BUSINESS ENGLISH

Presentations

Giving presentations in English can be difficult because you are the center of attention. With a little practice, it will become as easy as breathing. Before you give a presentation, remember to practice what you will be saying and to be prepared. Here are some useful phrases you can use when giving a presentation.

*Welcoming:1. Good morning and welcome to [name of company, name of conference, hotel, etc.]2. Thank you all very much for coming today. 3. On behalf of __________, I would like to welcome you here.

*Introducing yourself:1. My name is Mark Watson and I am responsible for…2. My name is Mark Watson from [name of company], where I am responsible for…3. Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Watson and I am responsible for...

*Introducing your presentation:1. The purpose of today’s presentation is…2. The purpose of my presentation today is….3. In today’s presentation, I would like to show you…4. Today, I would like to explain to you how…5. With this presentation I’m hoping to give you an update on…6. Today, we will have an overview of…7. In today’s presentation, I’m planning to…8. Today, we will look at…9. The purpose of today’s presentation is to explain…10. In today’s presentation, I’m hoping to cover three points…

*Explain that there will be time for questions at the end:1. If you have any questions you’d like to ask, please leave them until the end when I’ll be happy to answer them. 2. I’ll answer any questions at the end of my presentation when I’ll do my best to answer them.

*Starting the presentation:1. To begin with…2. To start with…3. Let’s start by look at…4. I’d like to start by looking at…5. Let’s start with…6. The first thing I’d like to talk about is…7. I’ll begin by…8. First of all…

*Ordering:1. First… second… third… last2. First of all… then… next… after that… finally…3. To start with… later… to finish up…

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3rd LEVELBUSINESS ENGLISH

LESSON 11

*Beginning a new section of the presentation:1. Now, let’s move on to…2. Now, let’s take a look at…3. Now, I’d like to move on to…4. Next, I’d like to take a look at…5. Moving on to the next part, I’d like to…6. Moving on to the next section, let’s take a look at…

*Closing a section of the presentation:1. So that concludes [title of the section]2. So, that’s an overview of…3. I think that just about covers…

*Rise and fall:Business people often need to talk about the movement of sales, prices, interest rates, profit, loss, etc. Here are some words used to describe these trends:

*NOTE: “Rise / fall / increase” are also used as nouns (For example: a slow rise in interest rates, a steady increase in sales, a sharp fall in profits, a dramatic rise in inflation). You can also use the words “be up / be down” (For example: prices are up by 10%, profits are down by one million).

*Giving examples: 1. Where does that lead us?2. Let’s consider this in more detail…3. What does that mean for us?4. Translated into real terms…5. To illustrate this…

*Referring to a previous point made:1. As I mentioned earlier…2. As we saw earlier…3. You may recall that we said…4. You may recall that I explained…

*Concluding and summarizing the presentation:1. Well, that brings us to the end of the final section. Now, I’d like to summarize…2. That brings us to the end of the final section. Now, if I can just summarize the main points…3. That concludes my presentation. Now if I can just summarize the main points. 4. That’s an overview of it. Now, let’s quickly look at the main points again.

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3rd LEVELBUSINESS ENGLISH

LESSON 11

*Finishing and thanking:1. Thank you for your attention.2. That brings the presentation to an end. 3. That brings us to the end of my presentation. 4. Finally, I’d like to finish by thanking you for your attention. 5. I’d like to thank you all for coming today.

*Inviting questions:1. If anyone has any questions, I’ll be pleased to answer them. 2. If anyone has any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them. 3. Please feel free to ask your questions now.4. Does anybody have any questions?

*Other phrases and key presentation language:-Use these instead of these…1. Briefly: instead of “very quickly”2. Take a look at: instead of “look at”3. Return to: instead of “go back”4. I’ll outline: instead of “I’ll explain”5. Here we can see: instead of “look here”6. As you can see here: instead of “look here”7. Let’s move on to: instead of “next”8. Let’s continue with: instead of “next”9. Let’s continue by looking at: instead of “next”10. To illustrate this point: instead of “for example”

*Activity #1: PresentationMake your own or use the following slides to come up with a presentation and present it to your teacher. Practice as if you were giving this presentation at a meeting.

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