Phone Call Phrases II
Making arrangements
If you have to make arrangements, it’s important to
be polite as you negotiate. Here are some phrases you might use:
Shall we say
January 20?
How about
the following week?
Would the
week of January 18 work for you?
Asking for suggestions
When you have to decide on times and places to do
things, you can invite the other person to make suggestions. It can be seen as
a sign of politeness.
What would
you suggest?
Do you have
a time/place in mind?
Making requests
When you ask people to do things for you, it’s
again essential to be polite. You can use the magic words “could” and “please”
as seen below:
Could you
send me an email with the detailed offer?
Do you mind
sending me the report again, please?
Promising action
When you promise action, you may want to add when
something is going to happen. Remember that in English we don’t use the future
tense after time expressions like “when” and “as soon as.”
I’ll ask him
to call you as soon as he gets back.
Notice that after “as soon as” we use “he gets
back,” present tense.
I’ll send
you the report as soon as possible.
Saying you cannot help
There are situations when you can’t help the other
person, and it may be hard to say so. Just be firm and polite:
I’m afraid I
can’t give you that information.
Sorry, but
I’m not allowed to give details about that.
Ending the call
Remember to thank the other person for calling or
for helping you. You can do that in any of the following ways:
Thank you
very much for your help.
Thanks for
calling.
Thank you
for your time.