Business Conversation in English

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Different situations can occur in conversation with colleagues or business partners. We may want to say our opinion or ask for the opinion of a second person, solve the problem, express agreement or disagreement, interrupted the conversation in a polite way, apologize and thank.

Beginning of the conversation

First, we greet our guest.

  • Good morning. Pleased to see you again.

Then we have them seated at the table and offer them some refreshments.

  • Please have a seat.
  • Can I offer you something to drink?

We show an interest in our guest and express the gratitude for the meeting.

  • Did you find us okay?
  • I hope you had a pleasant journey.
  • Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.

You may find the following phrases useful if you are supposed to express your opion.

How to express your opinion

  • Personally I believe…
  • In my opinion…
  • From my point of view…

How to show you interest in other people’s opinions

  • What’s your idea?
  • Do you have anything to say about this?
  • Do you agree?

You may agree or disagree with other people’s opinions.

How to express your agreement/strong>

  • That’s just what I was thinking.
  • I couldn’t agree with you more.
  • You’re right.

How to express your disagreement

  • I’m afraid I disagree.
  • I don’t think so.
  • Not necessarily.
  • No, I’m not so sure about that.

Apologise for being wrong

Apology

  • I didn’t do it on purpose.
  • I’m terribly sorry.
  • Please excuse my ignorance.
  • Sorry. It was all my fault.

Then you start to solve the problem.

Solving the problem

  • I’ll see what I can do.
  • I’ll do my best.
  • I’ll deal with it.

Sometimes we have to interrupt the conversation

The interruption of a conversation

  • I’m sorry to interrupt, but…
  • I don’t mean to intrude…
  • Can I add something here?
  • While that is an important point, it’s also important to add…

Finally we finish the conversation.

End of the conversation

  • Excuse me, but I have to leave.
  • May I be excused?

We express the pleasure.

  • I’m glad we got to talk.
  • I have really enjoyed our meeting.
Mr Curtis: Good afternoon. Thanks for coming everybody. OK, let’s get down to business. As you know, we’re here to talk about the relocation to France. Now the plan is to make the final move in July. What do you think?
Mr Pot: I don’t mean to intrude Jim, but I’m afraid I disagree with the relocation to France. In my opinion nobody here actually wants to live in France.
Mr Curtis: You didn’t let me finish. – Nenechal jsi mě to dokončit. The decision has been already taken.
Mr Pot: Pardon me. I don’t quite see what you mean. I thought we were here to discuss this. – Omlouvám se
Mr Curtis: No, perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. We are here to implement the decision.
Mrs Jones: I am sorry to interrupt, but why we should have our head office in France instead of here in Germany? We do most of our business here.
Mr Curtis: No, I’m not so sure about that. The decision to relocate makes good economic sense. We are not in a position to change company policy. Let’s move on…
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Gabriela Kašparová
Lector and language consultant. Studied English at the Faculty of Education. Having worked as an English tutor at nursery school, she got experience with working with children with learning disability. During her 8-year experience with teaching adults she has implemented her findings from learning children and has created simple and transparent explanations of complicated grammar features. Teaching both children and adults, she keeps encouraging them not to fear a foreign language and to learn with pleasure.

1 COMMENT

  1. Norwegian sentence structure is also subject-verb-object based. Even longer sentences bear a structural similarity to their English counterparts.

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