In the Part I lesson on English Phrases for meetings, I taught you some useful phrases for suggesting, giving opinions, and agreement. Now, I’m going to show you some English phrases for discussing with back and forth interaction.
There are three sets of Business English Phrases for discussing that I’m going to show you here and they are Clarifying, Interrupting, and Handling being Interrupted. You can watch the lesson below, or scroll past to read the transcript with picture images.
Phrases for Clarifying
At times, you will need to clarify your position.
Clarifying means to “make your self clear and understood” when people might not fully understand the point you just made. This often comes after you have made a Suggestion or Stated an Opinion. Additionally, as part of clarifying we might also need to elaborate which means explain more in detail. By explaining more and developing your point, your position becomes more and more clear.
Let’s observe some Phrases and their function.
Phrases for Interrupting
When you interrupt someone, you stop them from speaking so that you can say something. The passive form of this is being interrupted, and another person does this to you – stopping you from finishing your point.
When you are participating in any kind of conversation, discussion, or meeting, sometimes you feel you need to interrupt. Or sometimes you need to stop from being interrupted. And the following phrases will help you do just that.
Phrases for Being Interrupted
Roundup
These phrases are especially important for online group communication. Because of the pandemic, more and more people are working from home and communication online. You have meetings and lessons on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, etc. When we meet face-to-face, we can use gestures, mannerisms, and body language to help us in our back-and-forth communication.
Yet, in online meetings you have to interrupt or stop an interruption with your words. Therefore, I would encourage you to get comfortable using these phrases so you can interact back and forth in your face-to-face and online communications comfortably.
Market Leader Pre-Intermediate 3rd
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Some of y favorite Business English Resources and their descriptions can be found below.
If you are an English learner at B1 level and you’re looking to learn Business English, the Market Leader Pre-Intermediate Coursebook and Workbook are the perfect pair. It will revise the key B1 English Grammar, and give you Business English vocabulary, reading and listening practice, and a case-study for each unit to work through.
Direct practice on Business English Skills for Meetings can be found in this series of books.
The Coursebook is one of my favorites to use, as it does an excellent job of teaching the vocabulary and follows it up with Listening and Reading Skills. Each unit also teaches an important piece of Grammar and finishes the unit with Business Skills and a Case Study.
What I like about the Workbook is that it is an excellent companion or stand alone self-study book. It focuses mainly on the Vocabulary, Writing, Business Skills, and Pronunciation for each unit of the coursebook.
Free Cheat Sheet & Exercise
I’ve created a free cheat sheet and exercise for you to download and practice. The exercise follows on the dialogue exercise from the Part 1 Post. Click on the button to download the exercise and phrases.
Other Social English Posts You Might be Interested In
At Native 1, I try and teach you natural English so that you sound like a native speaker when you’re communicating in English. Here are some other social English posts you might try to learn more English!
This next lesson continues with the business English focus, but the phrases you learn can be used in any conversational environment. Learn and practice the best phrases for suggestions, opinions, agreeing, and disagreeing.
You can talk about your routines, now practice your newfound conversation skills on a stranger. Learn how to start a conversation in English with anyone. This post contains a 2-part video series and is your complete guide to English conversation starters.
Another social English lesson you may be interested in revolves around Reported Speech. This lesson has a business English focus as the case follows a gentleman who is looking to buy a set of golf clubs, so he can play golf with his business clients. The video lesson teaches how to form reported speech and indirect questions.
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