USEFUL PHRASES AND EXPRESSIONS FOR PRESENTATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Welcoming and greeting the audience

Good morning everyone and welcome to my presentation. First of all, let me thank you all for coming here today.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It’s an honour to have you here today
Hallo/Hi everyone. Thanks for coming.

Introducing yourself (name, position, responsibilities)

Let me first introduce myself. I’m …….
Let me start by saying just a few words about my own background. I’m a …………...
For those of you who don’t know me already, my name’s ... and I’m responsible for...

Saying what your topic/title/subject is

What I’d like to present to you today is...
As you can see on the screen, our topic today is...
The subject/focus/topic/title of my presentation/talk/speech is...
In this talk, I/we would like to concentrate on...
In my presentation I would like to report on...
I’m here today to present...

Explaining why your topic is relevant for your audience

Today’s topic is of particular interest to those of you who...
My talk is particularly relevant to those of you who...
By the end of this talk you will be familiar with...

Stating your purpose/objective

The purpose/objective/aim of this presentation is to...
Today I’d like to give you an overview of...
I’d like to update you on/inform you about/put you in the picture about/give you the background to/present
During the next 20 minutes we’ll be...
This morning I’m going to be talking about/ telling you about/ taking a look at the recent development in/
reporting on the results of ………/share the figures…………
What I’m going to do/What I intend to do is describe to you/show you/tell you about...

Presenting the outline/organization/structure of your presentation

my presentation is divided into three main parts. In
in my presentation I’ll focus on three major issues.
This presentation is structured as follows:...

Sequencing
My first point concerns...
I’ll begin/ I will start first by... Then I’ll move on to... Then/Next/After that, I’ll be looking at...
 First/First of all, I’d like to give you an overview of...
Secondly/Then/Next, I’ll focus on...
Thirdly/And then, we’ll consider...
Finally/Lastly/Last of all, I’ll deal with....
And then, I’ll move on to/ highlight / put the situation into some kind of perspective/discuss in more
depth the implications of/ take you through/make detailed recommendations regarding...
One thing I’ll be dealing with is the issue of...
I’ll end with...
And finally, I’d like to address the problem of/to raise briefly the issue of...

Timing
This should only last 20 minutes.
My presentation will take about 20 minutes
It will take about 20 minutes to cover these issues.

Handouts (if there is any)

Does everybody have a handout/brochure/copy of the report? Please take one and pass them on.
I’ll be handing out copies of the slides at the end of my talk.
I can email the PowerPoint presentation to anybody who wants it.
Don’t worry about taking notes. I’ve put all the important statistics on a handout for you.

Questions
If you have any questions, feel free to interrupt me at any time.
Please feel free to stop me, if you need any clarification . Otherwise, there’ll be time for discussion at the end.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask, I’ll be happy to answer them.
If you don’t mind, we’ll leave questions till the end.
There will be time for questions after my presentation.

Problem technique
Suppose . . . . How would you . . . ?
Have you ever wondered why it is that . . . ? You have? Well, if I could show you . . . would you
be interested?
How many of you have ever . . . ? Do you think that's possible?

Amazing facts technique

Did you know that . . . ?
According to a new study . . . .
Statistics show that . . . .
I read somewhere the other day that . . . .

Story/anecdote technique
You may have heard about . . . .
Have you ever been in a situation where . . . ? I remember when . . . . It turned out that . . . .

THE MIDDLE/MAIN PART OF THE PRESENTATION (SIGNPOSTING)

Saying what is coming

In this part of my presentation, I’d like to talk about...
So, let me first give you a brief overview...

Indicating the end of a section

This brings me to the end of my first point.
So much for point two.
So, that’s the background on...
That’s all I wanted to say about...
Summarizing a point
Before I move on, I’d like to recap the main points.
Let me briefly summarize/ conclude the main issues.
I’d like to summarize what I’ve said so far...

Moving to the next point

This leads directly to my next point.
This brings us to the next question.
Let’s now move on to/turn to...
 Let’s now take a look at...
Okay, let me now turn to the issue of...

Going back
As I said/mentioned earlier, ...
Let me come back to what I said before...
Let’s go back to what we were discussing earlier.
As I’ve already explained,...
As I pointed out in the first section,...
Can I now go back to the question I posed at the beginning?

Adding ideas
In addition to this, I’d like to say that....
Moreover/Furthermore, there are other interesting facts we should take a look at.

Elaborating a point
I’d like to look at this in a bit more detail.
Can I develop this point a bit further?
Let me elaborate on this point.
Let’s look at this problem in a bit more detail...

Rhetorical questions
What conclusion can we draw from this?
So, what does this mean?
So, where do we go from here?

Indicators – they prepare the audience for introducing a new point or just provide pauses before continuing
Okay/Right/Right then/Good/Now/Now then/Well now/Well then...

Interacting with the audience

Is everyone still with me?
Are you all following me so far?

DESCRIBING VISUALS

Introducing a visual
Let’s now look at the next slide which shows...
Now, let’s look at/let’s have a look at/take a look at/I’d like you to look at...
To illustrate this, let’s have a closer look at...
The chart on the following slide shows...
The problem is illustrated in the next bar chart...
As you can see here, ...

