How to leave a short and effective voice message in English. Sometimes the person we want to speak to isn't available and we will have to leave a voice message for them. Don't Panic! Find out how to leave a simple, easy-to-understand voice message in English.
So, you know how to have a basic telephone conversation in English. But, what happens if the other person does not answer the phone? People are often busy and unable to come to the phone, so it's inevitable that sooner or later we will have to leave a message in someone's voicemail. Whether you're calling a mobile/cell phone or someone's direct office line, voicemail is a part of everyday working life.
So let's learn how to leave a short, but professional voice message.
If you have seen our class on making basic phone calls, you will already know many of the phrases which we need in order to leave a good voice message.
First things first! Let's identify ourselves. Remember not to speak too quickly! This part is very similar to phrases which we have seen in other classes of this course on Telephone English. Let's look at some simple phrases for identifying ourselves and saying where we're from:
In informal phone calls, we can be very brief:
We can either use iIT IS, IT'S or THIS IS when we give our name by phone. It doesn't matter which of these forms we use, the meaning is the same. We basically introduce ourself in the same way we would if we were making a phone call, something which we've already covered in an earlier class in this course.
We usually need to say why we are phoning the other person:
Perhaps we don't know the other person. In that case will say something like:
The verbs 'phoning' and 'calling' have the same meaning.
This part is optional, but we often need to give the other person important information in a message:
Remember, if we are giving negative information it's a good idea to start the phrase with "I'm afraid". An alternative is "Unfortunately". We can also put these expressions at the end of a sentence:
This is perhaps the most important part of the message:
An alternative is to use the verb 'can':
"Give someone a call" is another way of saying "call someone". You will hear native English speakers use this form very frequently.
This part is easy!
And finally...
Hi Sam, this is Alex from Knightsbridge Real Estate. I'm calling because we have a new property which you think you might like. Could you give me a call this week if you have time? Many thanks.
Hi Zak. This is Pat from the production department. We need the technical specifications for the new model as soon as possible. Could you send them to us by tomorrow afternoon at the latest? Thanks a lot.
Here's an example where we don't ask the person we are calling to do something, but rather we tell them that we are going to do something; in this case we are going to send them an email:
Hi Olga, this is Chris from the estate agents in Spain. I'm calling to say that your offer for the property has been accepted. I will send you an email with all the information this afternoon. Congratulations!
Now that we know how to leave a voicemail message why not go on to learn how to give a message to a real person. We have a detailed class on this subject here: Giving short and precise messages in English by phone.