This document provides guidance on conducting business meetings in English. It includes phrases for starting and wrapping up a meeting, welcoming attendees, apologizing for absences, setting goals and reviewing the agenda. It also offers language for expressing and asking for opinions, controlling discussions, asking questions and handling interruptions. Meeting leaders can use the phrases to introduce topics, check for understanding, make decisions and assign action items before concluding the gathering.

1. BUSINESS ENGLISH:
MEETINGS

2. GETTING
STARTING
• Ok, shall we get started?
• Right, everyone’s here so let’s begin.
• OK, I think that’s everyone. Shall we kick off?
• Let’s get down to business.

3. WELCOMING
• Welcome, everybody.Thank you for coming.
• I’d like to start by welcoming everybody here today.
• Firstly, I’d like to introduce Miguel and Samantha.
• I’m not sure everyone knows Samuel and Jungho.Would you
like to explain your company and what you do?
• I’d like to thank everyone for being here today.

4. APOLOGIES
• I’m afraid that Roberto cannot be with us today because...
• Unfortunately, David our marketing manager couldn’t make it
today, because...

5. GOALS /
OBJECTIVES
• Our objective today is to...
• I think our goal for today should be to...
• I’ve called this meeting to talk about...
• By the end of this meeting I’d like us to decide...
• The goal of today’s meeting is to....

6. AGENDA
• Have you all got a copy of the agenda?
• Ok.As you can see from the agenda, there are 4 items.
Firstly,..., secondly,...., thirdly,..., and finally,...
• Let’s start by talking about...., then go on to..., and finish with...

7. MINUTES
• John will be taking the minutes today.
• Kevin, could you take the minutes, please?
Minutes are the notes about what is said during a meeting

8. PROCESS
• I suggest we go around the table and get everyone’s opinion
first.
• I’d like to hear what people think before we make a decision.
• Before we get started I’d like to give you a little more
background information on...

9. DURATION
• I would like to wrap-up by 4 o’clock.
• The meeting is scheduled to finish at 3 o’clock, and I’d like to
finish on time.
• We’re pretty short of time, so could you please be brief?
• Can we keep each item to about10 minutes?

10. LET’S BEGIN
• OK, so, the first item on the agenda is...
• Right, let’s get started with...
• Mr. Kim, could you introduce this item, please?
• Mr.Takahashi, would you like to start with the first point?

11. ASKING FOR
OPINIONS
• What do you all think?
• What are everyone’s thoughts on this?
• Does anyone have an opinion on this topic?

12. EXPRESSING
OPINIONS
• I’m convinced that...
• I’m sure that...
• I think that...
• In my opinion...
• My view is that...
• I’m pretty sure that...
Stronger expression
Weaker expression
...this is the best plan.
... this is the way forward.
...this is the best alternative

13. CONTROLLING
• What is active listening?
It’s when you respond to what people say to help motivate them
• Examples:
• Right.
• OK, I see.
• Good.

14. CONTROLLING
• Clarifying
• In other words, what you’re saying is that,....
• If I’m hearing you right, you think that...?
• So, what you’re saying is that...?

15. CONTROLLING
• Moving off the point
• Could I digress for a second?
• I know it’s not on the agenda, but...

16. CONTROLLING
• Keeping/sticking to the agenda
• I think we’re digressing. Can we get back on topic?
• We are getting a little side tracked.
• I’m not sure that’s relevant. Let’s stick to the agenda, please?

17. CONTROLLING
• Referring Forward
• We’ll get to that later.
• Can we talk about that later?
• Let’s not talk about this right now.We’ll be dealing with it a
little later.

18. CONTROLLING
• Referring Back
• We’re repeating ourselves now.This was discussed a little
earlier.
• We have already talked about this before lunch.
• We touched on this issue before.

19. CONTROLLING
• Postponing
• Shall we skip this item?
• I think we can forget about point 3.
• Let’s deal with this point in the next meeting.

20. CONTROLLING
• Meeting Length
• We’re getting pretty short of time.
• Can we move on to the next point before it gets too late?
• We’ve spent 15 minutes on this already. Let’s move on to
something else.

21. CONTROLLING
• Confirming a Decision
• Ok, so what we’ve decided is to...
• Is everyone in agreement?
• Is that clear to everyone or do you we need to have a
recap?

22. CONTROLLING
• Closing and Moving on
• I think that’s everything we need to discuss on that.
• It’s getting late. Can we leave this point and move on?
• Let’s get to the next point on the agenda, which is...

23. BEING THE CHAIR
Business Meeting English: Scenario Exercise

24. EXERCISE 1
• You’re running out of time and someone says “Can I
digress for a minute?”
• What do you say?
• I don’t think we should digress. Can we stick to the main
question?
• Ok, but please be quick.
• Sure, go ahead.

