Useful Phone Video Chat Expressions in English
today we are going to talk about phone
and video
chat expressions i made a list
of expressions you can use basic
expressions
and some more intermediate to advanced
expressions
and some idioms even that you can use on
the phone
and when you are doing a video
so i hope that everybody can find
something that is helpful especially
because we are using
phone and video chat more and more these
days
so uh we’re going to start in just a
couple minutes we’ll give
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show you today’s
lesson boards let’s take a look this is
what we are going to talk about today
i have first phone and video chat
expressions
basic expressions so if you are a
beginner
this is maybe good practice or you can
pick up something new
here check it out uh part two will be
connection problems so this is a list of
expressions you can use when you have
trouble
uh so i hope this is helpful for many
people
thing three we’ll talk about is other
useful expressions
other things that are helpful when
you’re doing
video chat situations so everybody is
here
let’s begin also if you have not please
do make sure to like and share this
video so other people can find
today’s lesson let’s get it started all
right
first basic expressions basic
expressions let’s talk about
basic expressions first let’s review
some phone expressions so phone that
means
i have phone here that means these
expressions
are expressions we use on the phone we
don’t use
hello in video chat situations we don’t
start the video chat so much with just
hello
because you can see the other person if
you have
no camera on your video chat you might
use
hello we use hello when we can’t see the
other person
generally another way you can
pick up the phone is with this pattern
name speaking name speaking so your
phone rings
and you pick it up and you go hi alicia
speaking
this we don’t use this with friends or
family
this one is used in more professional
situations
so for a business call a work call
something like that
we generally use name speaking alicia
speaking
for a business call professional call
also this pattern i included here
because you will probably hear this when
you call a customer
service phone number the pattern is
this is name how may i help you
at native speed this sounds like this is
alicia how may i help you
so this pattern typically
comes after like the company name so for
example
if you call a bank like let’s say you
call the bank of america
the person might pick up the phone and
say thank you for calling bank of
america
this is alicia how may i help you so
this is a pattern that’s
very common in customer service
situations
so after this just tell them what you
need
so this is a good pattern to listen for
okay the next one that i want to cover
this pattern right here it’s nice to
connect with you this is one we are
using a lot
recently when i say recently i mean in
2020
it’s nice to connect with you you can
see here
it’s nice to connect this is a key word
so these days maybe we have meetings or
we have
lectures school lectures online like we
don’t meet
face to face right when you meet someone
the first time
usually you say nice to meet you right
however
because sometimes we meet someone for
the first time
with video like we have a video meeting
for our first meeting
we feel like i didn’t really meet that
person like face to face
so instead of saying nice to meet you
we say it’s nice to connect with you
it’s nice to connect with you
you can use this uh on the phone
but i feel we’ve kind of used it with a
video
especially lately this year so it’s nice
to connect with you
or sometimes people say it’s nice to
digitally
meet you or it’s nice to meet you
digitally something like that but this
is a really really good expression
to pick up for this year it’s nice to
connect
with you with you so with
not to but with is like we’re doing
something together yeah okay
on youtube natalia says is it wrong to
say how can i help you
or can we use both may and can yes in
this pattern
if you are a customer service person if
you work in customer service
you can use how can i help you that’s
perfectly okay too
yeah this is alicia how can i help you
perfect that’s also okay
great someone writes it’s nice to
connect with you alicia great great
great very nice very nice
okay i’m looking for your questions if
you have questions please send i will
try to check them live
let’s continue the next one the next
good
basic expression uh is can i call you
back or can i call you back
later in this pattern i have later at
the end
you can choose your own time period can
i call you back
in 10 minutes can i call you back in
an hour can i call you back in a couple
days i don’t know
if you want to use uh that pattern
please use the preposition in can i call
you back
in 10 minutes can i call you back in
blah blah blah so please use the
preposition in don’t forget you’re in
i’ll put it there
in so you can check it out can i call
you back
in time okay uh
this one is a little bit
direct who is this who is this
