Functional language bank

1 Conversational skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research before you meet new business contacts:
1 In conversations, is it usual for the person who isn’t speaking to remain silent or to
comment on the conversation?
2 When you meet someone when networking, is it usual to exchange business cards and to
send an email after the event?
3 What greetings are most appropriate (e.g. shaking hands, bowing)?

Introductions Introducing yourself Responding to an introduction

Hi/Hello, my name’s Toby. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Can I introduce myself? I’m Chris. Good to meet you.

Participating in Formal Informal

a conversation Starting or What do you think of the conference? Hi, are you enjoying the
joining a Do you mind if I join you? conference?
conversation Is it OK if I join you?
Do you have a moment to discuss your
company? Do you have time for a quick
Would it be possible to talk about your chat?
training programme? Is now a good time to
talk about your training
programme?

Closing I really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thanks for taking the time to
Would it be possible to contact you to talk to me.
discuss this further? Can I get in touch next week to
Thank you so much, that was very talk about this in more detail?
informative. It was great speaking to you.
Can I give you my business card? Here’s my card.
May I have your business card? Do you have a business card?

Showing interest There are different strategies for showing interest during a conversation. It is polite to keep
your attention focused on the speaker and to use body language as well as words to show
that you are paying attention (e.g. looking at the person speaking, nodding, smiling).

Commenting Really?
That’s interesting!
Right.
OK.
I see.
Ah!
Uh-huh.

Asking Can you tell me more about the recruitment process?

questions Who is the best person to contact about applications?

Clarifying Did you say that you employ 3,000 people worldwide?
So is it better to contact you by phone or email?

Showing your I noticed on your website that you employ interns.

research Your company brochure was very informative.

Repeating So you have a graduate training programme.

back It’s interesting to hear that you have apprenticeships in computing.

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2 Telephone skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research before you make telephone calls:
1 Are calls usually short and to the point or is some small talk expected?
2 How quickly are phone messages returned?
3 When you take or leave a message, what key information would you expect to exchange?
4 How are numbers grouped when saying a telephone number?
5 What details would be expected when recording a message on the telephone?
6 Is it acceptable to cut a conversation short when you are busy or will the person you are
speaking to be offended?

Making contact Formal/Semi-formal Less formal

Starting a call Hello, my name is Claudia Peck Hi, Fabio. It’s Susan here.
from Tevo Industries. Can I speak This is Monika from accounts.
to the Sales Director, please?
Good morning, my name is Cara
Madaki. We met at the computer
security seminar last week.
Receptionist Cranfield Computing, how can Hi, Kendle Electronics.
I help? One moment.
Could you hold the line, please? I’ll put you through now.
I’m putting you through now.
Receiving a call Hello, Tang Ka-yee speaking. Hi, James Glover.
You’re through to the Customer Speaking.
Services Manager.
Stating the Would it be possible to arrange It’s about the presentation.
reason for your a meeting to present our new I’m calling with a quick question.
call product range?
You said I should call to discuss
I have a quick query about your the internship.
latest expenses claim.
Hi, Gina. I’m calling about your
You suggested that I call voicemail message.
to discuss my internship
Hi, I got your message.
application.
Hi Lars, this is Charlotte.
I received your message about
the brochures.

Ending the call Cutting short Can I call you back? I’m in the middle of something.
a call I’ll take your details and call you back.
Can I call you later?
I’ll get back to you later today.
Confirming action So, I’ll see you on Thursday at 3 p.m.
I’ll call you back as soon as I have the figures.
I’ll call tomorrow to confirm details.
Ending the call Thanks for calling, bye.
Thank you for your help.
It was nice speaking to you, bye.

Leaving a message Leaving Can I leave a message, please?

a message Could you tell Lisa that Judith called about the catering order?
Checking Could you read that back, please?
understanding Would you like me to repeat the number?
Requesting action Do you know when she will be back?
Can you ask him to call me back this afternoon?
Could you tell Tomas that it’s urgent, please?
Is there anyone else who could help?

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Taking a message Taking a message Sorry, Louis isn’t in the office today. Can I take a message?
Katrin isn’t here at the moment. Would you like to leave a message?
Checking So that’s 738 562 991?
understanding Can I read that back?
Did you say fifteen or fifty?
Confirming action I’ll give him your message as soon as he returns.
She won’t be back in the office until Monday. Would you like to
speak to someone else about this?

