10: hi welcome to this course on English for
14: the telephone in this first class we
17: will look at how to answer the telephone
19: in English it's easy they start
27: good morning ABC corporation good
32: morning ABC corporation
38: good afternoon ABC corporation good
44: afternoon ABC corporation before 12
50: o'clock we say good morning good morning
54: after twelve o'clock we say good
57: afternoon good afternoon and of course
60: we can also say hello and the name of
64: the company hello IBM for example okay
70: now let's see how to give our name and
74: pay attention it's maybe not so obvious
82: good afternoon ABC corporation John
85: speaking good afternoon ABC corporation
90: John speaking that's right when we
96: answer the phone if we give our name we
100: say speaking speaking John speaking John
105: speaking we don't say I'm on the phone
109: okay when we answer the phone we don't
112: say I now let's listen to the final
117: phrase
121: good morning ABC corporation how can I
124: help you good morning ABC corporation
128: how can I help you so there are
134: different ways of offering help but the
136: most common way is how can I help you
140: how can I help you now let's listen to
145: all the phrases again okay pay attention
148: good morning ABC corporation good
153: afternoon ABC corporation good afternoon
158: ABC corporation John speaking good
163: morning ABC corporation how can I help
166: you okay it's been a very short class
170: we've just looked at the basics of
173: answering the phone in English which are
177: good afternoon good morning the name of
181: the company our name John speaking John
187: speaking and then how can I help you how
191: can I help you
195: if you have any questions you can send
199: us a message or leave a comment in the
202: section below in the next videos we will
207: look at more complicated phrases and we
210: will look at the phrases we need when we
213: make a phone call okay thank you for
217: your attention and see you in the next
219: video
How to answer the phone in English. Learn how to answer the phone in a professional and efficient way. Start here if you've never spoken English on the telephone before.
This is the first class in our Telephone English course. Start here if you have never spoken on the phone in English before. The class will teach you how to answer the phone in English. Make sure you listen to the audio files!
Welcome to this first class in our course on English for the Telephone. Here we are going to look at a basic but very important subject:
So, what is the correct way to answer the phone in English? The correct form will often depend on whether we are answering the external phone of our organisation or our personal phone. Let's look at the two situations separately:
When we answer the external telephone of our company or department we need to use a formal greeting. Make sure you listen to the audio file provided!
| Phrase | When to use |
|---|---|
| Hello, Clives Ltd* | All day |
| Good morning, Clives Ltd* | From 00:00 12:00 |
| Good afternoon, Clives Ltd* | From 12:01 to 18:00/19:00 |
| Good evening, Clives Ltd* | From 18:00/19:00 to 00:00 |
| Good evening, Clives Ltd*, Chris speaking | From 18:00/19:00 to 00:00 |
| How can I help you? | Use after the greeting |
* "Ltd" is used for private companies in the United Kingdom. "Ltd" is the short form of "Limited".
Here is a good example of answering the phone in English:
There are three parts to this phrase:
This is an efficient but friendy way of answering the phone in English. We recommend that you use this type of phrase whenever you answer the telephone in your company or organisation.
More examples...
*You can give your first name AND surname if you like.
When we answer the phone, we do not use 'I am + NAME' or 'My name is + NAME'.
Incorrect: Good afternoon, Central Hotel, I am Chris.
Incorrect: Good afternoon, Central Hotel, my name is Chris.
Correct: Good afternoon, Central Hotel, Chris speaking.
When we answer our personal phone in the office we usually choose shorter and more informal phrases. Here are the most common ways of answering your personal extension:
| Hello, John Spencer speaking |
| Hello, John Spencer |
| John Spencer* |
These phrases are short, but effective. This is how most native speakers answer the phone at work. You do not need to say more!
*It is perfectly acceptable to answer your personal telephone by just giving your first name and your surname.
If we answer the phone of a colleague we will use the possessive:
| Hello, Paul's phone. |
| Good afternoon, Paul Smith's phone. |
| Paul's phone* |
*This is the most informal option, but it is polite enough for most situations.
In the second part of this class we have more examples of phrases for answering the phone in English:
If you answer the phone for a colleague, you may need to take a message. This can be quite difficult, so make sure to check out our class on taking phone messages.
Take a look at our class on making a phone call in English.