30 Expressions Native Speakers Use in English Meetings
Have you ever participated in an English meeting with native speakers, and sometimes found it difficult to understand them?
Or maybe you attend English meetings regularly, but would like to express your ideas more like a native.
An effective solution to solve both of these issues is to learn expressions for specific meeting situations.
Building your vocabulary with expressions, as opposed to individual words, is a great way to improve your English and become more fluent.
In this article, I teach you 30 expressions that native speakers frequently use in meetings. You will find the expressions listed under typical meeting situations, so you know exactly when to use them.
I also teach you a 4 step strategy to quickly learn new expressions.
Let’s begin…
30 Expressions for English Meetings Used by Native Speakers
Introducing Yourself and Participants
For those of you who don’t know me, I am…
Starting the Meeting
2. I’d like to start with… which is about…
Going over Meeting Objectives
3. By the end of this meeting, I’d like to have reached a decision about…
Reviewing Previous Meetings
4. In our last meeting, we agreed on the following issues… but we still need to reach a conclusion on…
Handing Over to another Participant
5. Sara’s now going to go into this point in more detail for you.
Status Updates
6. How did you get on at XYZ company last week?
7. I am delighted to tell you that our proposal has been accepted.
Requesting Action
8. Could you send us this information at the end of the week, please?
Accepting Tasks
9. I’ll deal with that – when do we need it?
Interrupting
10. If I could just jump in for a moment…
Asking for Opinions
11. What is your point of view?
Responding to Opinions
12. That’s a great suggestion.
13. That’s one way of looking at it.
Expressing Opinions
14. There’s no doubt in my mind that… (strong)
15. I tend to think… (weak)
Agreeing
16. I totally agree with you. (strong)
17. I agree to a certain extent. (medium)
Disagreeing
18. I’m afraid I can’t agree with you there. (strong)
19. I agree with you to a point but I disagree about… (medium)
Clarifying
20. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Asking for Clarification
21. If I understand you correctly, you mean…
Asking for Suggestions
22. If you have any suggestions, do feel free to put them on the table.
Making Suggestions
23. The best course of action would probably be…
Arguing Your Point
24. I feel strongly that we should go this way because of the following facts…
Talking about Costs
25. The drop in sales of (product A) was offset by the increase in profits of (product B).
Describing Trends
26. Sales rocketed by 80%. (increased a lot)
27. Sales plummeted… (decreased a lot)
28. Sales leveled off in August. (neither went up nor down)
Summarizing
29. Let’s go over what we have decided on…
Talking about Future Contact
30. I look forward to seeing you again soon.
How to Learn New Expressions in 4 Steps
Here’s a simple 4 step formula for learning new expressions:
Step 1: Write down the expression you want to learn
Step 2: Practice saying it aloud several times. Repeat the expression as much as you can, until you can say it naturally.
Step 3: Expand the expression by using a variety of contexts relative to your work. Repeat these until you say them naturally.
Step 4: When you feel confident saying the expression, use it when you have an opportunity in your next work meeting. This is a very important step because when you start using expressions in real life situations, it proves that your English is improving and, therefore, builds confidence.
Here’s an example:
The expression you want to learn is this one for “making suggestions”:
“The best course of action would probably be…”
Write this expression down (Step 1), and practice saying it repeatedly until you feel comfortable (Step 2).
Now expand the expression (Step 3) and repeat saying them until you feel comfortable. Here are some examples:
“The best course of action would probably be to increase the advertising budget.”
“The best course of action would probably be to cut down on packaging costs.”
“The best course of action would probably be to hire somebody specifically for this role.”
The next opportunity you get to make a suggestion in English, make sure you use the expression (Step 4).
Conclusion
Learning these native-like expressions will help improve your English in 3 areas: listening – understanding natives easier, speaking – improving fluency and sounding more like a native, and grammar – learning these expressions will help you avoid making grammatical mistakes.
Action Steps
There are hundreds of expressions you can learn for English meetings. The more you know, the better you will be able to participate in meetings.
So for the next 30 days, set yourself the goal of learning one a day. By the end of the month, you’ll feel much more confident for English meetings.
