101 Must-Know Transition Phrases for Engaging Presentations Online
Giving presentations is often feared by many professionals, but if the presentation is online and you’re not a native speaker, things get even trickier. One tip to make things easier? Learn useful phrases to help you navigate your presentation. In this article, you will find lots of helpful resources to give remarkable presentations . Listen to the episode above, download the checklist below, and learn some of the phrases we present. If we missed any, tell us in the comments below.
General vocabulary for presentations
Sometimes, the smallest changes in your presentations can make the biggest differences. One of them is to learn a few phrases that give you confidence during your speech. Here are some important verbs to get you started:
To highlight
To emphasize
To walk you through (*very common in business presentations!)
To send around
To carry on (similar to continue)
To get carried away
To sum up (similar to summarize )
To focus on
Vocabulary to start your presentation
Learn how to powerfully start your presentation with these 4 simple steps. Here’s some vocabulary you can use:
Welcome your audience
Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to today’s webinar.
Hello everyone, I’m very happy to be speaking with you today.
Introduce yourself
My name is Susan, and I’m part of the design team here at Globex Corporation.
First of all, a little bit about my background – I am the Team Lead at [Company], and I’ve been in charge of [your main responsibility] for [X] years.
I’d like to tell you a bit about myself – my name is Eve I’m the Operations Manager here at [Company].
Introduce the topic and goal of the presentation
Today, I’d like to talk about…
This presentation will take about [X] minutes, and we will discuss…
We’ve allocated [X] minutes to this presentation. and I’ll talk about…
I’d like to give you a brief breakdown of…
I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about…
The main goal of this presentation is…
The purpose of this presentation is…
My objective today is…
Read these 5 tricks the best public speakers use to captivate their audience .
Addressing questions from the audience
If you have any questions about anything, feel free to interrupt.
If anything isn’t clear, please click on the ‘raise hand’ button and I’ll do my best to answer your question.
I’d be happy to answer your questions at the end of the presentation.
If you have any questions, please kindly wait until the end to ask them. We will have [X] minutes for a Q&A session at the end.
Since today’s audience is considerably large, we will not have time for questions, but please email me at [email protected]
Learning new English words is not easy, but you can achieve effective communication through practice and repetition. If you are a Talaera student, visit the Library to practice your vocabulary for presentations. If are not part of the Talaera community yet, learn how we can help you here .
Clear out technical issues
Can everyone hear me well? Let me know if you encounter any technical difficulties throughout the presentation.
If you are not speaking, please put yourselves on mute.
If you feel that the sound quality is poor throughout the presentation, please let me know.
Transition to the main topic of the presentation
Hi everyone, I think we might still be missing a few people but I’m going to kick things off now so we have time to get through everything.
All right, let’s dive right in!
All right, let’s jump right in!
Let’s get started.
Let’s kick things off.
I’m going to talk about
The purpose/subject of this presentation is
I’ve divided the presentation into 3 parts: In the first part, … / Then in the second part, … / Finally, I’ll go on to talk about…
Let me begin by looking at…
Let me start with some general information on…
Vocabulary for the main body of your presentation
Introduce a topic or section.
Now let’s move to the first part of the presentation,
We can see 4 advantages and two disadvantages. First,
On the one hand… On the other hand…
There are two steps involved. The first step is… The second step is…
There are four stages to the project.
Request more info about our English training
Transition to a new section
All right, let’s turn to…
Now we come to the next point, which is
Okay so that’s [topic 1], but what about [topic 2]?
There’s a lot more to talk about, but since we’re pushed for time , let’s move on to [topic 2].
This leads me to my next point, which is…
Give examples and details
For example…
A good example of this is…
To illustrate this point…
This reminds me of…
To give you an example…
Let me elaborate further on…
Describe visual aids
As you can see [from this infographic]
This chart shows
If you look at this graph, you will see
From this chart, we can understand how
Let me show you this [image, graph, diagram]
On the right/left
In the middle of
At the top/bottom of the picture
Emphasize an idea
This is important because
I’d like to emphasize that
We have to remember that
Repeat the same message with different words
In other words
To put it more simply
So, what I’m saying is that
Let me say that again.
It’s easy to get stuck in the middle of a presentation, especially if English is not your mother tongue. Here are +21 Top Tips You Need To Know if you’re learning business English .
Finish your presentation and summarize
The end of a presentation, together with the opening, is one of the most important parts of your speech. Read these 5 effective strategies to close your presentation and use the vocabulary below.
That’s all I want to say for now about [topic].
To sum up, …
This sums up [topic].
So in a nutshell, …
So to recap, …
In brief, …
To conclude, …
I’d like to conclude by emphasizing the main points…
That’s it on [topic] for today. In short, we’ve covered…
So, now I’d be very interested to hear your comments.
And this brings us to the end of this presentation. I hope [topic] is a little clear after today.
So to draw all that together, …
Start and navigate the Q&A session
Thank you for your attention. I hope you found this presentation useful, and I’d be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you for listening. We now have [X] minutes left. Do you have any questions?
Thank you for your question, [Name].
I’m glad you asked.
That’s an interesting question.
That’s a great question, I must say. I’m not 100% sure, but off the top of my head, I can tell you that…
Are you asking about [topic 1] or [topic 2]?
Can you please clarify what exactly you mean by [question]? I’m not sure I fully understand.
I’m afraid I don’t have the exact figures at hand, but if you give me your email address at the end, I can follow up with you later.
Does that answer your question?
I hope that makes sense. Is that the kind of answer you were looking for?
Take your presentation skills to the next level.
Start Talaera’s online course on impactful presentations for free and take your skills to the next level. Explore all our resources on public speaking skills in English .
Keep reading about presentation skills:
21 Helpful Tips For Remarkable and Outstanding Presentation Skills
How To Start a Presentation: Follow These 4 Easy Steps
How To Bring Across Your Main Idea In A Presentation Effectively
5 Effective Strategies To End A Presentation
6 Public Speaking Tricks To Captivate Your Audience
How To Do Effective Business Storytelling According To Former Prosecutor
8 Little Changes That’ll Make A Big Difference With Your Presentations
3 Quick Public Speaking Tips For Your Next Presentation
Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are [TED Talk Lesson]
Talaera Talks – Transcript Episode 5
Topic : Deliver impactful presentations
Listen : Spotify , Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts
Duration : 22 min.
Intro Welcome to Talaera Talks , the business English communication podcast for non-native professionals. My name is Paola and I am co-hosting this show with Simon. In this podcast, we’re going to be covering communication advice and tips to help express yourself with confidence in English in professional settings. So we hope you enjoy the show!
Okay, welcome back for our third episode of Talaera Talks. This is Simon, and I’m joined with Paola. Paola, how are you doing?
0:37 Hi, Simon. I’m great. Happy to do another episode.
0:41 Yeah, absolutely. And Happy Friday.
0:44 Happy Friday!
0:49 So today, our topic: Presenting in English. I’d like to start this episode with a quote I found on Harvard Business Review that I thought was really interesting. It says, “Even native English speakers often anticipate disaster when making presentations. By but for non-native speakers, the anticipatory and situational anxiety associated with their unique challenges (these challenges – being understandable, choosing the right words, speaking spontaneously), can be overwhelming. Moreover, if these concerns interfere with your willingness or ability to make business presentations, the impact can be career-limiting.” So yeah, that’s a pretty kind of heavy quote to start. But it is something that we see from a lot of our clients, right?
1:52 Yeah, it’s super interesting. It was super interesting to read. It’s something we know, but it’s important to remind it that it is presentations, the topic we have today is something that is not pleasurable for anyone, not for non-native speakers, but also for native speakers. So that’s something to point out. And today, we talked about that… We said that we wanted to start with those challenges or fears that we see from our clients, our learners.
2:25 Yeah, and it’s usually around the same things, you know, we, at least for me, I come into contact with so many of these, so many of our students who are so competent in their, in their daily lives, what they’re doing in their professional lives. And they come to me with these with these fears, like this just general lack of confidence, or imposter syndrome, right? This I don’t know if I really deserve to be speaking and, you know, kind of explaining this concept to all these people.
3:05 Mm-hmm. Yes. And also the fear of not being understood, well, they know what I’m saying, well, they understand my accent. There’s a lot of worries and concern around accent and our pronunciation expert, Lisa hosted a webinar, actually last week, where she explained that accent matters. But as long as people understand you, it’s fine. You don’t need to be perfect. Everyone has an accent. So that’s also totally fine.
3:37 And this being Yeah, this being one of I think, at least for me, in my experience, one of the most frequently asked for aspects from students. So you know, and just to like, again, just say that this is a challenge for everyone, not just, you know, non-native English speakers. You know, I think all of us have a tough experience or somebody that we think of when we think about public speaking, it’s, it’s like this, yeah, really anxiety-riddled thing. I mean, I don’t have any, you know, funny personal stories, but uh, do you, Paola?
4:20 You want me to tell my embarrassing story, don’t you?
4:22 Please, you must.
4:25 So I used to teach at a university in Vietnam when I lived there, and the classes where it rains, you know, from perhaps 50 students to up to what 300 there’s was a class with, you know, 2-300 students and there was a little stage it wasn’t too high, but there was a little stage and I fell off.
4:46 You fell off the stage. This was during or after the presentation, or…?
4:56 It was around the beginning of the presentation. So…
5:01 During! Oh, I thought it was it was like after like you were walking off?
5:06 No, I move a lot. I use my body language quite a lot. And that was one of the moments where I overdid it, probably, and fell off.
5:17 Wow. Well, I’m glad that you’re still here with us.
5:21 Yeah, you know, but that’s the story that I sometimes not always tell it. But I sometimes tell it when my students say, Oh, I’m nervous, and I assume that it can happen, you know, I thought it was going to be a disaster. And then I actually ended up making friends with the students that turned out okay.
5:39 Right. Well, yeah, I mean, today, we’re not necessarily going to go into the physical dimensions of how to avoid falling off the stage. But we do have some, some good tips, right?
5:54 Yes. And to provide some advice on how to deliver presentations, and lose that fear, we’ve divided it into three main blocks. And those are what to do before the presentation, tips for during the presentation. And then even after there’s things you can do to, to get better.
6:18 Right, let’s start with the first, right, what can we do before the presentation in terms of getting ready, preparing?
6:30 So preparing, it’s a very general term, but one of the tips that we like to give is, think of the WHAT, WHY and NEXT. So WHAT is your presentation about? WHY should they listen to you and not look it up online (or listen to a podcast, like ours)? And in what NEXT means – what is supposed to happen next? Do they need to do anything, go on a website, send you feedback? Are you going to send them the materials? So what why our next is so straightforward and simple. But when I asked this question to our clients that are so thrown off, and they don’t know what to answer sometimes,
7:10 Yeah, I think that’s one of those things. And I struggle with this all the time is, when I get an idea or something like that. It’s so easy to just jump over those most basic things of, you know, what, why and index, those are so, so basic, but it’s such it’s, they’re so foundational, right? And in terms of creating something that people will understand and be able to, to really attach to.
7:41 Yep. And do you have any tips around how much you should learn? Should you write the whole thing? Or should you memorize?
7:52 Yeah, that, you know, this is a good question as well, that a lot of our learners ask in terms of, yeah, you know, I’m just going to go and write it all out. And then I’ll have an idea. And I’ll feel better because I can write it and change it so that it sounds more professional. It sounds like I know what I’m talking about. And I always tell people, please don’t try to prepare a presentation where you’re reading a script, it is just the most unnatural thing ever. And, and it, you won’t end up sounding more professional, if anything, your audience is going to detach, because they’re going to sense that something’s not really right here, it doesn’t seem genuine, right doesn’t seem real, it just seems like this person is doing what he’s doing, which is reading off of a script. And even still a lot of times with a lot of our learners where they know that, okay, I know this material. But I’m going to put all of my effort into making this perfect slide this perfect presentation. So I would say, focus on actually knowing the material itself really well. More than focusing on how the presentation looks, you know, these kinds of things. Because once you’re in that situation where you’re on the stage, and people are looking at you, at least you’ll be able to Windows like kind of red Sirens of you know, panic and anxiety show up. You’ll have learned the material itself so well that you can roll with that.
9:29 Yes. And you also have room for improvisation because your brain is so used to the content and you know, so well what you want to say that that’s when your brain starts to come up with anecdotes and that’s the fun thing that gets you hooked. And that’s the main Why should people listen to you instead of reading an article online?
9:49 Exactly. Because for most of our students, you know what you’re talking about. That’s why you’re up there. That’s why you have the opportunities to speak there is because someone thinks you’re qualified enough to speak to all these people. So trust in that and go with that. So yeah, so we have right not, not over learning. Don’t script it right? What else can we do?
10:14 Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice in your mind, but more importantly verbalize it, say it out loud. And recording yourself is uncomfortable for everyone. But it works. I have never tried it. I always told my students should record yourself, you should record yourself and they were like, Huh. And just a few of them did it. And when we started with the webinars, I haven’t done something like it before. And I said, Okay, I’ll use my own tip. And it was one I’m comfortable. And two, super helpful. So if you get to go over the sound of your own voice, I would say do it.
10:54 Yeah. You know, this is one thing that I have to be totally honest here. Doing these podcasts is the first time I’ve actually recorded myself for a long time. And I’ve learned a lot about, you know, not saying the word Absolutely. 500 times, yeah, within the span of 20 minutes. So those are good learning lessons. Definitely. Okay, and then so we have that. And then the last little tip is, I would say get an English mindset before 30 minutes to an hour before the presentation. And that could be listening to a podcast, you know, like Talaera Talks, or, you know, watching a show on Netflix that’s, that’s in English, whatever you can do to get your kind of English mind, you know, in the zone before you go up and actually speak English. So So those are all of our kind of pre presentation tips, what you can do before, so what about during,
11:58 so for during, there’s a lot of things that you can you can do to improve your presentations. But the first tip is to learn how to start to have a mind map of what am I going to do at the beginning. So you start confident already. So welcome, everyone, introduce the people introduce the topic and go to the main point, those four parts will help you have a nice start. Welcome, everyone. For example. Hi, everyone. Welcome to today’s presentation. Today, we’ll be talking about business events, introduce the people, you can introduce yourself , like, Hi, my name is Paula and I’m a business English instructor at Telstra, and perhaps even the audience. Today we have with us students from all different nationalities and levels, or, you know, whatever the audiences, that’s also helpful for everyone to understand, introduce the topic, or give you some best practices for business emails , and a few templates, and then go to the main point. So a simple sentence like Alright, let’s get down to business. So having those welcome introducing people introducing the topic and going to the main point will help you have a nice start.
