How to cancel plans: Use my 5 easy steps

Hello, my name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you how to cancel plans

in English in five easy steps.

So, sometimes we want to do things with our family or our friends or maybe at work and

we make plans to do something with other people.

And then, unfortunately, something happens.

Maybe we are sick.

Maybe we have to go to work.

We get called in at the last minute.

Maybe there's some kind of problem that happens.

So, because of the problem, you can't do your plans and you have to cancel.

So, when you have to cancel plans in English and in other languages as well, it's important

to know how to do it so you do it in a polite way that does not hurt the feelings or offend

the feelings of other people.

So, in this video, I am going to teach you how to cancel plans in five easy steps.

Okay?

So, let's get started.

So, imagine, you know, you were supposed to go to the movies with your friends and you

can't go anymore.

What do you do?

Well, the first thing is you can call them up or you can say to them - first, ask how

they are doing, okay?

So, this is a friendly thing to say.

You greet them, "Oh hi, how are you doing today?" or, "How are you?", okay?

You have your normal conversation.

So, that's the first step.

Just greeting and saying "How are you?"

The second step is saying you're sorry, or apologizing.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cancel ______" our plans.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cancel our meeting."

Or whatever it is.

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cancel the party.

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cancel going to dinner, okay?

So, whatever your plans are, you can put the plans here.

And it's very important that you apologize.

I'm sorry.

You can also say, "I'm sorry, but I won't be able to make _____" our plans.

To make dinner, to make the meeting.

Okay?

So, first thing you do, ask how the person is doing, and then you apologize, and you

say that you can't come.

So, you can say either of these two things, or there are other ways to say it as well.

And then, we will find out what is the next step in one moment.

Okay, so we've said, you know, how are you doing?

And then the second step we talked about was apologizing and explaining we can't come to

whatever plans we have made.

The third step is telling the person that you really wanted to do these plans, okay?

This is very important, because you want them to know that you care and that, you know,

you're not cancelling because you don't like them or for some other reason.

It's something that you really wanted to do.

So, how do we say this?

So, our third step, you could say, "I was really looking forward to ________" and then

you write the plan in here, or you say the plan.

"I was really looking forward to our meeting."

I was really looking forward to hanging out.

So, you might say this if you're talking to friends.

I was really looking forward to seeing you.

I was really looking forward to our date.

Okay?

So, whatever your plans are, you can put them in here.

And I think this is actually one of the most important parts of cancelling plans, okay?

So, you really want to say this.

Alright, so what's the fourth step?

The fourth step, part four, is when we give our reason for cancelling.

Why are we cancelling?

So, I was really looking forward to our meeting, but - if you don't want to tell the person

why you're cancelling, you can say "something has come up".

Okay?

So, if you want to be vague, you don't want to tell the person exactly what's happening,

this is okay to say.

I was really looking forward to our meeting, but something has come up.

This means something has happened, okay.

So, it's very vague, but it's - a lot of people use this.

I was really looking forward to our meeting, but I'm swamped with work.

This means I have too much work to do.

I didn't realize I'd get a lot of work, but now I have a lot of work.

Okay, so sometimes we cancel because we're swamped with work, which means we have too

much work.

I was really looking forward to hanging out, but I'm sick.

I have the flu.

I have a headache.

Okay, so we might say something like this.

Let's look at another reason: I was really looking forward to seeing you, but I want

to watch Netflix.

So, that would not be a good reason, okay?

So, it's important to think about good reasons to cancel and bad reasons to cancel.

Telling somebody that you're not going to come to your meeting because you want to watch

Netflix?

Bad idea, so I'm going to put a big X right beside that, okay.

So, we would not say this because that's how you get somebody else to feel very mad.

So, the three I said before: something has come up, I'm swamped with work, I'm sick.

These are all good reasons why somebody might cancel.

And there's many more.

Maybe there's a snowstorm outside.

You know, maybe there's a family emergency, okay?

So, the point here is try to be honest as long as the reason isn't something like Netflix.

You know, in that case, you don't want to be honest.

That's not really a great reason to cancel anyway.

But you want to be honest and you want to understand that, you know, you want the other

person to understand why you can't make it.

So, honesty is the best policy.

Alright, now let's look at the final step for when we cancel plans.

Okay, so now we've given our reason for cancelling, and hopefully it's a good reason.

So, what's the final step of when you have to cancel plans?

Well, if you want to reschedule, it's a very good idea to say, "Can we reschedule?"

This means can we make plans for a later date?

So, for example, if you had to cancel going to the movies with your friends, you can say,

"Can we reschedule?

Can we go to the movies another time?"

Or, you know, I'll come a different time.

So, reschedule is good to say because it shows you really wanted to do these plans, okay?

So, the final tip, "Can we reschedule?"

Okay, so we've look at the five steps in cancelling plans.

There's one other thing I wanted to say about cancelling plans.

If you cancel plans a lot, in English we have a term for that.

It's a bit of a negative term.

We can call somebody who cancels a lot for bad reasons, like watching Netflix, we could

call them a flake, okay?

So, a flake is a person who cancels plans a lot for bad reasons.

So, in a sentence, we might say, "Oh, she is a flake."

"Mary is a flake."

Edward is a flake, okay?

So, it means somebody who cancels plans for bad reasons.

We can also use this in the verb form by saying, "She always flakes out", so to flake out means

to cancel for a bad reason.

"She always flakes out on plans at the last minute."

He always flakes out on dinner plans.

Okay?

George always flakes out on our date.

So, you can use "flakes out" or you can call a person a "flake" if they cancel a lot.

So hopefully, nobody will call you a flake, because you will cancel in a great way by

following our five steps to cancel plans.

So, thank you very much for watching this video.

You can practice a lot of what we learned here, including the grammar, the English,

and the vocabulary by visiting out website at www.engvid.com . There, you can take a

quiz where you can practice a lot of what you just learned.

I also would like to invite you to subscribe to my channel.

I have a lot of different resources there on all sorts of different things, such as

writing, pronunciation, vocabulary, conversational English, and many more.

So, thank you for watching, and until next time, take care.