Useful Telephone Expressions Speak English Fluently on the Phone
wanna speak real English from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at English class 101.com
hi everybody my name is Alisha in this
lesson I’m going to talk about some
phone related expressions I’ve chosen
some key verbs that we use when we’re
using the phone so today I’m going to
explain the meanings of these verbs and
give some example sentences so you can
use them too okay let’s begin first
let’s start with the first maybe the
basic action of using a phone the first
verb is to pick up to pick up not pick
up but pick up separately pick up our
separate words to pick up the phone to
pick up the phone means to answer an
incoming call so this means when your
phone begins buzzing literally we
physically pick up the phone and answer
the call so meaning we receive the
incoming call so this on a mobile phone
refers to this action to pick up the
phone and answer the phone before mobile
phones when phones were attached to the
wall or when phones were like a physical
object on a table he meant physically
picking up the receiver and putting it
to one’s ear to answer the phone so in
example sentence can someone pick up the
phone can someone pick up the phone so
answer the phone someone’s calling okay
let’s go to the opposite then the next
verb is to hang up to hang up again this
is two words hang and up to hang up so
to hang up the phone means to end a
phone call so this word actually this
has a bit of history then so before
mobile phones when phones were you know
objects that were in rooms when we
finished the call we would place the
receiver back on the phone stand there
was a stand for the phone receiver to
rest on so it was like we had to hang
the receiver on its stand or when phones
were attached to walls as well we would
hang it on the wall so we use to hang up
to refer to ending a phone call however
even though we don’t hang up our mobile
phones we just push a button
bull phones we still use the verb hang
up actually to refer to ending the call
of course you can say to end a call as
well but hang up is still very very
commonly used so you can use it too this
means to end a call in example she hung
up on me she hung up on me
so here past tense hung up hang up
becomes hung up in past tense hu ng hung
up okay let’s go along to the next verb
to call to call a very basic verb for
this lesson to call just means to
communicate by phone we can also use to
call for like Skype calls or other video
service calls anything that you use like
a mobile phone or some kind of video
service to do you can use to call to
refer to that that means like FaceTime
or whatever any other similar
application you can use call to refer to
that so to communicate via phone is to
call so an example of this let’s call
the customer service number let’s call
the customer service number okay let’s
move along to the next verb which is to
return a call to return a call to return
a call means to call a person who called
you the nuance here is that you missed
the call so if I make a phone call I
tried to call you but you are not
available I hang up the phone later when
you are available you call me you can
say I’m returning your call
that is called returning someone’s call
so I called you first you missed it so
you’re calling me now you’ve returned my
call another example of this I’m
returning your call regarding your order
I’m returning your call
regarding in other words about your
order so to return a call is usually
because you missed the call the first
call so let’s look at the next word
which is to call back this is very very
similar to to return a call however this
is a key difference you may not have
missed the call when you use the
expression to call back so yes when you
use call back it means you are returning
someone’s
someone called you however maybe in an
example situation I call you and you are
like able to pick up your phone you can
answer but you’re busy you’re not able
to talk in that moment in that case you
can ask is it okay if I call you back in
other words can I return your call a
little bit later so in that case you did
not miss my call but you can’t talk
right now
so we can use the verb call back in a
situation like this so let’s look at
another example I’m in a meeting can I
call you back in an hour so here you’ll
see we put you between call and back can
I call you back can I call him back and
I call her back in an hour
so you can include who are you going to
call put that here between call and back
okay let’s move along then to the next
expression to put someone on hold to put
someone on hold means to keep someone on
the phone line but without talking so I
think most people have probably
experienced this especially when calling
a customer service phone line so you
make the call and you have to wait for a
long time there’s usually music playing
that’s being on hold I’m on hold in that
situation however sometimes the operator
picks up the phone and the operator
needs to take care of some things needs
to do some tasks or confirm your
information they’ll say is it okay if I
put you on hold so meaning the operator
is going to put you back like put you
back on hold keep you waiting but will
not cut the call so the operator may say
I’ll put you on hold I mean please wait
in other words so an example of this
I’ll put you on hold while I confirm the
information so this shows you’re just
waiting you’re in a waiting period all
right let’s go along to the next
expression to go to answering machine to
go to answering machine this means the
call is answered by a machine so again
this expression is actually a little bit
old-fashioned but
for mobile phones there was a separate
machine that was used only for answering
calls when someone was unavailable to
pick up the phone so there were actual
like tapes or when it became digital
they were digital answering machines but
they were specifically for picking off
the phone when someone wasn’t at home
for example an answering machine but
today of course we have mobile phones
and we don’t have answering machines
actual machines that we use but we can
still use this expression if you like so
here yes call is answered by a machine
or in this case maybe like an automatic
voice system answers the call so an
example of this he didn’t answer my call
went to the answering machine my call
went to the answering machine so that
means like my call was received by an
automated voice system ok great let’s go
on to the next expression which is to
leave a voicemail to leave a voicemail
this is kind of interesting this means
to send a voice message to send a voice
message so this is used typically after
this step so your call is answered by an
answering machine or a an automated
voice system and you want to leave a
message for the person you can say I’m
going to like send a voice message I
suppose but actually the best expression
to use is leave a voicemail to leave a
voicemail so you leave the voicemail on
the answering machine you leave the
voicemail with the automated answering
system an example here I left her a
voicemail hopefully she’ll call back so
past tense here I left her a voicemail
left her voicemail so we do we always
use this verb to leave to leave a
voicemail to leave a voicemail so let’s
go on to the last item on this list to
dial to dial something this refers to
inputting numbers for the phone number
so a long time ago with rotary phones
people would actually use a dial it was
a circular dial where the numbers were
input and we had to wait while people
actually waited for the dial to spin
back to its original
position before in putting the next
number then we graduated to using
keypads and of course now we use keypads
that are digital on our mobile phones
perhaps so to dial refers to the act of
inputting numbers into the phone so here
dial one eight hundred five five five
four four two two two reaches is a great
example of how this might be used so
dial in other words means input these
numbers to reach us
so to dial refers to inputting numbers
in that way we don’t use dial in
situations outside of phone calls though
so we wouldn’t say like dial information
into your computer and necessarily we
use it for phones a lot so you might
hear this or you might just hear call us
at this number so just a little history
point there perhaps okay
but those are a few words that are
related to phones and phone use so I
hope that those are helpful for you as
you use the phone and as you talk about
your phone related communications of
course if you have any questions or
comments or want to try to use one of
these words in a sentence please feel
free to do so in the comment section of
this video if you liked the video don’t
forget to give it a thumbs up and
subscribe to the channel if you have not
already also as always make sure to
check out English class 101.com for some
other good English study resources thank
you very much for watching this lesson
and I will see you again soon bye
you