Mastering Business Communication: Essential Phrases for Meetings and Professional Discussions

While browsing through my notebook, I came across a section I had taken notes from a long time ago. In the past, I often struggled to find the right words — whether I was trying to share my opinion, politely interrupt, or encourage others to speak. Having a set of go-to phrases makes all the difference. In this post, I’ll share useful sentence patterns to help you navigate meetings with confidence and clarity.

Interruption- Accidentally

• Sorry, I interrupted you. You were saying…
• Please go on…
• After you…

Interruption- Direct

• Sorry to interrupt but …
• Before you go on, can I just say…?
• If I can just (interrupt)(for a moment)…
• Sorry but just to clarify…
• Excuse me for interrupting…
• I’ve never thought about it that way before. How does it affect [this point]
• May I have a word on this topic?
• If I may, I think that that we should discuss this

To start the meeting

• Let’s get down to business!
• Shall we get started?
• I think we should make a start

If you want to share your idea

• From my point of view…

If you are weak on some topic

• I’m no expert on this, but…
• (I’m not sure/certain but,…) I would guess/ I would imagine/ I would suppose…
• This is only my opinion, but…
• I would probably say that…
• In my limited experience,….

Asking clarification

• I’m sorry, but could you speak up a little?
• I didn’t quite heart that, sorry, can you say that again?
• Sorry, what do you mean by…?
• So (in other words) what you’re saying is…
• Could you explain that in another way, please?
• I’m afraid I didn’t get that
• I don’t fully understand what you mean. Could you explain it from a different angle?
• Could you explain to me how that is going to work?
• Just to be clear, do you mean this…
• I don’t see what you mean. Could you elaborate, please?

If you want to get any other ideas about a topic

• (Do you have/ Does anyone have) Any (other/particular) thoughts/comments/opinions/views (on this)?
• What would you like to say?
• Are there any more comments?
• Please have you say
• What do you think about this proposal?
• Are there any areas of this project we need to think about?
• So do we think this is the correct way to proceed?
• I’d love to get some ideas from everybody
• …, could you share your opinion on these ideas?
• …, what do you think about this engineering plan?
• Does anyone have any comments on this point?
• I’d like to get your feedback on…

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash