Business English for meetings, so you can say what you mean

Getting into the conversation

The single biggest problem people report is finding a gap to speak. In a meeting with five people the gap is short, and hesitating means somebody else takes it.

Have one entry phrase ready and use the same one every time. Familiarity is the point. You want it to come out automatically while your attention stays on the idea.

• "Can I come in here?"
• "Sorry, just to add to that…"
• "Before we move on, can I say something about the budget?"
• "Actually, I have a thought on that."
• "If I could jump in for a second."

Naming your topic as you enter buys you the floor. "Can I say something about the timeline" is harder to talk over than "Can I say something".

Disagreeing without causing offence

English business culture softens disagreement heavily. A flat "I disagree" lands much harder in English than the direct equivalent does in many other languages, and people may read it as rude when you only meant to be clear.

The standard pattern is to acknowledge the other person first, then give your view. It takes two extra seconds and it changes how the room receives you.

• Too blunt: "That is wrong."
• Natural: "I see what you mean, though I am not sure the numbers support that."
• Too blunt: "No, we cannot do that."
• Natural: "That could be difficult from our side. Could we look at another option?"
• Too blunt: "Your plan has a problem."
• Natural: "One thing I would want to check is how this affects delivery."

Buying yourself time to think

You get asked something directly and you need three seconds. Silence feels like you did not understand. A holding phrase fills the gap and sounds completely professional, because native speakers use these constantly for the same reason.

Learn two of them and rotate.

• "That is a good question. Let me think for a second."
• "So if I understand correctly, you are asking whether…"
• "There are a couple of ways to look at that."
• "Can I come back to you on that after the call?"
• "Off the top of my head, I would say…"

Repeating the question back is the most useful of these. It buys time and it confirms you understood, which prevents a much longer misunderstanding later.

When you did not catch something

Bad audio, fast speakers, and unfamiliar accents are part of remote work. Asking someone to repeat themselves is completely normal, and people do it in their own language all day.

Ask early. The longer you wait, the more you have to admit you missed.

• "Sorry, you cut out for a moment. Could you say that again?"
• "Could you repeat the last part?"
• "I did not catch the number. Was it fifteen or fifty?"
• "Just to check I heard that right, you said Thursday?"
• "What do you mean by scope here exactly?"

Closing, agreeing, and making next steps clear

Meetings end badly when nobody says who does what. Being the person who summarises makes you look organised, and it happens to be easy English.

This is also a good habit for a second language, because a short summary at the end catches anything you misunderstood while you can still fix it.

• "So to summarise, we agreed to…"
• "Just so we are all clear, I will send the draft by Friday and Ana will review it."
• "Is everyone happy with that?"
• "Shall we pick this up next week?"
• "I will follow up by email with the details."

How business English lessons with Mili work

Lessons are one to one and online, built around the meetings you actually attend. If you have a presentation next week, we rehearse it. If you lead a weekly call, we practise running it.

We use role play, because a phrase you have only read will not arrive when you need it. Saying it out loud ten times in a lesson is what makes it available in a real meeting.

You get your corrections in writing after each lesson, along with the phrases we worked on, so you can look at them before your next call.