Answer That Telephone! (1)

How to say what you need to say on the telephone

When the telephone rings and you know you have to answer it in English, do you get nervous? Maybe you do because you have to depend only on your ears to understand. When you talk to someone in person, you can use body language to help interpret the meaning. In reality, though, you don't have to be fluent in English to use the phone. Let's try to calm those nerves by looking at some of the verbs you'll hear - or use.

People use the word call a lot. But by adding different prepositions, you get different meanings. You can call someone or call someone up to reach them by phone. They mean the same thing. When someone is not in, you call them back later. In England, you phone someone rather than call them. Or you phone them up. You can also ring or ring up someone. So call, phone and ring all mean to use the phone to get in touch with someone.


Grammar Gym
"Let's try to calm those nerves by looking at some of the verbs you'll hear..."
to calm nerves: to make someone feel not so nervous
- Before John went to take his test, he listened to some music to calm his nerves.
- Tony brought Mina a glass of water to calm her nerves.

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: American and British English

There was a time when the languages of  England and America were spoken and written the same way. Well, not anymore.

For years, linguists have predicted British and American English would one day become mutually unintelligible.

Well, it's happening. So, let's take a quick look and see how these two languages are diverging.

OK. First, pronunciation, no question. Very different. Second, spelling, many differences. For example, "jail" in America is spelled j-a-i-l. In England, it's spelled g-a-o-l.

OK. Next is vocabulary. Crisps in England are chips in America. Well, chips in England are french fries in America. Well, you get the idea. Words are used differently as we see in today's lesson.

Right. You'll never hear an American using phone as a verb. OK. Other smaller, less obvious differences between American and British English involve grammar, verb usage, punctuation, and preposition choice.

So, you can see, these two English languages are slowly diverging. But, right now at least, the differences aren't really that big.

However, they are big enough that, should you ever do some formal English writing, you'll want to choose one version, and stick to it for the sake of consistency.


Language Lab
interpret v.
/ɪnˈtɚprət/
to translate the words that someone is speaking into a different language : to repeat what someone says in a different language than the language originally used
- Victor interpreted for his client during the negotiations.
interpretation n.
the act or result of explaining or interpreting something : the way something is explained or understood [count]
- simultaneous interpretation 同步翻譯

fluent adj.
Language that is fluent is language that is spoken easily and very well.
- Frank, my American coworker, can speak fluent Cantonese.
able to speak a language easily and very well— often + in
- Lawrence is fluent in both French and Italian.
fluency n.
the ability to speak easily and smoothly
- Fluency in English is one of the job requirements.

preposition n.
a word or group of words that is used with a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, location, or time, or to introduce an object
- Theo has trouble using the correct preposition in his writing.
- Many phrasal verbs contain a verb and a preposition.

get in touch with 
in a state in which people communicate with each other especially by calling or writing to each other
- I will get in touch with her tomorrow.
- Many people now use Facebook or Twitter to get in touch with each other..


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