sometimes maybe you pick up the phone
and you don’t know the person so you
pick up the phone it’s a number you
don’t
know you’re like you pick up the phone
they say
something they need some information
from you and you are
you think i don’t know this person you
can ask
who is this who is this so who is this
sounds a little bit
direct it sounds a little bit aggressive
uh so please be careful with this
okay uh then finally this one you have
the wrong
number you have the wrong number we use
this for phones
we don’t really use this for video chat
at least
i haven’t had the experience of a wrong
number
in video anyway you have the wrong
number
means you made a mistake so the person
calling you wanted to call
someone else you have the wrong number
you have the wrong number okay some
other examples sentences are coming
on youtube alexi says can i call you
back in a sec
great in a sec so sec
is short for second can i call you back
in a sec
means in a very short period of time
okay uh someone let’s see ritesh on
facebook says how do we get
pdfs of oh of this lesson there’s not a
pdf file of
this lesson there are pdfs of other
topics
there’s not a pdf version of this so
but you can take a screenshot i will
show you a screenshot of
all of today’s uh vocabulary topics
okay good uh
natalia says sorry back in later was not
clear why in oh
this is two different patterns if you
missed it can i call you back
later so later is just sometime
in the future can i call you back later
that’s one pattern
pattern two here can i call you back in
five minutes
can i call you back in an hour that’s
pattern two
there are two patterns there you can use
okey
all right that sounds good so that’s
part one
uh basic expressions you can use okay
let’s take a
short break and we’ll continue to part
two so if you missed it
of course there’s free stuff free pdf
lessons from the link below the video
if you are watching on youtube or above
the video if you’re watching on facebook
i showed you a few
examples of the things you can find
let’s see here’s a good one sports and
exercise very important
for all of us especially this year so
you can choose a topic that sounds
interesting to you
and take a look oh pets if any of you
are dog people i like dogs
you can find the names of your dogs so
check them out there’s a bunch of
different topics there
okay so let’s go to part two also if you
have not please make sure to like
and share this video so other people can
find today’s
lesson all right i’ll show you today’s
lesson boards if you want to take a
screenshot get ready
today’s lesson boards but um okay so
we talked about basic expressions next
i’m going to talk about expressions for
connection
problems everybody has these so i want
to
give you some expressions you can use to
try to solve those problems
so let’s continue to part
two alrighty um
let’s see some questions are still
coming and alex s
says on youtube is can i call you back
next week correct
yes yes can i call you back next week is
okay
um okay i don’t see other ones
so i’m going to continue let’s talk
about
connection problems connection problems
so when you start your call or you start
your video chat
often there is an audio so sound
or a video visual problem so
let’s take a look at how to
troubleshoot first can you see me
or we change the verb can you hear me
can you see me or can you hear me
this is a very common way to begin an
online video call in particular can you
see me
or can you hear me this now
is something we use at the end of this
pattern
after we make a change in our setting
so for example let’s say you can’t see
me
and you’re like i’m like can you see me
and you say
no i make some changes here
and then i say can you see me now
like after my changes maybe hopefully
you say
yes so we use can you see me now or can
you hear me
now it’s like i made some change
how is it now so please use this
after you make a change can you see me
now can you hear me now
okay this one then
a little hard to see maybe sorry i think
your mics or your cameras
not working or not
connected so again a couple options here
first let’s look at this mic
and cameras what’s that this is
the reduced form of mic is so mic
means microphone yeah like right here
this is my microphone
so mike is and camera is i think your
mic
is not working or i think your mic is
not connected
both are okay both are totally fine or i
think your camera
is not working i think your camera is
not connected
both are okay to use okay
all right then
signal this is the next one i want to
talk about the next vocabulary word here
signal so signal we use
for like um we tend to use signal
for mobile phones yeah we don’t use
signal for wi-fi and for internet
connections
so in that case you can use connection
so connection
we use for internet signal
we use for phones that’s the difference
in most cases if you make a mistake
we’re going to understand so
it says the signal is weak or it says
the signal is
bad or it says the signal is good
so you can look at your phone and be
like how’s my signal how is it