13:16 Yeah, and I like that concept of that the mind map is so good. Because it’s it’s not the scripting, like we were talking about before, it’s having a kind of a little mental checklist. So that when those first few minutes, were you’re up there on the on stage, and you’re like, oh god, oh, god, here we go. Here we go. You have that little checklist that I created. Okay, so I welcomed introduced the people the topic, and now to the main point, and that can get you in the zone and going I really liked that. Yeah, so so having that, that starting template. And then another thing would be, I would say slowing down, slowing it down. And this is really I think it touches on a lot of aspects. The first would be just the general anxiety, we tend to speak a lot faster when we’re really anxious, you know, but by slowing down, it really helps with non native English speakers because it helps with the accent. And it helps with giving you some time to really think through your next thoughts. Now, I’m not saying that you should, while you’re speaking, try to think steps three, four or five ahead of you. But giving yourself a little bit of time to Okay, I’m going through this pattern now. Now I can go to the next one, right. And doing that, you know, another with the slowing down a tip if you’re really nervous to go in is prefacing your speech. So before you really get into everything, maybe after the welcome part is just to say, Hey, you know, I’m going to try to speak as clearly as possible, as English as myself. first language and really smile and maybe make a little joke about that. And I think that’s a good way to open it out for the audience to show some vulnerability and and help. I mean, what do you think about that?
15:13 Yeah, I mean, we see that with, sometimes with celebrities, when they’re not native speakers, and they admitted, and they, they kind of put yourself put themselves, as you said, in that vulnerable position, and that makes them even cuter.
15:28 Mm hmm.
15:29 So it’s making yourself human, I think it’s always a good tip. And you were saying that slowing down helps with your accent and also for yourself to gain time to really know what you’re going to say. But also for the for the audience. We don’t mind people making some little pulses, so that they also have time to collect their thoughts.
15:50 Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Those are, those are two really good aspects, starting, you know, the template and then slowing down, right. Yeah, kind of diffusing the anxiety by saying, Hey, you know, this isn’t my first language. And that really gets the audience on your side, right. And then another would be not reading off of your slides. I mean, this is kind of the basic, you know, what you learn in school, but it’s also something that a lot of people get, yeah, get, get hooked on, just because it’s like a safety net. And I would say that’s where the overlearning the material that we talked about beforehand comes into play. Anything else in this?
16:42 Oh, recap for sure. After every section, do a little recap, and at the end to recap where you summarize the main points of the whole presentation?
16:54 Yeah, yeah. Good. Good. So So summarize. Yeah, yeah. And that’s a that’s a good, you know, I would say three aspects, four aspects that during the presentation, if you keep these in, in your mind, it’s, it’s, I would say, it’s going to help a lot. And so now we’re going to move to what can we do after the presentation? We’ve done it, we’ve walked off the stage. Whoo, I’m so glad that’s over. Now, is all of our work done? No.
17:27 No, not really. That’s now it’s your chance to actually learn from, from everything you did. So one of the tips we suggest is try to ask for feedback. But that’s not so easy, right, Simon?
17:42 Yeah, it’s, I think, a big question. And that is, who do you get the feedback from? Right?
17:50 So we, we would always suggest to try and find someone you can trust someone who is honest, and who can give you objective feedback. So in some cases, that can be your manager, but sometimes it’s a colleague that understands the topic, and can really provide some feedback on how you did.
18:13 Yeah. And that’s, I think, in terms of learning, this is one of the most crucial thing is reflecting back on what you did, and seeing what worked, what didn’t work, and how can I take that and move forward? Because especially with presenting, it’s a skill, and it takes practice, practice, practice. And, and I think, for a lot of people, you should jump at the chance to do this. So that you can continue to learn and continue to grow. But be sure to reflect by Yeah, by asking for feedback and seeing what worked,
18:47 for sure. And ideally, that would be someone, perhaps from work that can see how you did and like the actual show, if not Talaera teachers also do that. So you can present your own presentation, pretending it’s the actual one. And that’s how we can provide feedback on the structure, the vocabulary, the language in general.
19:08 Yeah, absolutely. I do that. Oh, there you go. Absolutely. Definitely. See, I’m reflecting back and learning as we go. I’m working. I’m learning that. Yeah. But I’ve done that recently with a couple of students where we’ve gone through their deck and looked at what are their plans in terms of presenting and we’ve kind of gone through in detail that together. So So yeah, so that was kind of I would say the biggest thing in terms of afterward.
