Business English - Attending a Meeting - Useful English Phrases for Meetings

Imagine that you have a business meeting to attend tomorrow. If the meeting is in English, will you be ready? This lesson will help you learn useful phrases to introduce yourself, respond to suggestions and ideas, and ask questions in an English meeting.

See the full version of this free English lesson here:
https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/english-meetings

This lesson will help you learn:
- Formal and informal ways to introduce yourself in a business meeting.
- Ways to make suggestions in an English business meeting.
- Phrases to accept suggestions in an English business meeting.
- How to reject other suggestions in an English business meeting.
- Phrases to politely ask questions in a meeting.
- How to make a promise during a business meeting.
- How to make an offer during a business meeting.

See more of our free English lessons here: https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/

Hello, I'm Gina and welcome
to Oxford Online English!

Tomorrow,
you have a meeting to attend.

If the meeting is in English,
will you be ready?

This lesson will help you learn
useful phrases to introduce yourself,

respond to suggestions and ideas,
and ask questions in a business meeting.

I want you to imagine
you're in the meeting,

and the chair has asked
everyone to introduce themselves.

What are some phrases
you can use?

Sometimes, you'll be in a meeting
with people you don't know.

Other times, the chair will ask for quick
introductions to break the ice.

There are three things
you should do here:

- Say your name
- Say your job title

- Describe your responsibilities

To say your name, you can use a formal,
'My name is _____.'

or, if the meeting is more informal,
you can say, 'Hi, I'm _____'.

For your position title, use 'to be',
just like for your name.

Then, decide if your position
is the only one in the company,

or if there are others
who have the same job title.

For example, if you are
the only secretary, use 'the':

I'm the secretary.

If other people also have this position
in the company, use 'a':

I'm a project manager.

If necessary, you can say which
department you work in.

You can use the preposition
'in' plus the noun:

'engineering', 'marketing', 'finance', etc.

For example:

I'm in the engineering department.

Or: I work in the marketing department.

Finally, you can briefly describe
your responsibilities, like this:

I manage each project
from start to finish.

I'm responsible for
web analytics and testing.

Or: I handle purchasing
and our negotiations with suppliers.

You can see that using verbs and phrases
like "manage", "be responsible for"

or "handle"
can be useful here.

Here is an example of a full
introduction in a formal meeting

with people you don't know,
or don't know well:

My name is Gina Mares
and I'm the marketing manager here.

I handle online advertising
and web analytics.

Here's an example of a more
informal introduction:

Hi, I'm Gina.

I'm in the sales department.

I manage our sales team.

How would you introduce
yourself in a meeting?

You can give it a try now.

Now that you've introduced yourself,
the meeting will begin.

During the meeting, you might need to give
your opinion on the different agenda items

which you are discussing.

You might also need to react
to other people's suggestions.

How can you do this?

When making suggestions,
modal verbs can be very useful.

'Should' ,'ought to' or 'might want to'
can express something

you think is a good idea,
but not an obligation:

We ought to give new clients
a gift from the company.

We might want to consider looking
for another engineer to help with this.

Or: I think we should make
this a priority for this month.

'Have to' and 'need to' can express
something that is an obligation:

We have to improve the way
we collect and record sales data.

Or: We need to find a cheaper
solution - our budget is very tight.

Remember, you can also use these
to make negative suggestions:

We shouldn't rush this -
we need to think it through carefully.

Or: We don't need to hire
new staff at the moment.

Now, it's your turn.

Choose a phrase and make a suggestion
for something in your own company.

Next, what can you do if you want
to respond to another suggestion?

Well, if you think it's a good suggestion,
you can show you agree with phrases like:

I agree with _______.

That sounds good.

Or: Let's go with this idea.

Here, "go with" means you agree with this
idea and think you should put it into action.

However, what if there is
a suggestion you don't agree with?

Here are some good,
professional ways to disagree:

To be honest,
I'm not sure about this idea.

Good suggestion,
but I see a few problems...

Or: I see your point, however...

After a phrase like this,
explain your point of view.

For example:

I see your point, however, I don't think
advertising in a magazine is a good idea.

People don't read them
as often these days.

Or: To be honest,
I'm not sure about this idea.

I think improving our website
UI is a higher priority right now.

OK?

Now, take the suggestion
which you made earlier.

Pause the video
and write down two sentences:

one to agree,
and one to disagree.

Use the language
you just learned.

Now, let's move on to different
ways to ask a question in a meeting.

As an attendee, it's important to make sure
you understand the content in the meeting.

Sometimes, the chair will ask everyone
to save questions until the end.

If you're in a meeting where
you can ask questions at any time,

there are a few good
phrases you can use.

For more formal meetings, you can begin
with a phrase like 'sorry', or 'excuse me'

to politely bring
the attention to you.

Then, you can use phrases like:

I have a question.

Why is...?

How...?

Or: Does this mean...?

For example:

Excuse me, how will the new
requirements affect the project deadline?

Or: Sorry to interrupt,
but I have a question.

Does this mean the new
IT systems won't be in place this year?

If there is something in the meeting
that you don't understand,

you can use phrases
to ask for clarification:

I didn't understand...

Can you elaborate on...?

Or: Can you clarify...?

When using these phrases, it's important
to explain exactly what you don't know

or ask for clarity on something
specific that they said.

Again, you can use 'excuse me' and 'sorry'
in more formal meetings to begin.

For example:

Sorry, can you clarify the third
step in your proposal?

I didn't get the main idea.

Or: Excuse me,
but could you elaborate

on how this will fit in with our
existing marketing campaigns?

Now, it's your turn.

Practice asking a question or
asking for clarification about something.

It can be from a recent meeting
or something from your job in general.

Again, you can pause the video and
write down your ideas, for extra practice.

OK, now you can make suggestions
and respond to what other say in the meeting.

You can also ask questions if there is
something you don't understand.

Next, imagine that you've
discussed the agenda items

and come to an agreement on the
important decisions you needed to make.

You might need to show what
you're going to do about these decisions

after the meeting
has finished.

Here, you can offer to do something
using a few different phrases.

For something that you decide
to do at that moment

for the future,
you can use 'will'.

For example:

I'll call the client tomorrow.

Or: I'll discuss this
with the rest of my team

and get back to you
by the end of the week.

If you had a plan even before
the meeting began,

you can use
'going to' or 'planning to':

I'm going to get a team
together for this project.

Or: I'm planning to do one more round
of testing, and then we can go live.

If you want to make an offer,
you can use 'can', 'could' or 'shall':

I can contact the supplier next week
if we need to.

I could put together a report
if you think it would help.

Or: Shall I talk to our engineering
team and get a cost estimate?

On the other hand, what if you are asked
to do something that you cannot do?

Well, there are some useful,
polite phrases you can use:

I'm afraid I can't…

I'm sorry,
but I don't think I can...

Unfortunately,
I won't be able to...

Think about this.

What if someone asked you
to move your project deadline forward,

but it wasn't possible?

You could say:

Unfortunately, we won't be able to
complete the project any sooner

because we don't have
the supplies yet.

Or: I'm sorry, but I don't think
we can finish by the end of this month.

We need at least
another six weeks.

At this point the meeting
is wrapping up

and hopefully you have been
able to make good suggestions

and offers and take part
in discussions effectively.

Will you be attending
a meeting in English soon?

Hopefully some of these phrases
will be useful for you!

That's all for this lesson.

Hope you enjoyed
and thank you for watching!

Please visit Oxford Online English.com
for more free lessons like this.

See you next time!