started.

Let's get started, then.

Now, what's on the agenda?

We're here today to...

Now let's think of an imaginary situation.

I have a favourite festival that I occasionally go to in England.

I won't say the name of it.

And at this festival, there's a cricket match, and it's a very entertaining cricket match

because roughly every two minutes, the match is punctuated by people taking all their clothes

off and running across the pitch.

So we're going to imagine for today's meeting that we're discussing...

The festival is discussing whether streakers are going to be allowed to continue doing

this at the match.

So we're here today to discuss whether at the next festival we will have tighter security

to prevent this from happening or not.

Now, our next section is about controlling the discussion because maybe a member of the

group starts going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

They start saying how it's an outrage and, you know, it's a family festival, and how

can we let this be going on, and no one's...

No one's going to come to the festival.

Thanks for that, Stephen.

Yep, very interesting there, your opinion.

But can we just get back to the agenda that I was talking about?

So we're thanking, and then we're sort of pulling back.

I'll get on to those concerns in a moment, Stephen, but first of all, and then you're

deciding what you want to hear, maybe Philippa has some statistics for us.

Exactly.

We want Philippa to tell us about her statistics about the number of press releases it got

last year, or how many people gave it a five star because they were so entertained.

Philippa, perhaps you'd like to share your statistics with us, or another way, insert

name there.

Philippa, did you want to go over your research now?

So Stephen has quietened down, Philippa is now giving her research, but Stephen still

wants to speak.

Yep, so he's, like, he's got his hand up, he wants to say something.

"Could I just say something here, please?"

And the chairman is like, "Oh, gosh, Stephen, really?"

Now if you want to give him permission to say something, of course, Stephen, go for

it.

You know, we want to hear what you have to say.

Or Stephen could say, "Would now, would now be the right time to mention", so to mention

is to talk about, "Would now be the right time to mention that something really, really

bad happened last year?"

Now, I've put here "selling Brexit", a kind of rather nasty idea, but trying to package

it as a nice idea.

So, maybe the chairman has some news about the festival.

Now, I know you're not going to like this, but at our next festival, we are going to

have to have mounted police or something.

Mounted, meaning the police are like a mountain on the horse.

Now, I know you're not, you are not going to, so future tense with "going to", to like

this.

Or, you could say, "I'm not sure what you think about this, but I've been thinking that",

or "I'm not sure, I'm not certain what you think about this, but I think for the next

year's festival, we're probably going to have to", okay?

So, what have we got?

Start it, say hello, say what the purpose is, control the discussion, involve others,

permission to speak, and then kind of tentatively start saying an idea you've been thinking

about.

Right, let's look now at how to start talking about an idea you really do like.

What about a great idea?

I'm sure we all agreed that the cricket match has provided a lot of entertainment, but we

are aware that we need to change because Stephen has pointed out there is a problem, people

are getting upset.

The obvious solution is to create a new sort of entertainment, and then we put forward

whatever that idea is.

So, we're trying to find an agreement, we're all agreed that, and then we're starting to

move forward.

This is classic logical argument, we're always trying to find that solution, okay?

So, what is that solution?

So, maybe instead of people streaking, we have camels being paraded through, we have

people doing strange Bollywood dances, we have people chasing after rolling pieces of

cheese, I don't know, whatever.

Think about it.

Imagine, and then we're starting to sell this idea, we could have this, and this would happen,

and the more detail we go into, the better.

Rather than just one thing of the same, we're going to have a giant Winnie the Pooh, I don't

know.

We're making it up, we're describing what would happen and why people would like that

idea.

Think about this, something we've been thinking about, yep, so there's a sort of tone of kind

of thoughtfulness here, yep, and we're quietly going to ask them what we think about.

It's like introducing a discussion.

What about if, so we're supposing, we're imagining, what about if instead of cricket, we had a

totally new game, and we did sort of bog championships, sort of bog snorkeling, and we had commentators

about that, or, you know, let's change the ballpark, change the parameters.

Not sure about that idea.

Well, it's interesting you should say that we should stop the cricket match, because

I actually think it's a highlight of the festival.

You're absolutely right to say that there's this problem, there's this problem, there's

this problem, but, okay?

So, again, we're seeing this pattern of acknowledging someone's point of view, and then putting

in our own instead, okay?

So, a few different types of phrases we've had today.

Why don't you test yourself on how these sentences are constructed by doing the quiz?

And if you feel that you could benefit from doing more business English, then why don't

you go to the engVid website, click the teachers you like.

I won't cry if you don't like me, you know, I'm big, and strong, and hairy, and stuff.

It's fine.

Click the teachers you like, and then put "business English", and then you'll get the

whole list of sort of business stuff there.

If you're still wanting a bit of help, honeyourenglish.com.

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Hope so.

I'll see you in the next video.

Take care.

I'm sure we're all agreed that...

...Complete that sentence.