How to have Phone Conversations in English

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Today you're going to learn how to have informal and formal conversations in English on the

phone.

Let's get started.

Vanessa: Let's start with informal conversations on the phone in English.

These are when you call a friend or maybe a family member in English and you're just

chatting about getting together, or you just want to talk.

This is something that is a little bit less common nowadays, because you're more likely

to send a text message to a friend or family member, and we don't use home landlines as

often.

You're more likely to use your cell phone.

You're not really going to leave a voicemail, you're probably going to send a text instead.

So if you have learned phone conversations at school a long time ago, it might be a little

bit simpler now, because there's not as many options.

Vanessa: [00:00:30] Let's take a look at two conversations that are informal on the phone,

and you'll see how straightforward and simple these can be.

Vanessa: [00:01:00] Hi, is this Daniel?

Daniel: Yes, it is.

Vanessa: Hi, is this Daniel?

Daniel: Yes, it is.

Vanessa: Hi, is this Benjamin?

Daniel: No, sorry, you have the wrong number.

Vanessa: Oh, sorry.

Thanks.

Daniel: No problem.

Vanessa: Hi, is this Benjamin?

Daniel: No, sorry, you have the wrong number.

Vanessa: Oh, sorry.

Thanks.

Daniel: No problem.

Vanessa: That wasn't too bad, right?

Pretty simple and straight forward.

Well, if you're going to talk on the phone in a formal situation—let's say for your

job you need to call another department, or you need to talk with some customers—this

is going to be a little more serious because you want to be polite, you don't want to be

rude, and you want to make sure that they can understand exactly what you're saying.

So let's take a little bit more time to talk about formal English conversations.

Vanessa: [00:01:30] Let's start with a basic beginning to a conversation that you might

have at your workplace in English.

Vanessa: Hi, may I please speak with Daniel?

Daniel: Speaking.

How can I help you?

Vanessa: Hi, may I please speak with Daniel?

Daniel: [00:02:00] Speaking.

How can I help you?

Vanessa: This one was pretty clear, right?

You call someone, the person picks up the phone and they want to talk.

They have time to talk.

But what if you call a secretary and you want to talk with the marketing department?

Well, maybe they're available, maybe they're not, maybe the person wants to ask you some

questions to see if the marketing department actually wants to talk to you.

It could get a little more complicated.

So let's talk about three different scenarios.

Let's imagine that you're calling to marketing department and the person who picks up the

phone answers affirmatively, then they answer with some kind of filter question, and then

they answer negatively.

What do those three different conversations look like?

Let's listen.

Daniel: [00:02:30] Hi, this is Daniel from Microsoft.

May I please speak with someone from the marketing department?

Vanessa: Yes, just one moment.

Daniel: Hi, this is Daniel from Microsoft.

May I please speak with someone from the marketing department?

Vanessa: May I ask what you're calling about?

Daniel: Hi, this is Daniel from Microsoft.

May I please speak with someone in the marketing department?

Vanessa: [00:03:00] I'm sorry, the manager of the marketing department is in a meeting

right now.

Would you like to leave a message?

Daniel: No, thanks.

When would be a good time to call back?

Vanessa: Maybe in about an hour.

Daniel: Okay, I'll do that.

Vanessa: So far you've heard a lot of questions that use, "May I ..." or, "Would you ..." These

are really polite words in English, and if you incorporate these in your conversations

you're going to take your politeness and formalness to the next level.

So even if you don't use these exact sentences, if you use, "May I ...", "Would you ...," "Would

you mind ...", these are going to make your sentences more polite.

Vanessa: [00:03:30] In our final scenario, let's image that you call someone, they're

not available so you leave a message and ask if they can call you back later.

What does that conversation look like, especially the beginning because you're introducing who

you are, why you're calling.

Let's take a look at it.

Vanessa: Hi, this is Vanessa from the marketing department at Apple, I'm returning your call

from earlier today.

Daniel: Thanks for calling me back.

I wanted to ask you if you'd like to join me and take over the galaxy.

Thank you.

Vanessa: [00:04:00] Okay, okay, so maybe if you have a business conversation you're not

going to be talking about taking over the galaxy together, but, the beginning of the

sentence is going to be same: "Thanks for calling me back."

Thanks for calling me back, it's just straightforward, and clear, and simple.

I hope that this will be easy for you to remember, and if it's not you can always write some

notes and leave them at your desk so that you can remember this expression.

Vanessa: [00:04:30] All right, now it's your turn.

I want to know in the comments below this video, do you need to use English for your

job?

Have you ever spoken English on the phone before?

I hope that this video will be useful to you, and you can use these expressions when you're

talking in informal or formal situations.

Thanks so much, and I'll see you the next time.

Bye.

Vanessa: The next step is to download my free e-book: Five Steps to Becoming a Confident

English Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Bye.