Phone English – Leaving VOICEMAIL

Hello, everybody. My name is Benjamin, and I'm here to help you become more confident

with your spoken, written, and listening English. Okay? Today we're going to be doing a lesson

to increase your confidence on the telephone, because it's incredibly important when you

start entering a new country and you want to speak English to get a job, you need to

be able to speak on the phone to be able to get that job or do what you are doing.

So, today, we're going to talk about how you leave a message with a person, times when

you want to leave... When you want to be phoned back, and how to leave a message on an answering

machine. Okay? So we're doing on a person, on an answering machine, and when you want

to be phoned back. Okay? Great.

So, when we are speaking to someone on the phone and we do not get the person we want

to speak to... I want to speak to Mark, but his friend, Dan, is there. So, I say to Dan:

"Can you ask him"-as in Mark-"to call me back?" I want Mark to call me back; to telephone

me back. Okay? "Can you ask him", so I have my verb, and then I have my indirect object

here: "to call me back". Okay? That's one way of doing it.

Second way, if I don't need Mark to call me back, but I want Mark to know that I have

phoned him, I could just say: "Can you just tell him/her", in this case:

"Can you just tell Mark that I called?" or "I called"? Okay? "That" is optional. Okay?

"Can you just tell Mark that I called?"

Or, if I want to know if Mark is still meeting me at the pub tonight, at the bar, I could

say: "Can you just ask him if we're still on for meeting at the pub later tonight?"

Okay? "Can you just ask him if we're still on for"? "Still on for" being an arrangement

to see if that arrangement is still correct.

Okay? "Can you just ask him if we're still on for"?

If we are continuing with that plan.

Or, again, this is a way of saying that I called, I can say:

"Can you say that Benjamin called?" Okay? Good.

Now, with this one of phoning back, it might be that there's a specific time that I want

Mark to phone me. So, if I want Mark to phone me on Wednesday, I will say to his friend,

Dan: "Dan, can you ask him to call me back on", I've got a set day, so I'm going to say:

"Wednesday". Okay? Or, I could use a date, so I could say: "On the 21st of November".

Okay? So I want him to ring me on that day; it's one particular day.

Now, "by" is a deadline. I need Mark to call me by, no later than... He must call me by;

not after, he needs to call me before. "By", he needs to call me by 3pm today. He needs

to call me no later than Thursday. He needs to call me by the 18th. He needs to call me

by December. Okay? So, "by" is a deadline; the latest time he can call me.

"In", "in" is a... He needs to call me in this time, here. In the morning. Okay? It's

in this time. If it's the month, then maybe he needs to call me in November. Okay? It's

a time that he needs to call me in. Okay? "In": "in November", "in the morning",

"in the evening". Maybe I work in the day, so he needs to call me in the part of the day

of the evening. Good.

And last one, if I'm a very, very busy person... Okay? I need him to call me at 8pm. 8pm is

the only time I will listen to Mark calling me. Okay? So: "Dan, please tell Mark to call me at 8pm."

or "8 in the evening". Okay? Then I have left my message, and I just go and

wait for my call. So, I'll go and see if Mark has phoned me.

Mark didn't call me back, so I'm going to have to ring him, and see if he picks up.

Ah, it's gone straight to his voicemail, so now I need to leave him a message on his phone.

Okay? So this is kind of a standardized form for how to leave a message on your phone.

You don't need to do all of these if you're calling a friend. So if I'm calling Mark,

maybe I just say: "Hi there, Mark. It's Benjamin. Sorry to miss you", because I missed him;

I didn't connect with him, I didn't call him: "Sorry to miss you. I hope to still see you tomorrow night."

Okay? So he already knows me; I don't need to tell him how he knows

me. And he knows my number because he's my friend, and I'm just telling to... Calling

him about an arrangement.

But if you're calling someone you don't know, maybe you've just arrived in a country and

you're calling someone about a job, or about accommodation, whatever it is: You introduce

yourself. So: "Hello, this is Benjamin." Okay? "This is" and then you put your name. Or:

"Hello, it's..." If you want to be a little bit more informal, you can say:

"Hi there, this is" or "it's".

Now, how you know that person. Maybe you don't know that person. If you do know that person,

you could say: "I'm that guy you met at the bar on Friday night." Or if it's a business

call, maybe you'd say: "It's customer relations", or "It's customer support",

or "It's the sales team". So, you're kind of saying how you know them.

Now, why you're calling. This is important for any message you leave. "Just to let you know that..."

Okay? So, "just" is a nice, polite way of saying:

"It's just a little thing. Don't worry. It's not a huge, big problem. It's just a little thing.",

"Just to let you know", so we've got the infinitive, here, "to let", to inform you, to inform you. Okay?

"To let you know that I will be at the pub on Wednesday at 7 o'clock.",

"Just to let you know", if I'm calling about work: "Just to let you know that I am available for work."

Okay? Reason of calling: "I'd like to meet you in person.", "In person", for real, not

on the phone, I'd like to talk to you.

Now, how you want to be contacted. So, presumably a telephone number, an email address.

"You can contact me on phone number" or "My mobile number is",

whatever it is, 077-blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Or you could put a landline number, that's a normal telephone in a room.

Okay? Not a mobile, but the kind of phone you have in a house or a building. Or you

put an email address. Okay?

Now, when they can contact you. "I'm in..." As in: "I'm in the house, you can contact

me during the evenings.", "I'm in most evenings.", "I'm in during the day." Okay? Or:

"You can contact me most evenings between 7 and 9pm.",

"between", so you've got a timeframe, between

these two times.

And then you want to draw the message to an end: "I look forward", okay? "I look forward to"

the future. "I look forward to hearing from you soon." Okay? In the next day or two.

Great. Don't make it too long, nice and clear. Who are you? Why are you calling? What number?

When? And end it. Great. I hope that helps. Do, now, go and try the quiz on www.engvid.com.

If you'd like to learn more from me, see more of my lessons, do subscribe to my YouTube channels.

Okay. Well done. Keep learning that English. Bye.