Common Terms for attending business meetings

Common Terms for attending business meetings

The following phrases are used to participant in a meeting. These phrases are useful for expressing your ideas and giving input to a meeting.

　　Getting the Chairperson's attention caught the attention of the meeting Chairman

(Mister/Madam) Chairman.

May I have a word?

If I may, I think...

Excuse me for interrupting.

May I come in here?

　Giving opinions

I'm positive that...

I (really) feel that...

In my opinion...

The way I see things...

If you ask me,... I tend to think that...

　Asking for opinions

Are you positive that...

Do you (really) think that...

(Name of particle ant) Can we get your input?

How do you feel about ...?

　Commenting comments

That's interesting.

I never thought about it that way before.

Good point!

I get your point.

I see what you mean.

　Agreeing indicates consent

I totally agree with you.

Exactly!

That's (exactly) the way I feel.

I have to agree with (name of particle ant ).

　　Disagreeing

Unfortunately, I see it differently.

Up to a point I agree with you,...

(I'm afraid) I can't agree

　　Advising and suggesting

Let's...

We shoshould...

Why don't you ....

How/what about...

I suggest/recommend that...

Clarifying clarification

Let me spell out...

Have I made that clear?

Do you see what I'm getting?

Let me put this another way...

I 'd just like to repeat that...

　Requesting information request information

Please, cocould you...

I 'd like you...

Wocould you mind...

I wonder if you cocould...

　　Asking for repetition request already exists

I'm afraid I didn't understand that. cocould you repeat what you just said?

I didn't catch that. cocould you repeat that, please?

I missed that. cocould you say it again, please?

Cocould you run that by me one more time?

Asking for clarification requires clarification

I don't quite follow you. What exactly do you mean?

I'm afraid I don't quite understand what your are getting.

Cocould you explain to me how that is going to work?

I don't see what you mean. cocould we have some more details, please?

　Asking for verification request confirmation

You did say next week, didn't you? ('Did' is stressed)

Do you mean that ...?

Is it true that ...?

Asking for spelling request spelling

Cocould you spell that, please?

Wocould you mind spelling that for me, please?

　　Asking for contributions

We havent heard from you yet, (name of a particle ant ).

What do you think about this proposal?

Wocould you like to add anything, (name of a particular ant )?

Has anyone else got anything to contribute?

Are there any more comments?

　　Correcting Information correction

Sorry, I think you misunderstood what I said.

Sorry, that's not quite right.

I'm afraid you don't understand what I'm saying.

That's not quite what I had in mind.

That's not what I meant.

　　Keeping the Meeting on target (time, relevance, decisions)

We're re running short of time.

Well, that seems to be all the time we have today.

Please be brief.

I'm afraid we 've ve run out of time.

I'm afraid that's outside the scope of this meeting.

Let's get back on track, why don't we?

That's not really why we're here today.

Why don't we return to the main focus of today's meeting.

We'll have to leave that to another time.

We're re beginning to lose sight of the main point.

Keep to the point, please.

I think we 'd better leave that for another meeting.

Are we ready to make a describe?