| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha. And in this episode of Top Words, we're going to talk about 10 phrases for talking on the phone. Let's get started. |
| All right, the first word is "hello," "hello." So, we use "hello" when we pick up the phone, when we answer the phone and we usually use a question intonation with this. So, for example, when you pick up the phone, you could say, "Hello? Yes, this is Alisha." So, if someone calls asking for you and you want to confirm yes, it's me, you can say, "Hello? Yes, this is," my name. So, in my case, "Hello? Yes, this is Alisha." So, make sure you use that question intonation with this. This is the most basic way to pick up the phone. Okay. Let's move on to the next one. |
| Okay. The next expression is "I will call you back." "I will call you back." So, when you want to end the phone call one time and then call again a little bit later, you can use this expression. "I will call you back." Keep in mind, we usually use the reduced form the short form. So, not "I will call you back," but "I'll call you back." That's how we usually say this. For example, "Sorry, I'm in a meeting. I'll call you back." That means I picked up my phone once and I said hello to the other person, then I apologize to say I have to go to this meeting right now. "Sorry, I'm in a meeting. I'll call you back." That means I'm going to call you again later. So, you can use this if you need to cut the conversation once and then call that person again in the future. Okay. Let's move on to the next one. |
| Next is "Please answer the phone." "Please answer the phone." So, "Please answer the phone" is an expression you can use to ask someone else to pick up the phone, or if you're feeling very, very frustrated about someone who doesn't answer the phone, you might think to yourself while you're waiting on the line, "Ugh! Please answer the phone!" Or, if you're feeling really aggressive, you might just say, "Answer the phone!" which means, "Please pick up." So, "Please answer my call." For example, if you're with somebody else and you want to request that that other person answer the phone, you can say, "Please answer the phone. I can't reach it." So, this is how we would usually say, "Please pick up the phone." You might also hear people say, "Pick up! Pick up! Pick up!" which means "Please answer. Please answer. Please answer." But, if you want to sound a little bit more polite, you can use "Please answer the phone." Okay. Let's move on to the next one. |
| Next is "Would you like to leave a message?" "Would you like to leave a message?" So, "Would you like to leave a message? is asking the caller. It's a question for the caller to say, "Do you want to send a message to the person you are trying to reach?" So, if you call someone and you get their voicemail, which means it's a recording on that person's phone, the recording might say, "Would you like to leave a message?" or something similar which means "Would you like to leave a voice message?" So if, for example, you try to reach a business colleague, you have a business contact you're trying to reach and you phone his office, you might get the reception desk instead of the person that you're trying to reach. In that case, if the person is out, the receptionist might say, "Mmm. He's out of the office at the moment. Would you like to leave a message?" Okay, great. So, that's how you use "Would you like to leave a message?" Let's move on to the next expression. |
| Next is "What's your phone number?" "What's your phone number?" So, "What's your phone number?" is the most basic way to ask someone for their phone contact information. What's your phone number? So, for example, "Let's talk later. What's your phone number?" You can use this in business situations. You can use this in casual situations. In more casual situations, you might also hear people say, "Can I get your number?" or "Can I have your number?" or even, "Give me your number," if someone is being really pushy or really aggressive. But, if you want to make sure you sound nice and polite, you can say, "What's your phone number?" "What's your phone number?" or "Can I have your phone number?" Okay, great! Let's move on to the next one. |
| The next expression is "Sorry, wrong number." "Sorry, wrong number." Okay, this is a good one to know for when you make calls. So, every once in a while maybe you make a mistake when you dial the number of the person you're trying to call, or maybe there's some kind of mistake with the information about the phone number, you use this expression when you call someone and you reach the wrong person. Like you're trying to reach your friend, but you call some stranger instead. They pick up and you say, "Hello? Is this my friend?" And they said, "No." And you say, "Oh, sorry! Wrong number." That means I dialed, which means I input the wrong number, the incorrect phone number here. So, "number" here means phone number. So, you can use this to quickly apologize and say, "I made a mistake," and end the conversation there. Another example, "This isn't the movie theater? Oh, sorry! Wrong number. Okay, let's move on to the next expression. |
| Next is "I cannot hear you clearly." "I cannot hear you clearly." This is a great one to know because this is an expression that we use when the connection is not good, when the signal is not good. So, many people I'm sure have had the experience of being on a phone call, but the other person is difficult to hear. Their voices may be really quiet, or we hear a little bit, and then we can't hear very much. So, when the phone call is not clear, you can say, "I can't hear you clearly," to tell the other person there's some kind of connection problem. You might have to say it a few times. "I can't hear you. I can't hear you clearly." For example, "I can't hear you clearly. Where are you?" So, maybe that person is hiking in the mountains, or maybe they're driving somewhere in a tunnel and the connection is bad. If you can get through and say, "I can't hear you," or "I can't hear you clearly," you can help the other person understand that there's some kind of connection problem, and maybe there's something that they can do about it. Okay. Let's move on to the next expression. |
| The next expression is "You're breaking up." "You're breaking up." Okay. So, this use of "break up" refers to the connection. So, the connection in a phone call. Of course, we use "breakup" to talk about the end of a relationship. Yeah, when people don't want to see each other anymore. But in this case, "You're breaking up," "You are breaking up," means your voice is breaking up or the signal is breaking up. The connection is not good. So, this is another way to say, "I cannot hear you clearly." You might hear people use the two together. Like, "Ah! I can't hear you very clearly. You're breaking up a lot." For example, "You're breaking up. The connection isn't good." So, this is another way that you can express to the person on the other end that you cannot hear them clearly, or there's some kind of connection problem. You might also say, "You're breaking up. I can't hear you clearly. I'll call you back later." Okay. Let's move on to our next expression. |
| Next is "The phone is ringing." "The phone is ringing." Okay. So, the verb we use for the phone, the sound the phone makes, is "ring," to ring. So, when the phone starts to make a sound, we say the phone is ringing. We can use this when our phone starts to ring or when we call someone and we hear that the phone is now ringing. So, there's that maybe sound -- depending on which country you're in, you might have a different phone sound, a different ringing sound. So, like [ringing], that kind of sound, we use "ring" to talk about that. So, we would say "The phone's ringing. The phone's ringing. Maybe he'll pick up. Maybe he'll answer." We use that to talk about when a phone is actually active in that moment. So, for example, "The phone is ringing. I hope he answers." So, you can use, "The phone is ringing," to give a little suspense if you are calling someone. Or, you can also maybe use it in your house if you know the phone is currently ringing somewhere but you can't reach it. Like, "The phone is ringing. Can you please answer it for me?" Okay, great. Let's move on to the next expression. |
| The next expression is "The line is busy." "The line is busy." So, the "line" here means the phone connection. So, when we have a phone call and we are currently having the phone call, someone else, in many cases cannot reach us because we're busy. Our connection is currently being used. To express this, we say, "The line is busy." "The line is busy." So, of course, some people also have call waiting or they can accept more than one call at the same time. In that case, there might be a sound and you can change your phone call to the other person. But sometimes, you'll get a busy signal or a busy sound. That means that someone else is already on the phone. We express this with "The line is busy," or "It's busy." For example, "The line is busy. I'll try again later." So, you can use "It's busy," or "He's busy," or "The line is busy" to mean that person is on another call at the moment. |
| All right, great! That brings us to the end of 10 phrases for talking on the phone. What did you think? You can let us know in the comments. And of course, let us know if there are other expressions you like to use when you talk on the phone. Thanks very much for watching this, and I will see you again in the next video. Bye! |
Comments
Hide