Telephone English Phrases Formal Conversation and Informal Conversation

Telephone English Phrases – Formal Conversation

From these conversations, we can learn phrases for beginning a phone call, taking and leaving messages, checking and clarifying information, and finishing a phone call.

BEGINNING A CALL

When Helen answers the phone, she says, “Midtown Computer Solutions, Helen speaking. How can I help you?” This is a common way for a receptionist at a company or organization to answer the phone. Here are a couple alternatives:

• “Thank you for calling Capitol Theatre. How may I direct your call?”
• “Capitol Theatre – good morning/afternoon/evening.”

To introduce yourself, you can say: “Hello, this is…” and if you want, you can add your company name:

•       “Hello, this is Rahmania.”
•      “Hello, this is Rahmania from *departement /company name*.”

Then, ask to speak to somebody by using the phrases:

•        “May I speak with…?”
•        “Could I speak with…?”

You can also add the phrase “I’m calling about…” or “I’m calling to…” in order to give a reason for your call. Use “I’m calling about…” to introduce a topic, and “I’m calling to…” to introduce an action:”

• “I’m calling to book the cinema ticket.”

To connect or transfer the call, the receptionist says, “One moment please – I’ll put you through.” A few other phrases for transferring a call are:

• “Please hold.”
• “I’ll transfer you.”
• “May I ask who’s calling?” / “Who’s calling, please?”

If you forgot to identify yourself at the beginning of the call, the receptionist will sometimes use this phrase to ask for your name.

TAKING / LEAVING MESSAGES

Unfortunately the person Ryan wants to speak to is not available, and the receptionist says “I’m sorry, Rahmania in a meeting at the moment.” Here are some additional phrases to use when another person can’t answer a telephone call:

• “I’m sorry, she’s on another call.”
• “I’m sorry, Rahmania has left for the day.”
• “I’m sorry, Rahmania not in her office right now.”
• “I’m sorry, she’s out of town at the moment.”
• “I’m sorry, she’s not available at the moment.”

Then, there are two common phrases that are used for offering to take a message:

• “Would you like to leave a message?"
• “Can I take a message?”

If you don’t want to leave a message, you can say: “No thanks, I’ll call back later.”

There are two polite ways to leave a message. You can make a statement starting with “Please” or a question starting with “Could you…” – usually followed by the verbs ask, tell,or remind and then “him” (if the message is for a man) or “her” (if the message is for a woman).

• “Could you ask her to call me back?”
• “Please ask him to call me back.”
• “Please tell him/her that the documents are ready.”
• “Please remind him/her that he/she has a dentist appointment tomorrow.”

CLARIFYING/CONFIRMING INFORMATION

While taking the message, the receptionist used two phrases for checking and confirming information:

• “Let me read that back to you.”
• “Could you spell your last name for me?”

The verb “spell” means to say the letters of the word. Bela replies:

• “R as in Romeo - A as in alfa - H as in Hotel - M as in Mike - A - N as in November - I as in India - A.”
• 085884496619 Zero - eight - five - eight - eight - four - four - nine - six - six - one - nine.

It’s common to use phrases like “R as in Romeo” and “M as in Mike” with letters that can be frequently confused with others.

FINISHING A CALL

When you want to finish the conversation, you can use “signal phrases” – these are phrases indicating that the conversation is coming to an end:

• “Well, it was nice talking with you.”
• “Thanks for calling.”
• “Anyway… I should let you go / I should get going.”

If you want to promise future contact, you can use one of the phrases from the second conversation:

• “I’ll get in touch in a couple of days.” (get in touch = contact you)
• “I’ll call you back a little later”
• “Talk to you soon.”

Then you can finish the conversation with one of these “final phrases”:

• “Bye.”
• “Take care.”
• “Have a nice day.”

Response: “You too. Bye.”

Telephone English Phrases – Informal Conversation

Let’s learn some of the different phrases used in an informal telephone conversation. In informal phone calls, most people answer the phone by saying “Hello?” and the introduction is also different:

• Formal: “Hello, this is _______.”
• Informal: “Hi / Hey ________, it’s _________.”

We see two different greetings in this conversation: “How’s it going?” and “What’s up?” These greetings require different answers. You can answer “How’s it going?” (or the similar question “How are you doing?”) with:

• “Great!”
• “Pretty good, thanks.”
• “Not so good.”

And the typical answers to “What’s up?” are:

• “Not much.”
• “Nothing much.”

The phrase “How about you?” is used to ask the same question to the other person. Notice that it is spoken like this: “Howbout you?”

In the formal conversation, Rahmania used the phrase “May I speak with…” – but in an informal conversation, you can use these phrases:

• “Is Bela there?”
• “Is Bela around?”
• “Can I talk to Bela?”

If the person is not available, some informal responses are:

• “Sorry – he’s/She's not home right now.”
• “He’s/She's not here.”
• “He’s/She's still at work.”

This conversation also contains some expressions for asking someone to wait:

• “Hold on.”
• “Hang on a sec.”
• “Just a minute” / “Just a sec”

The formal equivalent of these phrases would be “One moment please” or “Please hold.”

At one point, Bela can’t hear or understand Rahmania. Here are some phrases to use if you’re having difficulty hearing the other person on the phone.

• “There’s a lot of background noise – I can barely hear you.”
• “You’re breaking up. Could you call me back?” (breaking up = you can only hear parts of what the other person is saying)
• “We have a bad connection.”
• “Sorry – I didn’t catch what you just said.”
• “Could you speak a little louder?” (say this if the person is speaking too quietly)
• “Could you speak a little more slowly?” (say this if the person is speaking too fast)
• “What did you say?” (informal)
• “Could you repeat that?” / “Could you say that again?” (more formal)

If the bad connection causes the call to fail, you can call the other person back and say this:

• “Hi, it’s Rahmania again. Apparently we got cut off.”
• “Cut off” is a phrasal verb that means the call failed or disconnected.

Towards the end of the conversation, Ryan uses the phrase “Gotcha” – this is a very informal phrase that means “I understand.” Another option is “Got it.” or “Right.”

EXAMPLE FOR CONVERSATION ON THE PHONE

Bela                     : Capitol Theatre, Can I help you?

Rahmania          : Yes, I’m asking if “The Adventure” is still showing for 6 October?

Bela                     :  6 October is the end of the show

Rahmania          : Can I book for a 7 pm show, please?

Bela                     : Yes, you can. How many Persons are watching?

Rahmania          : Three, please.

Bela                     : Alright, may i know who’s calling and whats your phone number please?

Rahmania          : Sure, Rahmania. My Phone Number is 085884496619

Bela                     : How Spelling your name?

Rahmania          : R-A-H-M-A-N-I-A

Bela                     : Thanks, Three ticket booked for Ms. Rahmana and your phone number is 085884496619, you have to pick up the tickets 15 minutes before the show time, ok?

Rahmania          : I’m sure that I’ll be there a half an hour before the show time. Thank you very much, Bye

Bela                     : Bye, Have a nice day.

Reference : https://www.espressoenglish.net/telephone-english-phrases/