Must-Know Telephone Phrases [Successful English on the Telephone]

Hey,

it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English and this is exactly where you want

to be every week to get the confidence you want for your life and work in

English. I'm curious,

how comfortable are you speaking on the telephone in English?

I can imagine how your face dropped.

I know that speaking on the phone in English might be one of your nightmare

scenarios.

You already feel nervous communicating in English and when it's on the telephone

you have no time to prepare.

The questions are unexpected and of course you don't get to see the person

communicate.

It's 100% dependent on your listening skills,

your ability to understand and your ability to think in the moment and

immediately respond.

That is a big challenge and I'm curious how much time have you spent searching

the internet for information about what to say when you're on the telephone?

Because of course you want to say the same things native speakers say you want

to sound clear and professional on the telephone.

That's exactly what we're going to focus on in today's Confident English lesson.

You're going to get essential phrases for successful telephone calls and I'm

going to share with you the same things that native speakers say so that you can

hear how they sound,

practice them and start using them in your own telephone calls.

Now, before we get started today,

I want to let you know that in this video lesson I'm going to share with you

some of the most common and most important things you should say on the

telephone,

but I have a much fuller lesson available on the Speak Confident English

website. In that lesson,

you'll find 46 phrases that you can use on the telephone for successful easy

phone calls. So after you watch this video,

I definitely want you to check that out. All right,

let's dive in and talk about the language you need for answering the telephone

in English professionally and informally.

Greetings and introductions.

Asking to speak with someone or asking to put someone on hold,

which means you're asking them to wait for a moment.

Clarifying information to make sure you have the right information.

What to say when you're writing down a message for someone or what to say if you

are the one leaving the message.

And finally how to end your phone call in English. So number one,

answering the phone in English, your telephone rings.

And what do native speakers usually say?

If this is a professional situation and I'm answering the telephone for work,

there are two options that are common.

Number one is what we use when it's not important to say the name of the company

or what department you're in. So you might answer the telephone and say, hello,

this is Annemarie. And number two is what we would say.

If you do need to say what company you're working for,

what department you're in, or to ask someone how you can help.

So it would sound like, hello, this is Annemarie was Speak Confident English.

How can I help you? Or this is Annemarie in the accounting department.

How can I help you?

Now an informal or casual way of answering the telephone would be to simply say

hello.

Notice when I say that that my voice goes up at the end it indicates a kind of

question hello or I might also say this is Annemarie.

Those informal ways of answering the phone are best when you know the person

calling you and today almost every telephone shows us the number or the name of

the person calling so we usually know in advance how to answer the telephone.

Now number two, let's say you are the person making the phone call,

which means you need to start with a greeting and then immediately introduce

yourself. That would sound like, hello,

this is Annemarie with Speak Confident English I'm calling about and then you

would include the specific reason that you're calling. For example,

I'm calling to get more information about your services or I'm calling to

confirm the dates of a meeting next week.

Now if you're calling someone that you talk to every week,

we don't need to be so formal, so a more casual version would be, Hey,

it's Annemarie over at Speak Confident English.

I just wanted to call to confirm the meeting for next week. Situation.

Number three is when you're calling someone specific and you need to ask for

them on the phone in a professional situation, it would sound like, hi,

this is Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

Is Laura available or may I speak to Laura?

If it's not important who you speak to,

but you need to speak with someone inside a specific department.

You can say, hi, this is Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

Could you connect me to the accounting department or could you connect me to the

human resources office? Now for a quick informal example,

if you're calling someone that you talk to regularly, you might say, hi,

this is Annemarie. Is Laura free or is Laura available?

In situation number four,

you need to put someone on hold to put someone on hold means to ask them to

wait. You might need to do this because you're searching for more information.

Maybe you need to see if someone is available or maybe you just need to take a

few deep breaths, calm down and prepare to speak in English.

This is actually a strategy I teach my students.

If you get a phone call in English, and you feel anxious, nervous,

or overwhelmed,

simply ask someone to hold for a moment and then take a few deep breaths,

calm down,

think about what you want to say and then go back to the telephone call.

So here are a few really professional, polite ways to do that.

May I put you on hold for a moment?

Could I ask you to hold for a moment?

Would you mind holding for a moment?

