Speaking Over the Phone, Phrasal Verbs
Transcription
Hola muchachos, you are listening to English Made Simple, this is episode 38, Numero treinta y ocho.
Hola muchachos, my fellow English learners, what’s up? Qué tal? Happy Chilean Independence Day! And Happy Independence Day to Mexico! Everyone be safe this long weekend and enjoy yourselves.
My name is Milena, nice to have you on board to yet another episode of English Made Simple. Welcome to the new listeners, you’ve come to the right place where you can learn to speak English with confidence. Hope everyone is doing well this weekend!
Now in the past 3 or 4 episodes we learnt to form questions using different tenses and we also learnt how to be polite. Just remember this, at the end of the day guys, saying the 3 magic words will save you from any situation. It will help you. The 3 magic words were, Sorry and Thank you. I think these are the most overused words in the English language and the most helpful of course!
Now before we start, I am going to give a shout out to Lucas from Santiago de Chile, a shout-out means it’s a credit or a mention or greeting. It’s just an informal way to say greeting. Well, I want to give a shout-out to Lucas who listened to Episode 9 and left a nice comment on English Made Simple website, he is also addicted to coffee apparently haha the episode 9 was about my addiction to coffee and he even said he was going to visit La cafeta in Providencia. Wow awesome! I recorded this episode 6 months ago, I hope the owner Jorge is still there. And I hope the coffee is still good :) Enjoy yourself!
Right-o, let’s continue with this show!
Well, in this episode we are going to learn about some phone etiquette, we will learn some new vocabulary related to phone eqituette, phone manners, we will learn some new terminology. answering phone calls, and ending phone calls. If we have time we will talk about how to deal with difficult people on the phone but maybe I will reserve it for another episode.
But in this episode I would like to focus on the basics first. ok?
I know that it can be quite scary to speak to someone on the phone in a different language. It can be difficult especially because you cannot see the person so you are not be able to read their body language. Yup, scary and intimidating – intimidante – but I hope this episode helps you conquer this fear.
One reason I wanted to do this episode is I know that some of you have jobs in call centres or are even thinking about applying for call centre jobs. So this episode will be quite useful to you. Often you will need to know the right words to use when you are speaking with someone on the phone. This is one situation when being polite comes in handy, se hace útil o practico, comes in handy. It’s a good phrase to learn too.
This is what we learnt in the past few episodes, how to be polite, how to form questions in a polite manner.
Fantastic, you guys are doing great so far, listening to my gibberish as well while I’m trying to make English fun haha I know English can be confusing but it can also be fun at the same time, so don’t give up people! No te rindas!
What’s that quote by Einstein? The famous physicist, famous scientist.
“Don’t give up on your dreams, keep sleeping” – no no, that’s not it. That was a joke.
He said, he had many quotes this guy!
He said:
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Hmm, I like that. Basically he is telling us it’s ok to make mistakes because that’s how we learn!
That’s Einstein quote.
So I am curious do you have any quotes to share with the English Made Simple community? I would be keen to know some of your favourite quotes, even in Spanish or even in your own language, and if you can translate them, that would be good. Share them on Instagram and tag @englishmadesimple or #englishmadesimple. And put in your favourite quote, that would be really cool.
Shall we continue guys?
In this episode we are going to learn something new, I’ll teach you how to answer your phone in English and how to end a conversation on the phone, I will also teach you common phrases to use when speaking over the phone with someone. It is quite useful.
Because English is not our first language, we often make mistakes of being too direct on the phone.
Sometimes we can be too direct in certain situations and then we appear a bit rude and arrogant.
· Sometimes just one word such as “could” or “may” is necessary in order to sound polite. So remember, how in the last episode we learnt how to form questions in the polite manner. Could you please…. May I ask you a question? Instead of Can I ask you a question?
These are some examples of what you can do to sound more polite…
So, here are some tips when speaking on the phone in English.. I advise you:
1. Learn useful terms – phone vocabulary
2. Learn how to answer the phone politely
3. Learn how to spell your name over the phone and how to give numbers over the phone
4. How to leave a voicemail message, answering machine. Dejar una Grabación or dejar un mensaje de voz
5. How to end a conversation, ok?
So these are some things I would like us to learn in this episode….
So let’s being!
Firstly, I would like to start with “How to answer your phone in English” What do you say when the phones rings?
I am going to do my best ringtone, the best ever!
Ring Ring! Ok, that’s my phone ringing.
Hi, Milena speaking.
Hola, habla Milena.
Ok? In English we say the NAME then SPEAKING.
Hi, Juan speaking. Carlos speaking. Marcela speaking.
And then you wait for the other person to respond. You shouldn’t ask them who they are straight away. You just wait for the other person and say who they are and why they are calling.