19:40 So we have the pre-presentation, just as a quick recap for the pre-presentation and before your presentation, always remember the what why next, what is your presentation about? Why should people listen to you and what should happen next overnight Learn the content. be super confident about what you want to talk about. But don’t script it. Don’t write everything down. Otherwise, it would sound like you’re just reading.
20:11 Write and practice through verbalization. record yourself, even though it may be awkward, but it’s a great learning technique. And then get in that English mindset beforehand by Yeah, listening to a podcast or what have you. And then during the presentation, right, starting with the template, Paolo was discussing the welcome introducing the people the topic, and then going to the main point,
20:37 slowing down a little bit. It’s not necessary to go super fast. It’s not only not necessary, but people will understand you better if you take your time and make some pauses. Of course, don’t read off their slides. Tell them the story.
20:54 Right, right. And remember
20:56 to recap, just like we’re doing now. Send them or tell them a quick summary and the main points,
21:03 right, and don’t fall off the stage as well. That’s ideally we forgot. Ideally, it’s final for then, as the final point, right, asking for feedback, finding that person that can get you that feedback that’s so important to you. Finding what worked and moving forward.
21:21 That’s right. All right. Do we have it for today?
21:25 I think that is it for today. Yeah. I had a lot of Thanks. Yeah, I had a blast. And thanks for meeting up. And we have a lot of good stuff coming up with Talaera. Right.
21:38 We have webinars, our blog is busier than ever. So go on the http://blog.talaera.com/ , check out the resources. And what else?
21:51 Find us on LinkedIn. And yeah, please ask any questions, we’d be glad to get back to you. So that is it for today. And thank you to all of our listeners. So far, we’re excited to keep growing this. And as always, keep learning!
22:11 And that’s all we have for you today. We hope you enjoyed it, and remember to subscribe to Talaera Talks . We’ll be back soon with more! And visit our website at https://talaera.com for more valuable content on business English. You can also request a free consultation on the best ways for you and your team to improve your communication skills. So have a great day and keep learning!
- Talaera Talks Podcast
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Blog > English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases
English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases
02.21.20 • #powerpoint #presentation #english.
When giving a presentation in english, there are certain guidelines you should follow. Maybe you haven't got a lot of experience presenting - or you would simply like to refresh your already existing knowledge - we're here to teach you the basics about presenting and provide you with a free list of useful phrases and the basic structure you can in your presentation!
1. Structure
The general structure of a presentation is the following:
- Introduction
It is up to you to design these three parts. Using videos or everyday-examples can be a great way to introduce the audience to the topic. The important thing is that you capture the audience's attention from the beginning by making an interesting introduction. The main part is where you present your topic, ideally divided into sections. You can be creative with it - incorporate images, videos, stories or interactive polls . We generally recommend using different kinds of elements, as that makes the presentation more lively. Make sure your main part is well structured, so your audience can follow. In the conclusion, you should give a short summary of the points you made without adding any new information. You can also make an appeal to your audience in the end.
2. Useful Phrases
Here you'll find several phrases that you'll need in every presentation. Of course, you should adapt them and use them in a context that is suitable for your setting. The phrases are divided into subcategories so you can find what you're looking for more easily.
Starting your Presentation
In your introduction, you should:
Welcome your audience
Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to my presentation about...
Introduce yourself
I am ... (from company ...) and today I would like to introduce you to the topic of ...
My name is ... and I am going to talk about ... today.
Icebreakers (for audience engagement)
Icebreaker polls are an amazing way to engage your audience instantly. They function as a fun and playful element at the beginning, giving you the perfect start you need to give a successful presentation. Click here to read our detailed post about icebreaker polls!
Mention the presentation topic and the reason for giving the presentation
I am grateful to be here today and tell you you about...
I would like to take this opportunity to talk about ...
