Video Call English at B1: The Phrases for Zoom, Teams and Remote Work

Video calls remove the things that help you understand English in an office: the body language, the room, the chance to catch someone after the meeting. What is left is a delay, a bad connection and a lot of people waiting for their turn. A handful of fixed phrases makes all of that much easier to handle.

If you work remotely in an English-speaking team, most of your speaking practice happens on calls. It is a strange type of English: half technical, half social, and full of phrases that no course covers because they did not exist twenty years ago. You are on mute, can you see my screen, you are breaking up.

The good news is that these phrases are used again and again, in almost the same words, in every company. Learn them once and they work on Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and on the phone. If the call is audio only, phone calls in English covers the parts that are different, such as spelling names and leaving messages.

Sound problems and the mute button

This is the most common thing said in any video call. You will hear it a hundred times and you will say it yourself. Sound problems are not embarrassing, and the polite thing is to name the problem quickly and calmly.

The word mute is both a verb and an adjective. You mute yourself, and then you are on mute. You unmute to speak.

Bad connection, frozen screen

Connection problems have a lot of vocabulary, and people say it quickly. The verbs break up, freeze and drop are the ones to know. You are breaking up means the sound is arriving in pieces. Your screen has frozen means the video has stopped. The call dropped means the connection ended completely.

Whatever the problem is, say it early. Waiting and nodding when you did not hear makes the situation worse for everyone.

• You are breaking up. Could you say that again?
• Your video has frozen. I can see you but the picture is not moving.
• I lost you for a second. Could you repeat the last part?
• There is a delay on the line, so let me wait until you finish.
• My connection is a bit unstable. I might drop out, so I will turn my camera off.
• Sorry, I got kicked out of the call. I am back now.
• Can you type that in the chat in case I miss it?

Sharing your screen

Screen sharing has its own short script. The person who shares says what is happening, checks that everyone can see, and tells people what to look at. The person who watches uses short questions rather than long descriptions.

A common trap is the difference between share and present. In Teams and Zoom you share your screen. In some tools you present. Both are understood everywhere.

Taking turns without talking over each other

Because of the delay, people talk over each other on video far more than in a room. Most teams have small habits to handle this, and it helps a non-native speaker a lot, since you have a chance to speak without competing.

On Zoom and Teams you can use the raise hand button, and people often use the chat to say something without interrupting. In a smaller call, you can simply use a phrase. Compare the polite options below.

• Can I jump in here?
• Sorry, go ahead. You first.
• Sorry, we spoke at the same time. Please carry on.
• I have my hand up when you have a moment.
• I will drop a comment in the chat.
• Let us go round the room. Anna, do you want to start?
• Does anyone else want to add anything, or shall we move on?
• Sorry, that was me. I will let you finish.

Starting, waiting and ending

The first and last minute of a call are mostly ritual. People say hello while they wait for others, and everybody says goodbye at once, in a slightly awkward way. There are standard sentences for each.

The last one matters most. Ending a call clearly, with a summary and a thank you, is a polite way to be sure that nothing was misunderstood.

Small extras that make you sound natural

A few words are worth learning as single items. A dial-in is the phone number you use to join by voice. A breakout room is a smaller group inside a big call. The host controls the call, and a participant does not. When people say let us take this offline, they mean they will talk about it later, outside the call. Recording, transcript and captions are the words for what the tool can save.

British and American speakers differ a little here. In the UK you will hear I will just put that in the chat and I will ring you back. In the US, people say I will call you back and drop it in the chat, and they often say you guys for a group. Both are correct and both are understood everywhere, so you can copy the people in your own team.

Keeping them ready

You cannot look at a list during a live call, so the phrases have to be in your head. Choose the six you would say most, such as you are on mute, you are breaking up, can you see my screen and I have to drop off, and save them as flashcards with the situation. Review them in the app before your next call. The B1 word list and the vocabulary for work are good places to find more of the words that surround them.