If a person that you don’t know has called you, you don’t recognise them, you should ask them politely:
May I know who this is? OR May I know who is speaking?
Who am I speaking with? Con quien hablo? Is another way you could do it. So there’s 3 options you have:
May I know who this is? May I know who is speaking? Who am I speaking with? Con quien hablo?
And the other person should respond:
You are speaking with Carlos or You are speaking with Paola. This is Paola.
Very simple, but very effective.Ok that was simple, now how to end the call
If you are speaking with a friend it’s quite simple:
“Ok, See you later”
If you are speaking with a friend.
Let’s imagine you are working at a call centre or somewhere in a business environment where you have to use the phone and you need to end a conversation:
Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Qué más puedo hacer por usted hoy? Algo más que pueda hacer por usted hoy?
Anything else I can do for you today? Is there anything else I can do for you today?
We don’t say:
Anything more I can do for you? As in Spanish, you would say qué más? Algo más?
But in English we say What else? Not What more? to mean qué más? Or Algo más? Anything else?
So if you are in the restaurant, the waiter will ask you would you like to order anything else? Not: algo más? They wouldn’t say anything more?
It’s a good tip, just remember this.
If you are in a call centre, you would say Thank you very much for calling us today, is there anything else I can do for you today? And when they say No, you say, Fantastic! Have a great day! Easy peasy japanesy! Excellent!
Easy peasy.
So what I would like for us to learn now is some useful phrases and most of them are phrasal verbs.
These are phrases that will help you expand your phone vocabulary, you are going to learn some new phrases with examples. Woohoo!
Alright!
So, one phrase you will need to know is:
Pick up the phone > to pick up the phone means to answer the phone, contester el telefono.
Ok if you are with a friend and the phone is ringing – Ring, ring – and it is annoying you, and you say to your friend, hey Maria, pick up the phone please! Answer the phone. Pick up the phone. This 2 words – Pick Up.
To End the call, we usually say Hang Up.
Hang up > to end a call, colgar el telefono.
THis is again 2 words, Hang Up. So if you are, again, talking with a friend and you are ending a phone call, oh I need to hang up I am going to see a movie or something like that.
To hang up means colgar el telefono.
To call someone back > to call someone who called you first, devolver el llamado, return the call is another way to say it. I am going to call my friend back. I missed my friend’s call and I am going to call her back.
Another useful phrase for you guys:
To hold on > wait, esperar
Let’s continue with more examples, more phrases. Hope this is making sense so far guys.
Let’s imagine you are calling a friend, and you are getting a busy signal. Hmmm, the phone is not ringing, you are getting a busy signal
Busy signal > señal saturada. It’s pronounced signal not sign-al. The line is busy, which is also kinda busy signal, you can say busy, the line is busy, nobody is picking up the phone the line is busy > esta ocupado.
Next phrase, I was using quite often in my previous job actually. You often need to transfer the call to someone else.
To put someone through to someone else > transfer the call to another person. Dejar con alguien más OR Transferir la llamada con alguien más.
I need to put you through to Mr Smith.
Ok here is an example:
Sorry mám, I am not able to help you, but I will put you through to Mr Jones and he will be able to help you. Ok?
That’s an example when we use Put Through, this phrasal verb.
So in this episode we learnt the basic phone terms and the most commonly used phrases.
Right, guys! Let’s wrap up today’s episode, wrap up is a phrasal verb, another phrasal verb? Yes! It means Resumir.
To wrap means to envelope something, envolver. Just imagine the food, when you buy a wrap or a fajita, all the ingredients are wrapped. So that’s wrap up!
So wrap up means, to summarise the conversation if you are on the phone or if you are in a business meeting, or in this case to summaries this episode. To wrap up.
Ok guys, we are going to finish this episode guy. I hope you learnt something new! So we learnt how to answer the phone, how to end the phone conversation, and I taught you some really useful phrasal verbs…these are the most commonly phrasal verbs when it comes to using your phone. Your mobile phone or your fixed phone, your landline.
Ok I will give you 2 things for homework.
#1 practise and memorize the vocabulary in this episode
#2 think about how would you spell your name and your address in English if you have to give your name and address over the phone to someone! I will give you a tip! Listen to the next Short and Sweet episode, I will give you an easy way how you can spell your name quickly and effectively and clearly over the phone. Awesome! Well done guys!
Hope you enjoyed this episode! Please take care this weekend.
And remember guys, all transcriptions are available on my website www.www.englishmadesimple.net If you have any questions in regards to this episode please let me know in the Facebook group English Made Simple or on my website, Englishmadesimple.net.
It’s been a pleasure, until next time, ciao ciao!