I am here today to talk to you about ...
The reason why I am here today to talk about ... is ...
The purpose of this presentation is to ...
My goal today is to ...
Hopefully, by the end of the presentation, you will all know more about ...
Give a short overview of the content
To make it as understandable as possible, I divided my presentation into ... parts. In the first part, I will concentrate on ..., the second part will be about ..., ...
First of all, I will give you a short introduction, then we will move on to ...
... and finally, I will give you some insights to ...
Here are a few phrases that you could use during the whole presentation, but especially in the main part.
Engage your audience
In order to raise the audience's attention and improve their engagement, it is extremely important to make contact with them. A great way to do so is by adding interactive elements such as polls. If you would like to know more about this topic, read our article on How To Boost Audience Engagement . You can also use a software like SlideLizard , which allows you to conduct live polls, do Q&A sessions with your audience, share your resources and many more benefits that take your presentation to the next level.
Please raise your hand if you ...
Have you ever thought about ... ?
I would like to do a poll about ...
Please ask any questions as soon as they arrive.
On one hand, … on the other hand…
Comparing … with …, we can see that…
Clearly, … makes more sense than …
Whereas Option A is …, Option B is …
Making new points
Firstly,… Secondly,…
What also has to be mentioned is…
Next, I would like to bring up the topic of…
That being said, now we are going to take a look at…
Let's move on to the next topic.
On the next slide,…
The last thing I would like to mention is…
We made a whole blog post about how to pose questions in your presentation: The Right Way to do a Question Slide .
Talking about images or videos
In this image you can clearly see that ...
We are now going to take a look at a picture/video of ...
I'm going to show you a video by ... about ... now.
I've prepared a video about ...
Talking about statistics and charts
I am now addressing this graph that refers to the results of study XY.
In the graph on this slide, you can see that ...
The average is at ...
This graph clearly shows that the majority ...
According to this graph, the focus should be on ...
What that study tells us for practice is that we should ...
Emphasizing
I would like to emphasize the importance of ...
Moreover, it has to be said that ...
I want to stress the importance of ...
We always have to remember that ...
This is of high significance because ...
That part is especially important because ...
When something goes wrong
I am sorry, but it seems like the projector isn't working.
Could someone please help me with ...?
Is anybody here who knows how to ...?
Could someone give me a hand with ...
I would like to apologize for ...
I apologize for the technical problems, we are going to continue in a minute.
I am sorry for the inconvenience.
End of Presentation
In the conclusion, you should...
Sum up the main points
In conclusion I can say that…
To sum up the main points,…
With all mentioned aspects taken into consideration, I can say that…
Make an appeal
So please, in the future, try to be conscious about...
Please take a moment to think about...
I would like to encourage you to...
Thank your audience and say goodbye
It was a pleasure being here today.
Thank you for listening and goodbye.
Thank you for being such a great, engaged audience. Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening, see you next time.
What is the structure of a presentation?
Your presentations should always have an Introduction, a Main part and a Conclusion.
What is a good way to begin a presentation?
You can start by introducing yourself, giving an overview of your topic, telling a little story or showing the audience an introductory video or image.
What are good phrases to use in English presentations?
There are many phrases that will make your presentation a lot more professional. Our blog post gives you a detailed overview.
Related articles
About the author.
Pia Lehner-Mittermaier
Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.
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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary
Visual communication.
If there are used images or videos for communication, it is visual communication. Visual Communication is almost used everywhere like on television, posts on social media (Instagram, Facebook), advertisement.
To interview somebody means to ask a person different questions. An interview is often done by journalists.
Effect Options
In the effect options in PowerPoint, further details can be specified for the selected effect.
Horizontal Communication
Horizontal communication is the exchange of information between people, departments or units within the same level of an organisational hierarchy of a company.
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Vocabulary and Phrases for Making Presentations in English
Here’s a step-by-step guide for making presentations in English. You’ll find the phrases you need for each step of your presentation.
