Phone Calls in English: Phrases to Make, Answer and End a Call

How a phone call in English works

Whether you’re booking a haircut or calling your bank, most calls move through the same five steps. Prepare one line for each, and you’ll always know what to say next.

Steps 2 and 3 matter most when you make the call. The other person can’t see you, so until you give your name and your reason, they don’t know how to help. Put both in the first ten seconds: “Hi, this is Daniel Park. I’m calling about the order I placed on Tuesday.” If they have to ask “Sorry, who’s calling?”, say both sooner next time.

How to answer the phone in English

How you answer depends on whether you know the caller and whether it’s a personal or a work phone.

• A friend or family member: “Hi, Sam!” or “Hey, what’s up?” Your phone shows the name, so you can greet the person directly.
• An unknown number: “Hello?” with your voice going up at the end. Then wait for the caller to say who they are.
• At work: “Good morning, Northwind, Ana speaking,” or simply “Hello, this is Ana.” The company comes first, then your name.
• When the caller asks for you: “Is this Ana Silva?” “Yes, speaking.” or “Yes, this is Ana.”
• When the caller doesn’t say who they are: “Sorry, who’s calling?” or, more formally, “May I ask who’s calling?”
• When it’s a bad moment: “Sorry, I’m driving right now. Can I call you back in 20 minutes?”
• A wrong number: “Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.”

Say “Hello?” once. “Hello? Hello?” means “Can you hear me?”, so save it for a silent line.

Starting a call: who you are and why you’re calling

When you make the call, you lead: your name, then the reason, then your question.

Give your name with “This is…”. “Hi, this is Daniel” and, with people who know you, “Hi, it’s Daniel” are the usual ways to say who is calling. “I’m Daniel” is how you introduce yourself face to face, and “Here is Daniel” is a word-for-word translation that English doesn’t use. For introductions in other situations, see how to introduce yourself in English.

Use “I’m calling” during the call. The call is happening now, so say “I’m calling about my order,” not “I call about my order.” “I called about my order last week” describes an earlier call.

Asking for someone, holding and transferring

When you call an office or a company, the person who answers is often not the person you need. Ask for them by name or by department:

• “Could I speak to Maria Lopez, please?” More casually: “Is Maria there?”
• “Could you put me through to the billing department?” To put someone through means to connect them by phone.
• “Could I have extension 214, please?” An extension is the short internal number of a phone in an office.
• “Who’s the best person to talk to about a refund?”

Then listen for one of these replies:

If the line goes dead during a transfer, call back and explain: “I was just talking to someone in billing, and we got cut off.”

Asking someone to repeat or slow down

Asking for a repeat is normal on the phone, even between native speakers: lines cut out, and new names are hard to catch. A clear request is always better than a guess.

• “Sorry, could you say that again?” The all-purpose request. “Sorry?” on its own works for one missed word.
• “Could you speak a little more slowly, please?” Ask early, before you miss the important part.
• “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.” To catch something here means to hear it clearly.
• “Sorry, what was the last part?” or “What time did you say?” Ask about the part you missed, and the other person repeats only that.
• “Did you say fifteen or fifty?” Numbers ending in -teen and -ty sound alike on the phone. Ask, or ask for the digits: “Is that one five?”
• “Sorry, you’re breaking up.” Use it when the sound keeps cutting out; that is what breaking up means on a call. Follow it with “Could you repeat the last part?” or “Can I call you back?”
• “It’s a bit noisy here. Could you speak up?” To speak up means to talk louder.

If you expect to ask often, say so at the start: “English isn’t my first language, so I may ask you to repeat a few things.” It gives the other person a reason to speak clearly, and you won’t need to apologize every time.

Two habits to drop: a bare “What?”, which sounds rude, and “Yes, yes” when you didn’t understand. On the phone, the other person can’t see that you’re confused, so they’ll assume you understood. For more short phrases like these, see English conversation for beginners.

Spelling names and saying numbers, dates and email addresses

Names, numbers and email addresses are where calls go wrong: one wrong letter or digit, and the booking is under the wrong name or the callback goes to the wrong number. Slow down for them, say them in small groups and check them.

