Hello. My name is Emma. And in today's lesson, we are going to be learning some important
I know a lot of students get very scared when they have to talk on the phone, and it's understandable;
it can be very scary when you can't see the person's face when you're talking to them.
So one great idea if you're afraid of talking on the phone in English is to memorize key
expressions that we use all the time. This way, it will improve your listening, you will
know what people will probably say on the phone, and your speaking will improve too.
Now, in this video, we're actually going to practice these expressions together. In my
pocket, I have my cellphone. All right? So what is going to happen is I will teach you
an expression, and then I will pretend to be on the phone, you can pretend to be on
the phone too. I will say something, and you say the correct expression to me. All right?
So, if you don't understand, that's okay - you will in a moment. Let's get started.
Now, when somebody calls you... "Ring, ring, ring, ring" First thing you say is: "Hello?"
As in a question. "Hello?" All right? And then what happens?
The person who's calling asks a question. They can do this in different ways. I've listed
four different ways, the most common. Sometimes they'll say:
"Is __________ there, please?" "Is Emma there, please?", "Is Daniella there,
please?" "Is Yvonne there, please?" Okay? A very common way. And notice: "please",
You can also say: "This is __________" - Emma - "calling for_________."
Whoever you're calling. So, if I'm calling
you, I might say: "Oh, hello. This is Emma calling for Daniel", "This is Emma calling
for Joseph.", "This is Emma calling for Pete." Okay? So this is a common expression, especially
if you're at work, this is the one we would use a lot at work. This one is a little more
informal; you'd probably use this one more if you're calling your friends or calling
someone in not a business situation.
This is also another informal one: "Is __________ in?"
So all of these blanks are the name of the person who the caller wants to speak to. "Is
Emma in?", "Is John in?", "Is Mary in?" Okay. So, again: "Hello. Is Mary in?" Informal.
Last one: "May I please speak to __________?" Emma.
"May I please speak to Mary?", "May I please speak to the doctor?" All right? This one
is more formal. So we have sort of formal/informal, formal, informal, and last one, formal.
All right, so let's get your phone out. All right? Whether you have a real cellphone or
your hand, and let's practice a statement. So you're going to be calling me. You're going
to use one of these expressions. Pick whichever one you want and practice it. All right? Let's
"Ring, ring, ring, ring." "Hello?"
Perfect. All right? So you can watch this video again and again; practice, practice,
practice until you have it memorized, until it is easy for you.
All right, now how do I respond or how..? How does the person you're calling respond?
If you say: "Is Emma there, please?" I would say: "Speaking." Which means: "Yes, it's me,
it's Emma." I wouldn't say that, I would just say: "Speaking."
Or I could say: "__________ speaking. How can I help you?"
"Emma speaking.", "Emma speaking. How can I help you?"
"This is __________.", "This is Emma." Or: "This is he.", "This is she."
All right? So again, these represents the... The name of the person. This... These blanks
So let's try one. I want you to pick any of these. All right? Now, I'm sorry - there are
so many of you, I probably will not pick your name when I ask this question. So today, I
am going to call you all "Bob". I'm sorry if that's a problem, but today, you are Bob.
All right? So I want you to either say: "Speaking.", "Bob speaking.", "This is Bob." Just for practice.
All right. So get your phone ready.
"Ring, ring, ring, ring" So you say: "Hello?"
And I say: "Is Bob there, please?" What do you say?
All right, so let's learn some more expressions.
Okay, great. So we've gone through the first part of a phone call. -
"Hello, is Emma there, please?" -"Speaking."
All right? Now what? What if someone calls you and you pick up, but they're not looking
for you; they're looking for your brother, they're looking for your mother, they're looking
for someone else - what do you say?
So the conversation: -"Hello. Is Emma there, please?" -"One moment
please.", "Just a moment please.",
"Hang on a sec. I'll get __________.", "Bob.", "I'll get __________." Okay?
So: "One moment please.", "Just a moment please.", "Hang on a sec. I'll get __________."
So, if the call is not for you, tell the person to wait, but don't use the word "wait"; that
would sound rude. These all mean wait. The first two are more polite. "One moment please."
The last one is more informal, if you're talking to someone maybe who's young, who's a friend
- more informal. "Hang on a sec." - "sec" means second - "Hang on a sec. I'll get him.",
So I want you to practice this. I'm going to ask for Frank, and I want you to choose
one of these and say it. All right?
"Is Frank there, please?" All right, good.
All right, so what comes after this in a phone conversation usually? If the person asks for
someone like Frank, maybe Frank isn't there. You say this if Frank is there. If Frank's
not there, you can say something like this. You can say:
"I'm sorry. She" - or "he", "he", "she" - "She's not here at the moment.", "She's not here
right now. Would you like to leave a message?" All right? "I'm sorry. Emma's not here at
the moment. Would you like to leave a message?", "I'm sorry, Frank's not here at the moment.
Can I take a message?" All right?
So I want you to practice this. So get your phone out, ready. I just want you to say this.
All right, great. Now you can hang up yourphone.
Usually, there's more to a phone conversation, such as saying: "Goodbye." But we won't get
to that today. We will get to how to take a message and how to end a phone conversation
So to practice the expressions we've learned today, please check out our website at www.engvid.com.
There's a quiz there and you can practice these expressions. All right?