You could even add some details. For example,

would you mind holding for a moment while I get that information for you?

Or could I put you on hold while I see if she's available?

And now let's switch to an informal way of putting someone on hold.

You could simply say, I'm going to put you on hold for a sec.

I'm going to put you on hold for a sec.

Sec is short for second. I'm going to put you on hold for a second.

Now before I move on to situation number five,

I actually have a full lesson on all the different ways that we ask someone to

wait in English. Whether it's on the telephone or face to face,

so after you watch this lesson on essential phrases to use on the telephone,

definitely check that out.

I'll leave a link in this video and just below in the notes. Now,

situation number five might be the most important one in this lesson.

It's all about how to clarify information or to make sure the details that you

understand are correct. This is something that is absolutely essential,

especially on the phone and I know that you might feel nervous about asking

someone to repeat themselves or slow down,

but I want you to know you are not alone when you need to ask those questions.

When I talk to native speakers on the telephone,

sometimes I also have to ask them to repeat information or slow down.

In fact, just last week in one of my classes,

I was working with my students on language to use on the telephone and we were

practicing different situations and I told my students that day I had to speak

to someone at a bank. She was a native speaker. I was a native speaker,

but I didn't understand anything.

She said she was speaking way too fast and she had a strong accent from another

part of the United States.

So several times during the phone call I had to ask her to repeat,

I had to ask her to slow down and I had to confirm the information.

It is 100% okay to do that.

And here are the phrases that we use.

I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Could you say that one more time or I'm,

I didn't quite understand. Could you say that once more? Sorry to interrupt,

but before you continue,

can I clarify what you said and then you would repeat the information.

For example, you might repeat the phone number, the address,

the time or the date of a meeting, whatever the important details are,

repeat those to make sure they're correct. So if I'm confirming an address,

it might sound something like, I'm sorry, before you continue,

can I confirm the address that you gave me?

You said 1227 7th Street Southwest,

is that right?

And finally with street names or an individual's name,

it's always okay to ask for the spelling and we simply say,

could you spell that out for me? All right,

situation number six is when you need to write down a message and give that

message to someone else. What could you say on the telephone?

Imagine someone calls to speak to your boss, but your boss isn't available.

So you might say something like, I'm sorry, she's not available at the moment.

Can I take a message for her? An alternative would be,

I'm afraid she's away at the moment,

but may I ask who's calling and can I give her a message for you? Now,

if you're going to leave a message for someone,

if you're going to give some important details,

make sure that you say it slowly and clearly,

just like you want the other person to speak.

So if you need to spell your name or give a phone number or an address,

make sure to slow down. When you speak.

It gives the other person time to listen carefully.

Think about what you're saying and make sure they understand it.

Let me and finally situation number seven is what should you say when it's time

to end the call. Sometimes this feels really awkward.

You don't know what to say at the end and maybe you just hang up the phone

really fast. Instead of doing that,

here are some things that native speakers say when it's time to finish the phone

call. Thank you so much for calling. If you have any other questions,

please don't hesitate to let me know. Thank you for calling.

I'll make sure she gets the message.

Thanks for calling and I'll see you next week at the meeting.

An informal way to end a phone call with someone like a colleague or a neighbor

is to simply say it was great to chat and I'll talk to you again soon.

And with that you have essential phrases to use for successful telephone calls

and sound professional.

Plus you're using the same language that native speakers use.

Now before we finish, I have two challenge questions for you. Number one:

is there a specific kind of telephone call that you need to make in English and

you would love for me to give you a common phrase or question that native

speakers use? If you do,

share that situation with me in the comments and I'll definitely give you the

right language that you need for that situation.

Question number two is what is one new phrase that you learned today that you

can start using in your telephone calls in English?

I would love to know what it is and you could even practice using it in a

sentence to make sure that you've got it right. And with that,

thank you so much for joining me. If you enjoyed this lesson,

I would love to know, and you can tell me in three ways. Number one,

give this lesson a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to the Speak Confident

English channel so you never miss one of my weekly lessons. Number two,

share this lesson with friends and colleagues on Facebook. And number three,

if you know someone who needs to improve their English on the telephone,

email them this lesson directly. Have a fantastic week.

Thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time for your Confident English

lesson.