Spelling with the phonetic alphabet

Many English letters sound alike on the phone. B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V and Z all end in the same “ee” sound in American English, and M and N or F and S are easy to mix up. To make a letter clear, add a word that starts with it: “B as in Bravo,” “N as in November.” The standard list is the NATO phonetic alphabet, established in 1956:

You don’t need the official words; any common word works if it’s clear: “B as in boy,” “M as in Mary.” What matters is the pattern: letter, “as in,” word. Say the name first, then spell it in small groups and add a word only for the letters that could be misheard: “It’s Silva. S as in Sierra, I, L, V as in Victor, A.” For a double letter, say “double”: “Bennett is B, E, double N, E, double T.”

Phone numbers

Say phone numbers digit by digit, with a short pause between groups. According to the North American Numbering Plan, numbers in the US and Canada have ten digits: a three-digit area code and a seven-digit local number. They are usually written (212) 555-0148 and said in three groups: “two one two, five five five, oh one four eight.”

• Zero is “zero” or “oh”; the Cambridge Dictionary blog lists both. Say “zero” when a code mixes letters and digits, because “oh” can be mistaken for the letter O.
• Two identical digits: in British English, people sometimes say “double”: “double seven” for 77. Saying each digit, “seven seven,” is always correct.
• Don’t read the number in pairs. “Fifty-five, twenty” is hard to follow; “five five, two oh” is what English speakers expect.
• Read it back when you write a number down: “So that’s two one two, five five five, oh one four eight?”

Dates and times

In the US, dates are written month first, so 11/6 is November 6, and the day is spoken as an ordinal number: “November sixth.” Americans use the 12-hour clock with a.m. and p.m. in speech and in writing; the 24-hour clock is mostly for the military, public safety and science (see date and time notation in the United States). On the phone, say the month by name and add the weekday: “Friday, November sixth, at seven p.m.” That leaves no room to mix up 6/11 and 11/6.

Email addresses

Say “at” for @ and “dot” for the period: dot is the standard word for “.” in email and web addresses. Say the parts that are real words as words and spell the rest:

• [email protected] is “ana dot silva at example dot com.” Then spell the name: “That’s S-I-L-V-A.”
• [email protected] is “d underscore park eight eight at example dot com.”
• A hyphen (-) is “dash” or “hyphen,” and an underscore (_) is “underscore.” Add “all lowercase” or “all one word” if it helps.

Confirming the details

Before you hang up, repeat the important details back. It takes ten seconds and catches a wrong digit while you can still fix it.

• “Just to confirm, that’s a table for four on Friday at 7:30?”
• “Let me read that back to you: K as in Kilo, four, seven, two, nine.”
• “So the technician will come between 8 and 12 on Monday, right?”
• “Sorry, could you spell the street name?”
• “Could you send me a confirmation by email?”
• “And what’s your direct number, in case we get cut off?”

When the other person reads details back to you, listen to every digit and correct a mistake right away: “Almost. It’s four seven two nine, not five.”

Taking a message, leaving a message and voicemail

Taking a message for someone

• “She’s not here right now. Can I take a message?”
• “Could I get your name and number?”
• “How do you spell your last name?”
• “I’ll let her know you called.” · “I’ll ask him to call you back.”

Leaving a message with a person

• “Could you tell her Daniel Park called?”
• “Could you ask him to call me back? My number is 212-555-0148.”
• “It’s about the invoice. It’s not urgent.”

Leaving a voicemail

A voicemail is a recording, so the listener can’t ask you anything. Say your name, the reason and your number, and say the number twice, slowly. Aim for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Start talking after the beep or after “Please leave a message after the tone.” Your own voicemail greeting can be just as short: “Hi, you’ve reached Ana Silva. I can’t take your call right now. Please leave your name and number, and I’ll call you back.”

Ending a call politely

A single “Bye” can sound abrupt. End a call in a few short moves: thank the person, say what happens next, then say goodbye.

• Thank them: “Thanks for your help.” · “Thanks for calling.” · “I appreciate it.”
• Say what happens next: “I’ll send you the file this afternoon.” · “I’ll wait for your email, then.” · “Talk to you on Monday.”
• Signal the end: “Well, I’ll let you go.” · “That’s everything from me.” · “Anything else?” “No, that’s it. Thanks.”
• Say goodbye: “Have a good day.” · “Take care.” · “Bye.” A double goodbye, “OK, bye. Bye!”, is normal.