25. EXERCISE 2
• Somebody is in the middle of talking and another
person says “Excuse me, may I interrupt?”
• What do you say?
• Please, let him finish.
• Be quick.
• No.Wait your turn

26. EXERCISE 3
• You are talking about point number 3 on the agenda but
someone else starts talking about point number 5.
• What do you do?
• Allow them to continue then say “I think we can skip point
5.We’ve already discussed it.”
• Stop them and say “We’ll come to that later.”

27. EXERCISE 4
• There are 2 points left on the agenda but it’s getting
close to lunchtime. If you continue the participants will
miss their lunch. However, the meeting is quite
important.
• What do you say?
• Let’s adjourn for lunch.
• Let’s adjourn for lunch but please come back in 20 minutes.
• Let’s carry on and get this meeting finished.

28. ASKING QUESTIONS
How to ask questions in business meetings

29. DO PEOPLE
UNDERSTAND?
• Do you follow me?
• Am I making myself clear?
• Do you see what I mean?
• Are you still with me?
• Do you get what I’m saying?

30. MORE
INFORMATION
• Could you say a little more about that, please?
• Would you elaborate on that a little?
• Could you go into a little more detail about...?
• Can you give an example of what you’re saying?

31. CLARIFICATION
• What exactly are you trying to say?
• What are you trying to say exactly?
• What do you think is the main take-away?
• Why do you feel this is important?

32. YOU WANT IT
REPEATED
• I’m sorry, I missed that. Could you repeat that, please?
• I’m not sure I follow. Could you go over that point again,
please?

33. QUESTIONS
How to ask and handle questions in Business meetings

34. CLOSED
QUESTIONS
• When the answer is either Yes or No
• Do you plan to complete the report by the end of the
month?
• Is this report based on the latest data?
• Did you check with the accounting manager?
• Are you going to let the accounting manager know?

35. OPEN
QUESTIONS
• Used to get a longer, more detailed answer
• Could you tell me where I can download the document?
• Could you inform me about the best practices?
• Could you explain what’s in the report?
• I’d be interested to know where you got that information.

36. LEADING
QUESTIONS
• Encouraging people to talk
• Shouldn’t we discuss the results from the latest report?
• Can we talk about the results of the metrics analysis?
• What’s up next?

37. INTERRUPTING
Interrupting a speaker in a business meeting

38. CHAIR
INTERRUPTING
• OK Fred, if I could just quickly interrupt you there...
• Nick, sorry to interrupt but I’d like to hear some other views
on this.
• If I could just stop you there for a second.

39. CHAIR STOPPING
INTERRUPTION
• Just a moment, Dave. I’ll come back to you in a minute.
• One at a time, please.
• Please, let him finish what he was saying.

40. PARTICIPANTS
INTERRUPTING
• Excuse me, can I just interrupt quickly?
• Come I come in here?
• Can I just briefly comment on that?
• Can I piggyback on what Shelly was saying?

41. STOPPING AN
INTERRUPTION
• If I could just finish what I was saying.
• May I just finish my point?
• No, just one minute, please.
• I haven’t finished what I was saying yet.

42. REASON FOR
INTERRUPTING
• I’d like to point out that the data is from 2009.
• I’d like to add something to that point...
• I’d like to piggyback on what you just said.
• That’s a good point. I’d like to develop it a bit.

43. COMMENTING
• That’s a good point, Mike.
• I see what you saying, Jim.
• Yes, you’re spot-on.

44. CONTINUING AN
INTERRUPTING
• Thanks for bringing that up. Perhaps we should talk more
about it.
• Let’s talk a bit more about this new point.

45. DECIDING AND
CLOSING
• I think we need to discuss this further.
• I think we should have some more information on this.
• I would like to take this away and look at it in more detail.
• Let’s put this on next week’s agenda.
• Let’s leave this until next week.

46. TIME
• We’re running out of time.
• Unfortunately, we don’t have anymore time to spend on this.
• OK, everyone, we’re almost out of time.
• We getting really behind schedule.

47. CLOSING
• We have to bring this to a close.
• I think we have covered everything we’d planned to.
• I don’t think there’s anything else left.

48. DECIDING
• I really would like a decision before we close the meeting.
• Can we come to a decision before we leave?
• Are we ready to make a decision?

49. COMPLETING
AGENDA
• I think we’ve covered everything.
• OK. That’s everything on the agenda.
• Does anyone have anything else before we finish?
• Is there any other business?
• Are there any final questions before we call it a day?

50. CONFIRM
TASKS
• John, you’re doing the report on...
• Dave, you will get the data and email it me before the end of
the week.
• Steven, you will sort out...

51. NEXT MEETING
• Let’s set a time for our next meeting.
• Is July 8th a convenient day for our next meeting?
• I’ll confirm the date and location of our next meeting by email.
• I’ll email you the time of our next meeting.

52. CLOSING THE
MEETING
• OK. Let’s finish there.Thank you all for coming and I’ll see you
again in the next week.
• It’s getting late. Let’s call it a day.

53. ESLExplorer
@ESLExplorer
eslexplorer
esl-explorer
eslexplorer.com