English for Business

Telephoning
Eka Septiarini; Tania Adialita
ekaseptiarini@mn.unjani.ac.id; taniaadialita@mn.unjani.ac.id
• English telephone conversations
start in the same way – by
introducing yourself.
• Say “Hello, this is (name)” to let
people know who you are.
• If you answer the phone and the
caller doesn’t give his name, you can
say “May I ask who’s calling,
please?”.
Useful phrases

• Hello / Good morning / Good afternoon ...

• This is John Brown speaking
• Could I speak to ......... please?
• I'd like to speak to ..... .....
• I'm trying to contact .........
Be Polite

When you want to speak to a specific Use polite questions when you are talking about the
person, ask to speak to him or her with a reason for your call, too. For example, if you are
polite question starting with ‘may’ or calling a hotel, you can say “Could I talk to someone
‘could’. about booking a room, please?”
For example “May I speak to Rachel Smith, please?”
sounds a lot better than “I want to speak to Rachel
Smith”.
Holding and Transferring

When people ask you to ‘hold’ during a call,

they just mean ‘wait’.

When they are ready to the connect you to the

person you want to speak to, they will use the
word ‘transfer’ or ‘put you through’ to talk
about connecting your call to that person.

• For example “Please hold… Ok, I’ll put you through to

Rachel Smith”
Useful phrases

• Thank you for holding.

• The line's free now ... I'll put you through.
• I'll connect you now / I'm connecting you now
 I'm afraid the line's I'm afraid he's in a
I'm sorry. He's out
engaged. Could you meeting at the
of the office today.
call back later? moment.

When it is not I'm afraid we don't

possible to He isn't in at the
moment.
have a
Mr./Mrs./Ms/Miss.
... Here
I'm sorry. There's
nobody here by
that name.

connect
Sorry. I think you've I'm afraid you've
dialed the wrong got the wrong
number. number
Leaving a message

• There are two ways to leave a message when

someone is not available to speak:
• You can record a voicemail message.
• Have someone write down a message.

• Make sure to clearly state your name, the

reason for your call and a number that you
would like the person to call if you want them
to call you back. Asking the speaker to slow
down or repeat something.
Bad line/ sound not clear

If there is a bad line or the sound is not clear, it’s

natural to ask the person on the other end to repeat
what he or she has said. Don’t be afraid to ask people
to slow down by saying,

“Sorry, I’m having a little trouble hearing.

Could you slow down a little?”
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. Could you
repeat it, please?”
Useful phrases

• Can I leave / take a message?

• Would you like to leave a message?
• Could you give him/her a message?
• Could you ask him/her to call me back?
• Could you tell him/her that I called?
• Could you give me your name please?
• Could you spell that please?
• What's your number please
THANK YOU