“I’ll let you go” sounds strange at first. It means “I won’t keep you any longer,” and it’s a friendly way to end a call with someone you know. At the end of a service call you may hear “Is there anything else I can help you with?” Answer “No, that’s all. Thank you,” and let them say goodbye.

Sample phone call dialogues

Each dialogue is a full call, from hello to goodbye. Read both roles out loud, then pick one role and say your lines without looking at the text.

1. Booking a table at a restaurant

Daniel calls a restaurant to book a table for Friday, and Emma answers. Notice how Daniel spells his name and how Emma reads the reservation back before they hang up.

Swap in your details: “book a table” → “make an appointment” or “book a haircut”; “Friday” → “tomorrow” or “the twelfth.” A doctor’s or dentist’s office may also ask “Have you been here before?” or “What’s your date of birth?” For a short call to move an appointment, see the dentist dialogue in our guide to English conversation for beginners.

2. Calling customer service

Ana calls her internet provider because her connection keeps dropping. Before you call a company, have your account or order number in front of you; they may ask you to confirm who you are before they can help.

“Thursday or Tuesday?” is the kind of check that saves a wasted morning, because the two days sound alike on a bad line. If an automated menu answers first, listen for the option you need (“For technical support, press 2”) and keep your account number ready.

3. Calling a colleague

Priya calls Tom, a colleague on another team, with a quick question. Calls between colleagues are short and informal, but the structure is the same: the reason, the details and a clear next step. For meetings and client calls, see our guide to business English conversation.

Notice the paraphrase: “So the new total includes the online orders, right?” Priya checks what she understood in her own words, and both of them say what they’ll do next.

4. A call from a recruiter

Here a recruiter calls Daniel about a job he applied for and sets up an interview. You can’t choose the moment the phone rings, but you can have these lines ready.

For phone interviews, the UK’s National Careers Service suggests finding somewhere quiet, keeping your CV and a pen and paper nearby, telling the interviewer if the line is bad, asking them to repeat a question you’re not sure about, trying not to talk too fast and thanking them at the end. For the interview itself, see our guide to English for job interviews.

Formal and casual phone English

The steps stay the same; the words change with the person. Most calls, including calls to companies and colleagues, use the middle column.

“May I…?” is a little more formal than “Could I…?”, and both are polite. Titles such as Mr. and Ms. go with the last name: “May I speak to Ms. Lopez?” With friends, “Hey, it’s Sam” and “Talk soon!” are all you need.

Common mistakes on English phone calls

Tips for understanding on the phone

Listening is the hard part of a call. These habits make it easier:

• Prepare before you dial. Write your first two sentences and the words you expect to hear: your order number, the dates that work for you, the name of the product. Words you expect are easier to catch.
• Keep a notepad. Write names, numbers and times down while the other person says them, not after the call.
• Listen for the stressed words. Times, names and numbers usually carry the stress; the small words in between matter less.
• Cut the noise. Call from a quiet place, and use headphones if you have them.

A short practice routine: rehearse the call out loud

Use it before a call you’re nervous about, like calling a doctor’s office or your bank. It is a suggested routine, not a tested program, so adjust the steps to suit you.

The last steps matter most. Reading a script trains you to say your own lines; a role-play trains you to answer lines you didn’t write.

Rehearse your next call with an AI tutor

In Fluently, you talk with an AI tutor by voice, like on a phone call. Describe the call you need to make as your own scenario, such as booking a table, asking your internet provider about a technician visit or a first call with a recruiter, and the tutor plays the other person. After your turn, a card can show a grammar fix, a more natural way to say your sentence (the way a native speaker would put it) or a better word, and the conversation keeps going.

To make practice closer to a real call, turn off live captions in the tutor settings, so you have to rely on your ears. If the tutor speaks too fast at first, lower its speaking pace, then raise it again as you get comfortable. Your scores for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, grammar and coherence update as you practice.

Fluently is free to start. Take a free AI speaking assessment to see your level, then practice with games that build your vocabulary and pronunciation. Conversations with your AI tutor come with Fluently Premium.

See your level, then rehearse your next call

Get the Fluently app and take the free AI speaking assessment to see your level, then practice with games that build your vocabulary and pronunciation. Conversations with your AI tutor, where you can rehearse a call before you make it, come with Fluently Premium.

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