Explaining a visual
First, let me quickly explain the graph.
As the graph/table shows/indicates....
I’d like us to focus our attention on the significance of this figure here.
From Table 1 we can see/conclude/show/estimate/calculate/infer
that...
The chart compares...
You can see here the development over the past five years.
Highlighting information
I’d like to stress/highlight/emphasize the following points.
I’d also like to draw your attention to the upper half of the chart.
If you look at it more closely, you’ll notice …………..
I’d like to point out one or two interesting details.
I’d like you to think about the significance of this figure here.
I’d like to focus your attention on the underlying trend here.
Whichever the reasons for this/Whichever way you look at it/However you try to explain it, the underlying
trend is obvious.
The interesting/significant/important thing about.... is....

Describing trends
Sales increased/shot up/grew/rose by...
Sales declined/reduced/decreased/dropped/fell by...
Sales increased/decreased slightly/slowly/gradually/steadily/markedly/dramatically/steeply/sharply/
rapidly/suddenly...
There was a sudden increase/decrease in ...
In 2010, we saw a moderate fall.
This was followed by a gradual decline.
The increase reached a peak/levelled off...

Saying numbers
500 five hundred
1,500 one thousand five hundred
350,421 three hundred and fifty thousand, four hundred and twenty-one
211,050,780 two hundred and eleven million, fifty thousand, seven hundred and eighty
10.6 ten point six
8.735 eight point seven three five
0.009 zero point oh oh nine
-5ºC five degrees below zero Celsius
½ one-half; a half
2/3 two-thirds
7/8 seven-eighths
km/h kilometres per hour

CONCLUSION

Indicating the end of your presentation

I’m now approaching the end of my presentation. Well, this
this brings me to the end of my presentation/talk.
That covers just about everything I wanted to say about...
As a final point, I’d like to...
Finally, I’d like to highlight one key issue.

Summarizing points
Let me just go through the key points again.
To conclude/In conclusion, I’d like to...
In short/In a word/In a nutshell/In brief/To sum up/To summarize, it is generally/widely accepted/argued/
held/believed that...
First we looked at... and we saw that... . Then we considered... and we argued... .
I’ll briefly summarize the main issues.
Therefore/Thus/On this basis/Given this, it can be concluded/deduced/inferred that...
From the table/figures/data/results/information, it can be seen/concluded/shown/estimated/calculated that...
Making recommendations
We’d suggest...
We therefore strongly recommend that...
In my opinion, we should...
Based on the figures we have, I’m quite certain that...

Close
Thank you for your attention.
Before I finish, let me just say...
Thank you for listening.
I hope you will have gained an insight into...
Unless anyone has anything else to add, I think that’s it. Thanks for coming.

Inviting questions
any questions?
If you have any questions, I’d be pleased to answer them.
We have time for few questions.
And now I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Referring back to the beginning

Remember what I said at the beginning of my talk today? Well, ...
Let me just go back to the story I told you earlier. Remember, ...

Calling the audience to action

So that’s the plan. Now let’s go and put it into practice!
So now it’s your turn.
Now let’s make a real effort to achieve this goal!

DEALING WITH QUESTIONS

Clarifying questions
I’m afraid I didn’t quite catch that.
I’m sorry; could you repeat your question, please?
I’m sorry, but I missed that. Could you say that again, please?
I’m sorry, but I don’t quite understand/see what you mean. Could you just explain that some more, please?
So, if I understood you correctly, you would like to know whether...
If I could just rephrase your question. You’d like to know...
Let me just check that I have understood your question. You’re asking...
Checking whether the questioner is satisfied
I hope that answered your question
Is that clear/OK/clearer now?
Can we go on?

Responses to good questions

Good point.
I’m glad you asked that/brought that up.
That’s a very good question.
That’s actually a question I frequently get asked.
That’s interesting.

Admitting you don’t know

I’m afraid I’m not in a position to answer that question at the moment.
I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to your question, but I’ll try to find out for you.
Interesting question. What do you think?
Sorry, that’s not my field. But I’m sure Peter Bolt form Sales Department could answer your question

Responses to irrelevant questions

Well, I think that goes beyond the scope of my expertise/presentation.
To be honest, I think that raises a different issue.
That’s not really my field.
I’m afraid I don’t see the connection.

Negative responses to questions

Not quite.
Not necessarily.
Not as a rule.
Hopefully not.
I don’t think/believe so.

Hedging – not saying yes or no.

It depends.
On the whole, yes.
Not if we can help it.
To some extent.

Postponing questions
If you don’t mind, I’ll deal with/come back to this point later in my presentation.
Can we get back to this point a bit later?
Would you mind waiting until the question and answer session at the end?
Perhaps we could go over this after the presentation.
I prefer to answer your question at the end of my presentation

Closing discussion time

I think we have time for one more question...
If there are no other questions, I’ll finish there. Thank you very much.
So if there are no further questions, I guess...
MISCELLANEOUS

Useful vocabulary regarding graphs

Explaining positions
on the left is... on the left side here... in the middle... here, at the top... down in this section... over here is a...
the upper/lower section

Adapted from:
Grussendorf, M. (2007) English for Presentations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wallwork, A. (2010) English for Presentations at International Conferences. New York, Dordrecht, Heidelberg and London: Springer.
http://sam-ritchie.com/engpresentation.htm