you might also hear reception reception
is okay to
use with mobile phones as well
um aditi says can we say your video is
blur a good one
blurry blurry blur is a noun blurry is
the adjective form
i’ll include i’ll talk about that one a
little bit later
so uh it says the signal is weak
so weak or bad both are okay it’s a weak
signal or a bad signal
or a good signal we use these words to
describe
the signal uh
kami gutierrez says when you say mike’s
not it’s similar to say
mike isn’t so if you want to use
mike is not we no s there no apostrophe
s the mic
isn’t working yes that’s what it means
that’s what it means
okay uh other questions don’t know okay
i don’t see any others
next one let’s talk about these
expressions these happen
all the time so the key word here the
key
verb here is to freeze to freeze like
ice
yeah but we say you this is past tense
you froze you froze
or he or she froze or as an adjective
you’re frozen you are frozen what does
that mean
it’s when the video stops like that
so you stop completely like you stop
like ice
right you can’t move anymore we say you
froze
as a verb or you are
frozen you are frozen please be careful
of your grammar
okay um
kanwaljit says can we say your voice is
not clear yes you can yes you can
other points okay oh i skipped one sorry
i sorry sorry uh this one it says
there’s a bad connection sorry everybody
i skipped one i missed one
uh this one it i wanted to talk about
this
these two sentences use it says
it says this it means the computer
or the software or the mobile phone says
so nobody is saying anything just
according to my mobile phone or
according to my computer
there’s a bad connection or the signal
is weak or the signal is bad
so please use it says to talk about your
network connection
uh shima on youtube says i am unable to
connect with you there is a network
problem how’s that sound perfect sounds
good sounds good
okay uh what does it mean frozen says
mavis on so
frozen this is an adjective frozen
we use for ice but when we are using
video chat
it means some the video stopped
so sometimes the video stops but the
audio
the sound continues in that situation
we say you’re frozen so your
visual the picture is not moving you are
frozen uh aj on youtube says can we say
your video is
stop no your video
has stopped stop is a verb
frozen is an adjective yeah so use this
pattern
you stopped or your video stopped
okay let’s go to the next one all right
next one is i lost you or we lost him
or her this is different from froze
or frozen because this lost
means the person’s connection dropped
so the person left the video chat
they disappeared so the connection was
cut we use i lost you
or we lost him or we lost
her that means someone was like someone
disappeared
from a video chat or from an audio call
okay um
other ones okay i don’t see other
questions yet
so let’s talk about the last two
just a general direct expression you can
use
i can’t hear you i can’t hear you yes i
cannot hear you
is also okay but it sounds more natural
to reduce
this can’t to can uh sorry it sounds
more natural to reduce
to can’t i can’t hear you i can’t hear
you
finally are you there are you there
this one is super helpful when maybe the
other person
froze and you’re not sure
like you can say can you see me or can
you hear me
or just are you there are you
there you can use this on the phone and
you can use this
on video chat are you there can you hear
me
we use them together like that okay
all right uh i don’t see other questions
so
that is everything for part two all
right
good ah that was nice okay uh thanks for
your great questions
um oh yeah some people have been writing
the expression
on mute on mute i’ll include that here
uh i’ll put that at the bottom of this
guy
to be on mute or
muted i think you’re muted we use two
patterns to talk about that
mute so uh this comment
is in the chat i’ve seen this in the
chat a couple times
on mute on mute so i think
you’re on mute that means your audio
is off so when for example
like you don’t see or you see someone’s
mouth moving but there’s no
sound you can say you’re muted
that’s the adjective or you’re on
mute you’re on mute kanwajit says how do
we
how do we say that the voice is coming
later your voice
is on a delay or there’s a delay or
there is
lag i’ll include this in the last one i
think there’s some time i’ll add that
point to the last one
there is lag we’ll talk about this in
part three
okay um okay
let’s continue then we’ll take one more
break
and then we’ll continue uh to part
three all right so if you missed it
there’s free stuff
for you from the link below the video if
you are watching on youtube
above the video if you’re watching on
facebook here’s oh this one i haven’t
shown in a while
business english this is a set
of expressions to use in a meeting you
can use these in
online meetings as well so check this
out
this is a list of job titles too this is
a good one i know
many of you are studying for work
purposes all right yes
monica on facebook says how do we talk
about when the voice goes and returns
and goes and returns
