Name: Real English: Speaking on the phone
Uploaded: 2018-02-27T09:10:46.000Z
Duration: 18 min 56 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Well... Oo, actually I've got to go now
because you know I'm at work. Yeah.

I've just got to teach a lesson. Okay. Yeah,
I'm teaching a lesson right now. Uh-huh.

Okay, so I'll see ya later. Yeah? All
right. See ya later, then. Bye. Bye.

Hi. Oo. Pen. Hi. I'm Gill from engVid, and
today-sorry-we have a lesson on the phone.

Not on the phone. I was just on the phone. I
apologize about that. Unexpected phone call.

We're looking today at: "Phone Vocabulary".
Okay? So words and phrases to use to do with

making phone calls, being on the phone, calling
people. Okay. Maybe just with your friends,

phoning your friends, but also in your job
if you have to use the phone at work - this

is all useful stuff for that. Okay.
Right. So, phone vocabulary.

First of all, if the phone rings you "answer
the phone". Okay? Answer the phone. You say:

"Oh, the phone is ringing. I'll
have to answer the phone."

call, you're phoning, you're making... Making
a phone call. Okay? And somebody answers at

the other end, you have to say something.
So you might say:

So: "Hello, is that", and the name
of the person that you want to speak

to. That's more maybe informal if you're phoning
somebody's home. If you're phoning an office,

a business, you might say: "Hello. Could I
speak to...?" This is a little bit more...

More formal. "Could I speak to Mr.
Jones?" Something like that. Okay.

Sometimes when you make a phone call and somebody
answers, and you're not quite sure if it's

the person you want or not, you don't quite
recognize the voice, so you sometimes want

to ask them their name to see if that is the
person you were phoning to speak to. So you

can say: "Who am I speaking to, please?" It's
always a good idea to use "please" when you're

asking a question on the phone. "Who am I
speaking to, please?" And then they will say

who they are and if they are the person you
want to speak to, you can continue with your

call; if they are not the person you
want to speak to, you would use this:

Now, sometimes if you phone and the person at
the other end, they want you to wait probably

because they need to find the person
you want to speak to, so they say:

"Could you hang on?" or "Could you hold on?" That's
the same thing. It just means to wait. "Hang on" or

"Hold on". Or if they're being very polite or
if this is you in an office taking a phone

call, and it might be a customer, an important
person, so you might say very politely:

"Would you mind holding?" Instead of just saying:
"Hang on", which is a little bit casual and

informal, or even: "Hold on" which is a little...
Not very... It's okay, but it's not very polite.

This is much more polite: "Would you
mind holding?" It's a much nicer way.

"Would you mind holding, please?" is even
better. Okay, so that's a good one to use.

And then say this is you going to try to find
somebody in the office to take this phone

call, you come back. If you have to go back
to the same person after they've been holding

on or hanging on, or holding, you come and
say: "Sorry to keep you waiting. Sorry to

keep you waiting." Especially if they're a
customer. And, again: "Sorry", if there is

other bad news like the person they want to
speak to is not there: "Sorry, she's not here."

You might say: "She's not here at the moment."
At the moment. Or if that person is already

on the phone talking to somebody else, you
can say: "Sorry, he's on the other line",

meaning the telephone line.
"Sorry, he's on the other line."

So, when that situation happens and say it's
you in an office taking the call, you don't

want to just say: "Oh, sorry, he's on the
other line" and then wait for the person to

say something, like: "Oh well, okay then,
good bye." You have to be helpful. You've

got to then continue being helpful because
this could be a customer or it could be the

boss, it could be anybody. So you need to be
helpful and say: "Sorry, he's on the other

line. Can I take a message?" Okay? Take a
message, to write down a message to say this

person called, and either they will call
again or can you call them back. So:

"Can I take a message?" or "Can I give her a
message?" Okay? And if it's you that's calling, you

have phoned somewhere and the person is not
available-okay?-you can say, politely:

"Could I leave a message?" Okay? So that the person
who has answered the phone will write a message

down and give it to the person that you want
to speak to. "Could I", that's the polite

way of asking. Not: "Can I", but: "Could I", it's
much more polite. "Could I leave a message, please?"

You could put "please" again. "Could I
leave a message for him, please? Could I

Now, this one, this is if the person who has
answered is the person you want to speak to,

but they are busy doing something else at
that moment. It's not convenient for them

to speak to you, but they are being helpful
and they say: "Can I call you back?" Maybe:

"Can I call you back in 10 minutes? Can
you...? Can I call you back this afternoon?",

"Can I call you back before 4 o'clock?" So this
is all being helpful and ensuring that you

do eventually speak to that person and
have time to talk about something.

Now, this one, this is if someone has phoned
you and you weren't there, so somebody else

had to take a message for you, and apologize,
and be polite and helpful, and you come home

and you get this message: "Mr. Jones called.
Can you call him?" So you phone the number

and you tell the person who answers: "I'm
returning..." "Could I speak to Mr. Jones?

I'm returning his call." That means he
called me, he wants to speak to me.

"I'm returning his call" so that we can have the
conversation. He wants to speak to me. I'm returning his

And then finally in this section, sometimes
people's names are difficult to spell or place

names, and so on, so if you need to get a
name clear, if you want to make sure you've

got the right spelling, you can say: "Could I", the
polite form: "Could I ask you to spell that, please?"

Okay? If it's a difficult name: "Could I
ask you to spell that, please?" Okay?

So that's most of the main ways of speaking
on the phone, and we just have a few more

items which are to do... We've had a few problems
here with not being able to speak to people,

but we have a few more problem situations
and a few more words and phrases connected

Okay, so a few more telephone problems and
the words to use. So, if you try to ring a

number and you just can't... Well, this is it:
"I can't get through. I can't get through"

meaning there's something wrong. You're tapping
out the number, but nothing is happening for

some reason, nobody is answering. You can't even
hear the line ringing. You know the ringing,

ringing tone isn't... It's not even ringing.
Okay. "I can't get through" meaning I can't

And some of the reasons why you can't
get through: "The line is busy".

If the person is already on the phone the line is
busy. Or in the UK we say: "It's engaged". "Engaged"

means, you know, somebody is already speaking
on the phone to somebody else, which is why

you can't get through. Okay. It's busy or
engaged, so those... Those are the same thing.

Sometimes "unobtainable". In the UK we get
a sort of continuous "[makes beep noise]"

sound when you dial a number that doesn't
exist basically. Maybe it's an old number,

you're trying to contact a friend, maybe that
friend has moved away and they didn't take

their phone number with them. So that line,
that number doesn't exist anymore. So we call

it this fancy word: "unobtainable", meaning
you can't obtain it, you can't get through

Okay, so say you do get through, you can get
through and you can hear a voice at the other

end, but you can't hear them very well,
they're very quiet, so you can say:

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