Voicemail messages Identifying yourself Hi, this is Lars Jansen from Lumiglow.
Giving a reason for I’m calling about your order for the new brochures.
your call
Giving key There is a problem with the delivery date.
information Could you call me back on 0998 639 232?
I’ll be in the office until 6 p.m.
Could you contact me by tomorrow morning, please?
Repeating That’s oh_double nine_eight, six_three_nine, two_three_two.
or spelling That’s spelt L_U_M_I_G_L_O_W.
information

3 Meeting skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research before you prepare for a meeting:
1 Is the meeting formal or informal? What is the aim?
2 Are there likely to be different opinions? What are the main arguments for and against the
topic being discussed?
3 What outcome do you want from the meeting? How will you record action points?

Introductions Welcoming people Thank you all for coming today.

and opening Introducing I think we all know each other, don’t we?
participants Could we all say our name and role?
Clarifying aims The aim of this meeting is to agree the new budget.
You’ll see from the agenda that we are here to discuss three main
points.
We need to agree on who is working on each project.
Opening a meeting OK, let’s begin by looking at the first point on the agenda.
Shall we start by discussing the schedule?

Participating Asking for opinions What are your thoughts on this?

What do you think, Natalia?
Any ideas?
Giving an opinion In my opinion, we should look for a new supplier.
I think this would help our clients.
Agreeing/ That’s a good point.
Disagreeing I agree with Jean Luc.
That’s a really good idea.
That would work.
I can see your point but I can’t agree.
I’m afraid I don’t agree.
Clarifying What I meant to say was (the figures aren’t reliable).
To put it another way (we need to spend less on marketing).
Can I check what you mean by (cost cutting)?

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Updates and action Asking for an How are we doing with the new factory plans?
update Can you give me a quick update on your current projects?
Have you updated the team on the new schedule?
Where are we with the new price list?
What’s happening with the new computer software?
Can you bring me up to speed on the Ferguson contract?

Giving an update

Talking about past I completed the sales figures on Monday.

action The delivery was late so we missed the deadline.
Talking about The design is in progress at the moment.
current action I’m currently finalising the report
Talking about I’m expecting the order confirmation this afternoon.
planned action We’ll sign the contract tomorrow.

Giving an update The only problem is the currency rates, which might affect the
on problems and budget.
solutions There was a problem with the menu, but we spoke to the caterers
and found a solution.
We’re working on it at the moment and should have a solution by
the end of the day.

Action points Can you call the supplier by the end of today and change the
quantity?
We need a response by the end of this week.
Get back to me on Thursday with an update, please.
Justin will speak to sales and Monika can talk to the client.
Does everyone know what they need to do?

Talking about Important It is of the utmost importance that we come to a decision.

priorities This should be our number one priority.
This issue is high priority.
This is extremely important.
We really need to decide on the deadline.
The main issue is how much this will cost.

Less important This is a low priority for our department.

It’s quite important but we don’t need an immediate decision.
It’s not urgent.
This isn’t currently a priority.
That isn’t so important for us. We’d prefer to focus on the budget.

Postponing We can put off the decision until we have more facts.
Can we delay the deadline until next week?
Let’s explore some solutions and then come to a decision.
We can talk about this later.

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 Functional language bank

Reaching When discussing problems and issues, consider the following:

agreement 1 Understand and communicate the main priority of the discussion.
2 Talk about facts and issues rather than personal comments. Try to use we statements rather
than you statements.
3 If it is not possible to come to agreement, arrange another discussion at a later date.

Agreeing Yes, I agree with Anton.

I see what you mean.
I completely agree.
Exactly!

Disagreeing I’m afraid I disagree.

Sorry, I don’t agree.
I’m not sure I agree with that.

Agreement not We may have to agree to disagree.

reached I don’t think we can reach agreement today but we’ll discuss this again
later.

Making I think we should (have an international team).

suggestions / How about (changing the logo)?
Stating
Why don’t we (ask our customers)?
preferences
We could (hire some short-term staff for the project).
Have you considered (replacing the old equipment)?