i’ll include okay i’m making a list of
things to add to part three
so great questions thank you for your
questions hamayon says can we say he is
losted
no lost is the past tense form of
lost no change to that verb it’s an
irregular verb
we lost him we can say he is lost
lost is also an adjective that’s the way
english works sorry
he’s lost means he can’t find his way on
the street
we do not use that pattern for video
chat
we say we lost him all right phew
great questions i’ll show you today’s
lesson boards again you can take a
picture
before we go to part three uh okay so
we talked about basic expressions we
talked about connection problems
just now and now we’re going to talk
about other
useful expressions i made a list of
another group so also if you have not
already please please please make sure
to like this video and share it so other
people
can find today’s lesson okay
sebastian says when my internet is not
good how do i express that
i talked about that in part two i’ll
show the picture again
today okay let’s go i think part three
will answer some of your questions you
have great questions coming in
if you have questions about technical
problems please check part two i just
finished talking about all right let’s
go
to part three uh other useful
expressions
so the first two here are about
recordings
recordings so often uh in your video
chat
uh your audio chat you have a meeting or
something
i know many people record the
information
two ways to do this one is an active
voice sentence one is a passive voice
sentence
are you recording this so this is a
direct
question to the other person are you
specifically are you recording this
this one is this being recorded where
this means is this conversation
being recorded this is passive voice
because it’s like i don’t know who is in
charge of the recording
i want to ask is this being recorded
so this is used in like a meeting i
don’t know who’s in charge
i want to ask though is this being
recorded
okay next one
it’s a little choppy choppy this
is a key vocabulary i wanted to
introduce
to you today it’s a little choppy
we use this mostly with video chat
you might use it with audio too you can
use it in the live streams as well
this sometimes happens in live streams
choppy
in this case choppy means it stops
and starts so like you see one frame
and stops and another frame it stops
that kind of video or audio we describe
that
as choppy it’s choppy so chop
is this action with a knife yeah we chop
vegetables
yeah so it’s that feeling with a video
file like
it’s cut and cut and cut that’s
something
choppy uh yes we can use
laggy oops sorry laggy it’s a little
choppy or it’s a little
laggy it’s also used too we use laggy
in like video games as well so i’ll add
that to the board
oops sorry laggy you can use laggy
in this situation too it’s a little
laggy
laggy so to lag means to fall behind
to fall behind so to fall behind is like
uh maybe the audio and the video aren’t
working correctly
okay hi marco from chile cool okay
so choppy or laggy ooh carrie has a good
question on facebook how do i say
is it okay if i capture a screenshot on
this video uh
if you want to take a picture of the
screen say
is it okay if i take a screenshot
is it okay if i take a screenshot or
can i take a screenshot can i take a
screenshot
some people are asking about choppy and
laggy
and these words so choppy and laggy they
mean the video
starts and stops or the audio starts
and stops quickly
so that when that happens we say it’s
choppy it’s laggy your video is laggy
or it’s choppy okay all right so let’s
continue on i hope that’s helpful for
everybody
everybody’s experiences this i think
let’s go to a positive expression
everything sounds good
everything sounds good so
when you uh join your chat session or
your
your phone session and often you ask
like can you hear me
or can you see me you can respond with
everything sounds good or you can say
everything looks good too everything
sounds good
everything looks good this means
everything is okay
like let’s continue so this is a
positive way
you can confirm audio’s okay videos okay
with everything everything sounds good
everything
looks good or just everything is good
okay all right um
okay i don’t see other questions so i
want to continue
to an idiom an idiom i chose this idiom
today
it’s quite interesting because it has
the word
phone in it but it’s not really
connected to phone calls
we have this expression to phone it
in or to phone something in
this idiom means to do something
with little effort or enthusiasm
in an example sentence he’s tired of his
job
and is phoning it in lately
he’s tired of his job and is phoning it
in lately
so when someone is doing a job or
project
or participating and they’re not trying
very hard
for example if this was the live stream
let’s say for ex i didn’t prepare
i didn’t prepare i just sat down i
talked to you
for 30 minutes about the news or
something you could say wow
alicia’s phoning it in like she didn’t
prepare anything there’s no
information so phoning it in
to phone something in means to do
