1. ASKING FOR INFORMATION May I help you ? What can I do for you ? Yes ?

Would you like some help ? What would you like ? Can I help you ? Are you looking for something ? Do you need help ? You look lost . 2. BREAKING IN Excuse me,.. Sorry.. Excuse me for interrupting , but . May I interrupt for a moment ? Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the cafeteria ? May I interrupt for a moment ? Id like to know how to get to the cafeteria 3. INTERRUPTING GAME Sorry, but.(where exactly were you sitting )? Excuse me for interrupting , but (which one)? Can I add here that Id like to comment on that. Can I add something ? Can I say something here ? Id like to say something , if I may. ,please . Certainly Yes , I d to know how much this (things) costs . Yes, Im interested in . Could you tell me ? Do you know .? Could you find out .? Could you ask ? Do you happen to know.?

Can I ask a questions ? May I ask something ?

To return to the topic Anyway, .. In any case , To get back to what I was saying , ,,, Where was I ? As I was saying 4. GETTING INFORMATION ON THE PHONE Im calling to find out Id like to ask . Could you tell me . Im calling about I was wondering if you could tell me . I wonder if you could help me Id like to talk to somebody about .. 5. ACTIONS IN ORDER First of all, Then, Next, After that, Finally, Make sure you Be careful not to

Remember to .. Dont forget to 6. THE MAIN PROBLEM The trouble is The problem is .. The real problem is .. The point is .. The awful thing is Dont forget that. 7. A SURPRISING FACT START : Do you realize that Believe it or not , You may not believe it , but It may sound strange , but The surprising thing is Surprising ly oddly enough, Funnily enough , END WITH: Generally By and large As a rule Normally , Usually On the whole

8. SURPRISING NEWS Guess what! Surprise ! Ive got news for you ! Do you know what! Are you sitting down ? You d better sit down ! You wont believe this , but. 9. AN UNPLEASANT THOUGHT Actually , The only thing is To tell you the truth , To be honest , Frankly , 10. THE HIDDEN TRUTH Frankly, I doubt if .. Lets face it , The truth of the matter is The real question is .. Come on now ! Lets be realistic , 11. CHANGING THE SUBJECT Talking of .. That reminds me By the way , ..

Oh , before I forget, 12. CURRENT AFFAIRS I think .. I suppose.. I suspect that Im pretty sure that .. Im fairly certain that . Its my opinion that Im convinced that I wonder if 13. GUESSING Id say .. Could it be Perhaps it s .. I think its .. It looks like.. It s difficult to say , but Id guess 14. A CONVICTION I honestly feel that I strongly believe that Im convinced that Without a doubt , I m positive I m absolutely certain that

15. PERSONAL OPINION In my opinion , I personally believe .. I personally think .. I personally feel Not everyone will agree with me , but .. To my mind.. From my point of viewn , Well , personally If I had my way , What Im more concerned with is In my case 16. SHARING A CONFIDENCE I ve heard They say Just between you and me I heard on the grapevine . This shouldnt be passed around , but Have you heard May me I shouldnt say this , but 17. HOW TO GET THE MONEY / OFFERING A SUGGESTION Why not Why dont you . You could always One way would be to

Perhaps you could If I were you , Id What about .ing Try ing . Have you thought about . Ive an idea Lets How about You could always 18. THE GREAT ESCAPE Our plan is to . Were thinking of .. What wa have in mind is What we plan to do is . Ill tell you what well do What about this for an idea 19. THINKING ABOUT A PROBLEM In a case like this , In a situation like this , In this sort of situation , 20. EMPHASISING A POINT Thats just the point . But the question is But the real question is Thus raises the problem of

But cant you see. 21. ADDING THINGS To start with And another thing , Whats more , Just a small point , Perhaps I should mention Oh I almost forgot .. 22. GIVE AREASON And besides , Also, In addition , Whats more , And another thing , Not to mention the fact that Plus the fact that .. Not only that , but 23. HAVE YOU GOT A GOOD REASON Starting . The reason why .. Because CONTINUING Because of that Thats why Thats the reason why

For this reason 24. THINKING AHEAD If If I ever When .. As soon as By the time . Unless 25. CORRECTING YOURSELF What I mean is What I meant was Let me put it another way . What I m saying is What Im trying to say is Dont misunderstand me , If I said that , I didnt mean to . Let me rephrase what I just said . 26. PUTTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT Thats not what I said at all. Ive no idea who told you that . Goodness , where didi you get that idea from ? Im afraid that just isnt true . The fact of the matter is Look , lets get this straight .

27. POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS Introducing Many people think .. Some people say Youve probably heard that It may seem Linking But in fact ., But actually , The truth of the matter is . 28. WE TAKE IT FOR GRANTED At first glace it looks as if this is a glass of clean water Many people thinl that .. We take it for granted that It seems as if It looks like But in fact, In reality , The fact of the matter is But actually , 29. SAYING NO TRACTFULLY Saying no Im not keen on I dont particularly like . I cant stand

Its not my idea of . Id really rather not . A preference Id prefer Id really much rather Id rather . 30. DOOR-TO DOOR SALES PEOPLE Im not really interested in But Im not worried about Ive got no use for Im perfectly happy with 31. DEMANDING EXPLANATIONS Can you explain why . Do you mean to say . I dont understand why Why it is that How come . Does this mean.. 32. EXPRESSING YOUR RESERVATIONS Im afraid I dont see how But the problem is Yes , but . I doubt Possibly , but

Yes , but the problem really is What Im worried about is What bothers me is . 33. TAKING THINGS INTO CONSIDERATION Bearing in mind .. Considering If you remember. Allowing for the fact that When you consider that . Responding to a compliment Oh, thank you very much Thats very kind of you . Do you really think so ? 34. ARGUMENTS AND COUNTER ARGUMENTS Reservation Yes, but Yes, but dont forget . That would be great , except Thats a good idea, but Counter arguments Even so , Even if that is so , That may be so , but Thats probably true , but Possibly, but

35. SEEING THE GOOD SIDE On the other hand , But then again Look at it this way , Anyway , Even so , OK, but . But in the long run, Very true , but . To make up for it . 36. GENERALISING As a rule , Generally , Usually , FREQUENT Most of the time Again and again Time and again LESS FREQUENT Every so often From time to time Every now and then

37. EXCEPTIONS GENERALISING In general , Generally speaking , As a rule , By and large , In my experience , In most cases , Exceptions , There are exceptions , of course , One exception is But what about .. But dont forget Lets not forget 38. ILLUSTRATING YOUR POINT For example For instance Take the way ( he).. Take for example For one thing To give you an idea .. Look at the way By way of illustration

39. WHAT YOU REALLY MEAN Hestation phrases : Well , um Well , lets see. Mmm , Ill have to think about that . Re stating : So what youre saying is So what youre really saying is In other words , If I understand you correctly , So you mean that . 40. FINISH YOUR STORY To cut a long story short , So in the end , So , in short , So, To sum up , All in all , To put the whole thing in a nutshell, 41. RIGHT OR WRONG Correct Thats right . Right . OK. Yes .

Exactly ! Wrong No, Im afraid not . Not quite . Youre close . I dont know . Im not sure . 42. CROWD REACTIONS Agreeing Hear! Hear! You re absolutely right ! You said it ! I agree! So do! Neither can I ! Disagreeing Thats just not true ! Oh , come on ! Rubbish ! Dont give us that ! 43. GETTING TO KNOW SOMEONE Agreeing Thats (very) true . I agree with you there. Yes , I know exactly what you mean .

Disagreeing Yes, but dont you think I agree with you , but Yes, but on the other hand I dont see it quite like that . 44. CAN I HELP YOU ? Im afraid I dont know . Im afraid I cant decide . Im afraid I cant make up my mind . Ill have to think about it . Im really not sure . I think Ill leave it , thank you . 45. THE LOVE TEST Strong agreement Of course I would ! I certainly would ! Mild agreement I think I would . I might . I might consider it . I think so . Indecision I dont know . I cant decide . I cant make up my mind .

Im not sure . Mild disagreement Probably not . I dont think so . I doubt it . Strong disagreement Never in a million years! Not on your life! Not (even ) if you paid me ! Not for all the tea in China ! 46. I HAVENT A CLUE! Im afraid I dont know . Im sorry I dont know . I havent a clue. I couldnt tell you . Im not sure . Oh , its slipped my mind . Ive forgotten . Its no good , I cant remember . 47. IT SERVES YOU RIGHT It serves you right . Its your own fault. What did you expect ? Perhaps that ll teach you .

48. ANALYSE YOUR HANDWRITING Agreeing Im not surprised. That doesnt surprise me . Yes , that sounds like me . I knew it ! I thought so . Just what I ve always thought . Absolutely ! Disagreeing Youre joking ! You must be joking ! I dont believe it ! No , definitely not ! Come on ! I dont think so . I dont think so . I dont think thats very fair . Are you pulling my leg ? Thats new to me ! WHEN YOU ARE SURPRISE Really ! Are you joking ? Oh ? Where ? Show me .

I cant see that . Goodness ! What? WHEN YOU AGREE So do I . Me too. Thats what I thought too ! But thats what I was going to say. 49. BEING SYMPATHETIC Less serious news Oh no! What a pity ! What a shame . What a nuisance . Poor you . Very sad news How awful ! How terrible ! Im really sorry to hear that . That must ve been awful! 50. THE INTERVIEW Well , let me see . Well , let me think . Ill have to think about that . Thats a good question .

How shall I put it ? Let s put it this way . The best way I can answer that is Mm , thats a difficult question. Let me see. 51. ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME ? Repetition gambits Would you mind repeating that ? Sorry , I didnt catch the last part . Sorry,I dont follow you . Sorry , youve lost me . What was that again ? Checking gambits Are you with me ? Are you still with me ? Is that clear ? Ok so far ? Have you got it ? Do you understand so far ? 52. COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS Sorry , what did you say ? Sorry ? I didnt get the bit about Im sorry I cant hear you . it s a very bad line . Pardon . Would you mind saying that again ?

Could you repeat your address, please ? Could you spell it , please ? 53. ACCEPTING AND COMPLIMENT Oh , thank you . Thats very kind of you . It s very kind of you to say that . Do you really think so ? Thanks . I needed that . You ve made my day !