Reacting to That’s a good point.

suggestions That’s a good idea.
That could work.
I think you’re right.
It’s a nice idea, but I don’t think it will work.

Resolving conflict Explaining The main problem is that (the supplier can’t deliver the order).
problems The issue is that (we don’t have enough staff ).
The thing is that (the equipment is broken) and so (we won’t be able to
finish the task).

Outlining It might be a good idea to have weekly meetings.

solutions There are two possible solutions.
What do you suggest?
Let’s try to find a solution together.
What would you like to happen?

Inviting Can we come to an agreement?

consensus Would that work?
Are we all agreed?
Can we all agree on that?

Closing a meeting Thank you for coming today.

It was a very useful meeting.
We’ll meet again next week to discuss next steps.

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4 Presentation skills
Lead-in Some business practices may differ from country to country. Here are some questions to
research before you prepare presentations for different audiences:
1 How formal or informal is the presentation?
2 Are you presenting as an individual or as a group? If presenting as a group, how have tasks
been allocated? Is everyone clear what they need to do?
3 How much detail do you need? What does your audience already know about the topic?
4 What information is better spoken and what information would be clearer presented as
slides or pictures?

Presenting ideas Generating Shall we brainstorm some ideas?

(informal ideas I want to hear your ideas about how to improve customer service.
presentation) What are your thoughts on the new marketing campaign?

Discussing What we need to do is identify our key market.

ideas Basically, sales and marketing should share an office.
Why don’t we work in small groups?

Presenting Our team came up with a new idea for the marketing campaign.
ideas We suggest that Spain would be the best location for the team-building
weekend.
Our idea is to completely change the logo.
Another way is to increase our online profile.

Getting started Formal/Semi-formal Less formal

Opening and Thank you for inviting me to It’s great to be here today.
welcome speak to you today. I’d like to show you our latest
I’m here to talk about our new exciting product.
product range.

Providing a brief The talk consists of three main I’m going to talk about three
outline of the parts. things. First …
talk I’d like to start by giving an I’ve split the talk into three
outline of the talk. I will be sections. First …
focusing on three main areas.
These are …

Telling the I will be happy to answer Feel free to ask questions during
audience when any questions during the the presentation.
they can ask presentation. Just ask questions as we go
questions Please don’t hesitate to ask along. You don’t need to wait till
questions at any point. the end.
I welcome questions, but could Let’s keep questions till the end
you please keep them to the end of the presentation.
of the presentation? You’ll have time at the end of
There will be an opportunity the presentation to ask any
to ask questions after the questions.
presentation.

Moving from point Signposting Let’s start by looking at …

to point Firstly …
Secondly …
And that leads me on to my next point.
OK, let’s move on.
And finally …

Referring to Remember that at the start of the presentation we said that good staff
earlier points are key to a successful business?
As we already mentioned, good customer service is essential.

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Features and Features Available in various colours.

benefits It can be used at home or in the office.
An award-winning design.
Made from 100 percent recycled materials.
Our most popular model.

Benefits It’s strong/lightweight/stylish/modern/practical/easy to clean/

reliable/popular.
This means that you can use it at home or in the office.
This makes it easier to clean.

Specifications It weighs 2 kilos / 12 grammes.

It’s 1 metre long and 3 metres wide.
It’s made from wood/metal/leather/plastic/glass.
It has 250 gigabytes of memory.

Giving examples For example, the new model is faster.

For instance, it allows you to work while commuting.
Let me give you an example …

Adding In addition …
information Also …
Another important point is …

Emphasising The most important thing to remember is that …

This is important because …
This is a key point …

Presenting visual Drawing As you can see from this slide, (the product is small and stylish).
information attention to Let’s move on to the next slide.
visuals
Let’s look at the sales figures shown in this chart.
Now, I’d like to show you the results of our research.

Closing Summing up To sum up …

Closing We’ve reached the end of the presentation.

We’ve come to the end of the talk.
Let me end by saying …
In conclusion …

Thanking the Thank you for listening.

audience Thank you for your attention.
It’s been a pleasure speaking to you today.

Inviting Does anyone have any questions?

questions Are there any questions?
I’m happy to answer any questions.

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