something
with little effort or enthusiasm
however there are some cases especially
a long time ago
where we say we would say to phone
something in
like a request or an order like can you
phone in this order or can you phone in
this request
today though when we use it like this
it’s like saying that person
didn’t want to take the time to come and
meet
us or they didn’t want to visit the
office so they’re doing it by phone
so that’s the reason it sounds like
someone is doing something with
little effort okay
uh so this is kind of an interesting
idiom i wanted to include
okay um let’s go to the last one so
some of you asked about this point i
added it to the board there’s a little
space left
so there is lag or there
is echo echo so again in this sentence
i’m using
lag and echo as nouns yeah
there is lag there is echo
you might also hear um there is an echo
we don’t use there is a lag we do not
use that
there is an echo you might hear
so uh lag as we talked about is when
there’s like um there’s a delay
there’s a delay so we can use delay in
this pattern too
so the video and the audio don’t
match yeah echo
is when you hear the sound again so
sometimes you hear echo like
at the beginning of this live stream i
think like when
uh the youtube chat begins
and sometimes you hear a little bit of
my voice
again that’s echo echo echo so you hear
the same thing
quickly one after another there’s echo
or there’s an echo that’s how we can
describe
this okay some people are saying
asking about phone it in again a little
more information
about this idiom to phone something in
we use this expression to describe
when someone is not giving effort
or they’re not enthusiastic they’re not
trying very hard
so to give another example is like
someone gives a really lazy presentation
you can say wow he phoned it in like he
didn’t try
very hard he’s phoning it in lately
so someone who’s not trying hard is
someone who is
phoning it in uh
someone liking on facebook says can we
say login or log
into both both so login oh this is
tricky
i need to write this one uh so log
in how can i i don’t have any room to
talk about this
uh basically the short answer is you can
use both please
log in please log in to the chat
uh luis says can i use choppy in a call
yeah you can say choppy if you want to
use it in a
phone call we usually say you’re
breaking
up you’re breaking up so i can’t hear
you
very well okay kahina says echo means
repetition
yes so echo means repetition in the
sound
so you hear the same sound same sound
same sound so that’s echo yeah
echo aj says can we say it’s little hang
over here
no no so like i’m not sure what that
means
actually maybe if there’s a delay
there’s a delay
uh how do you say when there’s something
in maybe i don’t know
something in the background you can say
there’s something in the background
i’m not sure okay
i don’t see other questions about
today’s topic um oh aditi says what does
it mean when a student asks a teacher
let him or her in in an app ah
some of you maybe are using zoom or some
other video conference software
and you have like a meeting room yeah so
you can
the teacher or the person in charge of
the chat
can control who enters yeah so you can
say
let him in to the meeting room or let
her in means allow her in so like
accept someone to the meeting room
okay um
uh okay i don’t see other questions and
i’m late so i have to finish there for
today i’m going to show you today’s
lesson boards again i took this picture
before the lesson started
so there are a couple new words added
but this is
today’s information so take a screenshot
please feel free to take a screenshot so
that you can review
these expressions and use them in your
video chats
okay i’m going to take it away now all
right let’s conclude
there uh thanks for joining you have
excellent questions fantastic questions
and great example sentences
that’s super super cool uh so i will be
back
next week with some more stuff next week
we’re going to go to a bit of a grammar
lesson i’m going to talk about
wood in second conditional
sentences everybody likes to practice
wood right so today today next week we
are going to practice using wood
in second conditional sentences
especially so this will be a good
opportunity
for you to make example sentences and
send them along
and practice your grammar that will be
october 7th wednesday october 7th
10 p.m eastern standard time that is new
york city time
if you don’t know your local time please
use your google skills
your excellent google skills all right i
will
say goodbye there so thank you very very
much as always
for joining our weekly live stream and
thank you so much
for liking and sharing this video and
for your great questions also please
make sure
if you want to check out the free stuff
but um
from the video uh from below the video
if you’re watching on youtube or above
the video
if you’re watching on facebook grab it
download it study have a good time all
right
uh i’ll finish there for today so enjoy
the rest of your day enjoy your week and
i will see you again
next time