Cancelling Plans In English Useful Vocabulary Expressions
Hello I’m Emma from mmmEnglish! Have you ever made a plan
with someone, but then realised that you
need to change the plan or cancel it?
In English, you need to be careful about the
language that you use to make sure that
you’re doing it politely. Now, there’s
lots of reasons why you would need to
change your plans or cancel your plans
in English.
Perhaps you genuinely can’t meet someone
because something more important or
urgent has come up.
Perhaps you’ve double booked yourself
- and that means that you’ve made two
appointments at the same time without
realising it, so you need to cancel one.
And other times you might just be
feeling lazy or you just don’t feel like
meeting them. But of course, you don’t
want to offend someone by telling them
that! Cancelling plans can be a little
uncomfortable, a little awkward. So in
this lesson I’m going to give you some
useful expressions that will help you to
change or cancel your plans in English!
Now, these expressions will be useful for
formal appointments that you’ve made,
like, at the doctors or the dentists, with a
work client or a colleague, your child
school principal or even a Skype lesson
with a new English teacher!
But they can also be used informally as well, when
you’ve made plans to have a coffee with
friends or meet a date for dinner or
even to cancel or change a meeting time
with a new friend that you’ve met online.
So, the first thing you’ll need to do is
“break the news” and this idiom means to
tell someone something - especially if
it’s something that they’re not
expecting to hear or it’s bad news.
To “break the news” start with something like
“I’m calling because…” or
“The reason I need to speak to you is…”
So if you’re at a professional office, for example, you
could say “I need to cancel or change my
appointment.” If you’re talking to a
colleague that you don’t know that well,
you could say “I won’t be able to attend
the meeting on Thursday.” But with a
colleague that you do know well, you
might say “I can’t make it to the meeting
on Thursday.” It’s a little more informal.
And, with a friend you could say “I can’t
make it to dinner on Friday.”
Now, these expressions are great if
you’re cancelling or rescheduling in a
reasonable amount of time, you know, with
enough notice. But let’s be real,
sometimes we aren’t as organised as we
want to be and we need to change or
cancel an appointment without much
warning, right? Perhaps the meeting or the
appointment is tomorrow or it’s even the
same day! So then, you really should
include an apology. It’s polite to
include an apology any time that you
change plans but if you do it at late
notice you must apologise and you can do
that simply by adding an introduction to
your sentence. “I’m really sorry, but… I need to cancel.”
“I’m so sorry for the late
notice, but… I need to cancel.”
“My apologies, I need to cancel.” Now, that ’s quite formal, that last example - best in an email or in
a very formal situation. So, to “soften the
blow” and that idiom means to make a bad
situation less serious.
To “soften the blow”
you could add “I was really looking
forward to it!” Now this helps to reassure
the person or tell them that you’re
upset that you can’t make it and that
you still want to meet them at some
stage in the future.
“I was really looking forward to dinner
on Thursday.” “We were really looking
forward to meeting you!” “I was looking
forward to seeing your new office!”
Okay, so you’ve broken the news, you’ve
cancelled your plan and you’ve
apologised. So now, you need to explain
why you cancelled. It’s polite in any
situation to offer a reason why you have
to cancel. But you might not want to
explain all of the details, especially if
you don’t know the person well, it might
be a personal reason or it could be
embarrassing! At times like this, you can
use the expression “Something’s come up.”
“Something has come up.” Now, this is a good
expression to cancel an appointment with
someone that you don’t know and most
English native speakers will understand
this expression. They’ll understand that
it’s not possible for you to attend the
meeting or the appointment and there is
a reason but you don’t want to explain
why and that’s perfectly acceptable!
Especially with formal appointments in a
professional context or with people that
you don’t know well. “Something’s come up
and I need to reschedule.” It’s perfectly acceptable!
But don’t use this expression
with friends or close colleagues because
they might feel a little offended that
you don’t feel comfortable enough to
explain why. Usually with friends, you can
be a little more honest, right? So if you
don’t mind explaining why you had to
cancel or change the plans, you can
simply explain why. “I was really looking
forward to dinner on Thursday, but I’m
flying to Sydney on Wednesday night for
work.” “I’m really, really sorry. I’ve had
such a busy week and I’ve double-booked
myself!”
“I’ve been feeling under the weather all day. Is it okay if we postpone dinner until I’m feeling better?”
So now the last thing
that you need to do is reschedule your
appointment - to make another time. Since
you’re the one who’s cancelling or
changing the plans, you should try to
reschedule the meeting by offering some
suggestions. “Can we reschedule? I’m free
at 3 p.m. on Friday.” “Can we try for
Tuesday instead?” It’s a little more
informal. Now these ones are better for
appointments, more formal appointments. “Is
it possible to reschedule?” “Can I make a
new appointment time?” So do you want to
see some examples of all of these elements together?
“I’m so sorry, Sarah. I was looking forward to catching up on Friday, but my boss has asked me to work late,
so I won’t be able to make it. Can
we reschedule to Monday?”
“My apologies, but I can’t make our meeting this afternoon. Something’s come up. Are we able to
reschedule to next week?” “Hi Farah! I’m
really looking forward to meeting you on
Skype, but I have to apologise because I
need to cancel our meeting. I was
confused by our time zone difference, so
I need to reschedule
to later in the evening.
Is 7pm okay for you?”
Well that’s it for this lesson, I hope that you’ve learned a few new useful expressions
that can help you to cancel appointments or change meeting times in English.
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