English for Conference Calls: Sound Confident Every Time

Conference calls are uncomfortable enough without also worrying about your English. Bad audio, people talking over each other, someone’s dog barking in the background — and you still need to sound professional. The good news is that a relatively small set of phrases covers most situations you’ll face. Learn those phrases well and you’ll stop dreading the unmute button.

Why Conference Call English Is a Specific Skill

Spoken business English in a meeting room is different from written email English, and English for conference calls is different again. You can’t rely on facial expressions or body language. Misunderstandings happen faster and silences feel longer. Clarity and structure matter more than ever.

There are four moments where most people struggle:

1. Starting the call and checking who’s there
2. Managing the conversation (interrupting, asking for clarification)
3. Dealing with technical problems
4. Closing the call and summarising actions

We’re going to look at each one with real examples.

The Key Phrases, Explained

1. Opening the Call

You need to establish who’s present and set the agenda quickly. Vague openings waste everyone’s time.

Useful phrases:

• “Let’s get started. Can everyone confirm they can hear me clearly?”
• “I’ll just run through who we have on the call today.”
• “We’ve got about 30 minutes, so let’s keep things moving.”

Notice these are short and functional. You don’t need a warm-up speech. People are already multitasking.

2. Managing the Conversation

This is where the most useful language lives. You’ll need phrases for interrupting politely, redirecting the discussion, and asking someone to slow down or repeat themselves.

Interrupting:

• “Sorry to jump in, but I think we need to address the timeline first.”
• “Can I come in here? I have some figures that are relevant.”

Asking for clarification:

• “Could you say that again? I didn’t quite catch the last part.”
• “When you say ‘by end of week’, do you mean Friday COB local time?”

Redirecting:

• “That’s a good point. Can we park that for now and come back to it?”
• “Let’s try to stay on agenda — we can take that offline afterwards.”

That last one, take it offline, is one of the most useful phrases in business English. It means: let’s discuss this separately, not in this call. It’s polite, efficient, and signals you’re in control.

Phrases like these are exactly what we work on in the daily coaching programme. If you want structured practice with real business scenarios, take a look at the subscription here.

3. Dealing With Technical Problems

These happen. Having a ready phrase stops you from fumbling.

• “I think you’re on mute.” (You will say this at least once per week in your career.)
• “We’re losing you a bit — could you move closer to your mic?”
• “Sorry, we had a slight drop there. Could you repeat from ‘…the Q3 figures’?”

The key move here is to name the specific point where you lost the thread. Saying “could you repeat that?” without context means the speaker just repeats everything. Anchor the repeat request to a reference point.

4. Closing the Call

A good close does three things: it summarises decisions, it confirms action points, and it gives clear owners and deadlines.

• “Let me quickly recap what we’ve agreed.”
• “So, the action points are: Sarah will send the revised proposal by Thursday, and Marcus will confirm the budget sign-off by end of next week.”
• “I’ll circulate the minutes after the call. Any final questions before we wrap up?”

If you’re closing a call in English as a second language, the temptation is to rush the ending because you’re tired from the cognitive effort. Resist it. A strong close prevents a chain of follow-up emails.

Worked Examples in Context

Here’s how this looks in a realistic scenario. Your team is on a call with a client in a different time zone. The connection is patchy and the client has drifted off-agenda.

You: “Sorry to jump in, Marcus — just to keep us on track, could we come back to the delivery schedule? I want to make sure we cover that before anyone needs to drop off.”

Marcus: “Sure, yes. So the schedule — [connection drops] — by the 14th.”

You: “Apologies, we lost you for a moment there. Could you repeat from ‘the schedule’?”

Marcus: “Of course. The revised schedule needs sign-off by the 14th.”

You: “Perfect. So to confirm the action point: Marcus, you’ll send the revised schedule for sign-off by the 14th. I’ll note that and include it in the minutes.”

Calm, structured, and nobody had to send three clarification emails afterwards. That’s the goal.

Practice Exercise

Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word or phrase. There may be more than one correct answer — what matters is that the response is natural and professional.

1. “Sorry, I didn’t quite ________ the last part. Could you say it again?” (hint: a verb meaning ‘hear or understand’)
2. “That’s a good point. Can we ________ that for now and come back to it later?” (hint: a phrasal verb meaning ‘set aside temporarily’)
3. “Let me quickly ________ what we’ve agreed before we finish.” (hint: a verb meaning ‘summarise’)
4. “I think you might be on ________. We can’t hear you.” (hint: the button you forgot to press)
5. Rewrite this sentence so it is more polite and professional: “You need to repeat that, I missed it.”

The full answer key, plus an extended set of 10 additional exercises with model answers, is available to daily coaching subscribers. Find out more about the subscription here.

Vocabulary to Know

• to catch (something) /kætʃ/ – Level: B1 – to hear and understand something that was said – Example: Sorry, I didn’t catch your name at the start of the call.
• to jump in /dʒʌmp ɪn/ – Level: B1 – to enter a conversation, often to interrupt politely – Example: Can I jump in here? I think this is relevant to the budget discussion.
• to park (an idea/topic) /pɑːk/ – Level: B2 – to set something aside temporarily to return to later – Example: Let’s park the pricing question and come back to it at the end.
• to take something offline /teɪk ˈsʌmθɪŋ ˈɒflaɪn/ – Level: B2 – to move a discussion out of the current meeting to a separate, smaller conversation – Example: That’s worth discussing in more detail — can we take it offline after this call?
• action point /ˈækʃən pɔɪnt/ – Level: B2 – a specific task assigned to a person with a deadline, agreed during a meeting – Example: The main action point from the call was for Priya to update the project timeline by Friday.
• to circulate (minutes/a document) /ˈsɜːkjʊleɪt/ – Level: B2 – to send something to all relevant people – Example: I’ll circulate the meeting minutes by end of day.
• to recap /ˈriːkæp/ – Level: B1 – to summarise the main points of a discussion – Example: Before we finish, let me recap the key decisions we’ve made.
• sign-off /saɪn ɒf/ – Level: B2 – formal approval or agreement, often from someone in authority – Example: The proposal needs sign-off from the director before we can proceed.
• COB (close of business) /kləʊz əv ˈbɪznɪs/ – Level: C1 – the end of the working day, used as a deadline reference in professional communication – Example: Please send me the report by COB Thursday.
• drop off (a call) /drɒp ɒf/ – Level: B1 – to leave a call, either deliberately or due to a technical issue – Example: A few people may need to drop off early, so let’s cover the key agenda items first.

FAQ

Is it rude to interrupt someone on a conference call?

Not if you do it right. Phrases like “sorry to jump in” or “can I come in here?” signal respect before you take the floor. The rudeness comes from interrupting without acknowledgement, not from the act of interrupting itself. In a conference call environment, gentle interruption is often necessary — conversations don’t flow as naturally as they do in a room.

What’s the best way to ask someone to repeat themselves without sounding annoyed?

Anchor your request. Instead of “what?” or even “could you repeat that?”, say something like: “Sorry, we lost you from ‘the revised figures’ — could you go from there again?” This shows you were listening, tells the speaker exactly where to pick up, and comes across as efficient rather than frustrated.

Do these phrases work for video calls too, or just audio conference calls?

All of them work for video calls. Some, like “I think you’re on mute”, are arguably even more common on video. The principles are the same: be clear, be structured, and name things specifically rather than gesturing vaguely at what you mean.

If you’d like to practise this kind of language regularly, with exercises tailored to your level and goals, the daily coaching programme is built for exactly that. See what’s included here.