Real English: Speaking on the phone

Are you afraid to answer the phone or make calls in English? This is very common among English learners because it is more difficult to understand a new language over the phone than face-to-face. In this lesson, I will cover all the different situations and problems that come up during phone calls, and show you how to solve them easily. I will also give you useful expressions you can use over the phone to make the call go more smoothly. Don’t forget to do the quiz at to practice your phone conversation skills! TRANSCRIPT Well... Oo, actually I’ve got to go now because you know I’m at work. Yeah. I’ve just got to teach a lesson. Okay. Yeah, I’m teaching a lesson right now. Uh-huh. Okay, so I’ll see ya later. Yeah? All right. See ya later, then. Bye. Bye. Sorry about that. Hi. Oo. Pen. Hi. I’m Gill from engVid, and today-sorry-we have a lesson on the phone. Not on the phone. I was just on the phone. I apologize about that. Unexpected phone call. We’re looking today at: “Phone Vocabulary“. Okay? So words and phrases to use to do with making phone calls, being on the phone, calling people. Okay. Maybe just with your friends, phoning your friends, but also in your job if you have to use the phone at work - this is all useful stuff for that. Okay. Right. So, phone vocabulary. First of all, if the phone rings you “answer the phone“. Okay? Answer the phone. You say: “Oh, the phone is ringing. I’ll have to answer the phone.“ Okay. Now, if you’re making the call, you’re phoning, you’re making... Making a phone call. Okay? And somebody answers at the other end, you have to say something. So you might say: “Hello, is that Anne? Is that Anne?“ So: “Hello, is that“, and the name of the person that you want to speak to. That’s more maybe informal if you’re phoning somebody’s home. If you’re phoning an office, a business, you might say: “Hello. Could I speak to...?“ This is a little bit more... More formal. “Could I speak to Mr. Jones?“ Something like that. Okay. Sometimes when you make a phone call and somebody answers, and you’re not quite sure if it’s the person you want or not, you don’t quite recognize the voice, so you sometimes want to ask them their name to see if that is the person you were phoning to speak to. So you can say: “Who am I speaking to, please?“ It’s always a good idea to use “please“ when you’re asking a question on the phone. “Who am I speaking to, please?“ And then they will say who they are and if they are the person you want to speak to, you can continue with your call; if they are not the person you want to speak to, you would use this: “Could I speak to Mr. Jones, please?“ Okay, right. Now, sometimes if you phone and the person at the other end, they want you to wait probably because they need to find the person you want to speak to, so they say: “Could you hang on?“ or “Could you hold on?“ That’s the same thing. It just means to wait. “Hang on“ or “Hold on“. Or if they’re being very polite or if this is you in an office taking a phone call, and it might be a customer, an important person, so you might say very politely: “Would you mind holding?“ Instead of just saying: “Hang on“, which is a little bit casual and informal, or even: “Hold on“ which is a little... Not very... It’s okay, but it’s not very polite. This is much more polite: “Would you mind holding?“ It’s a much nicer way. “Would you mind holding, please?“ is even better. Okay, so that’s a good one to use. And then say this is you going to try to find somebody in the office to take this phone call, you come back. If you have to go back to the same person after they’ve been holding on or hanging on, or holding, you come and say: “Sorry to keep you waiting. Sorry to keep you waiting.“ Especially if they’re a customer. And, again: “Sorry“, if there is other bad news like the person they want to speak to is not there: “Sorry, she’s not here.“ You might say: “She’s not here at the moment.“ At the moment. Or if that person is already on the phone talking to somebody else, you can say: “Sorry, he’s on the other line“, meaning the telephone line. “Sorry, he’s on the other line.“ So, when that situation happens and say it’s you in an office taking the call, you don’t want to just say: “Oh, sorry, he’s on the other line“ and then wait for the person to say something, like: “Oh well, okay then, good bye.“ You have to be helpful. You’ve got to then continue being helpful because this could be a customer or it could be the boss, it could be anybody. So you need to be helpful and say: “Sorry, he’s on the other line. Can I take a message?“ Okay? Take a message, to write down a message to say this person called, and either they will call again or can you call them back. So: “Can I take a message?“ or “Can I give her a message?“ Okay? And if it’s you that’s calling, you have phoned somewhere and the person is not available-okay?-you can say, politely: “Could I leave a message?“ Okay?