After you give your opening statement, give a brief overview of your presentation. Say what your presentation is about, how long you will take and how you are going to handle questions.
For example, a presentation to sales staff could start like this: “Welcome / “Hello everyone.”
(Opening statement) “As you all know, this company is losing its market share. But we are being asked to increase sales by 20 – 25%. How can we possibly increase sales in a shrinking market?”
(Overview) “Today I am going to talk to you about how we can do this. My presentation will be in three parts. Firstly I am going to look at the market and the background. Then I am going to talk to you about our new products and how they fit in. Finally, I’m going to examine some selling strategies that will help us increase our sales by 20%. The presentation will probably take around 20 minutes. There will be time for questions at the end of my talk.”
Useful language for overviews
“My presentation is in three parts.” “My presentation is divided into three main sections.” “Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally…” “I’m going to… take a look at… talk about… examine… tell you something about the background… give you some facts and figures… fill you in on the history of… concentrate on… limit myself to the question of…
“Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.” “There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.” “I’d be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.”
The main body of the presentation
During your presentation, it’s a good idea to occasionally remind your audience why your presentation and ideas are important or relevant.
“As I said at the beginning…” “This, of course, will help you (to achieve the 20% increase).” “As you remember, we are concerned with…” “This ties in with my original statement…” “This relates directly to the question I put to you before…”
Keeping your audience with you
Remember that what you are saying is new to your audience. You are clear about the structure of your talk, but let your audience know when you are moving on to a new point. You can do this by saying something like “right”, or “OK”. You can also use some of the following expressions:
“I’d now like to move on to…” “I’d like to turn to…” “That’s all I have to say about…” “Now I’d like to look at…” “This leads me to my next point…”
If you are using index cards, putting the link on the cards will help you remember to keep the audience with you. In addition, by glancing at your index cards you will be pausing – this will also help your audience to realise that you are moving on to something new.
Phrases for introducing visuals
It’s important to introduce your visual to the audience. You can use the following phrases:
“This graph shows you…” “Take a look at this…” “If you look at this, you will see…” “I’d like you to look at this…” “This chart illustrates the figures…” “This graph gives you a break down of…”
Give your audience enough time to absorb the information on the visual. Pause to allow them to look at the information and then explain why the visual is important:
“As you can see…” “This clearly shows …” “From this, we can understand how / why…” “This area of the chart is interesting…”
Summarising
At the end of your presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of what you have told them:
“That brings me to the end of my presentation. I’ve talked about…” “Well, that’s about it for now. We’ve covered…” “So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we…” “To summarise, I…”
Relate the end of your presentation to your opening statement:
“So I hope that you’re a little clearer on how we can achieve sales growth of 20%.” “To return to the original question, we can achieve…” “So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I asked you…” “I hope that my presentation today will help you with what I said at the beginning…”
Handling questions
Thank the audience for their attention and invite questions.
“Thank you for listening – and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased to answer them.” “That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have.”
It’s useful to re-word the question, as you can check that you have understood the question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the question.
“Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?” “That’s an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?” “Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?”
After you have answered your question, check that the person who asked you is happy with the answer.
“Does this answer your question?” “Do you follow what I am saying?” “I hope this explains the situation for you.” “I hope this was what you wanted to hear!”
If you don’t know the answer to a question, say you don’t know. It’s better to admit to not knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:
“That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an answer.” “I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you later.” “Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?” “That’s a very good question. However, we don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.” “Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.”
What to say if things go wrong during your presentation
You think you’ve lost your audience? Rephrase what you have said:
“Let me just say that in another way.” “Perhaps I can rephrase that.” “Put another way, this means…” “What I mean to say is…”
Can’t remember the word?
If it’s a difficult word for you – one that you often forget, or one that you have difficulty pronouncing – you should write it on your index card. Pause briefly, look down at your index card and say the word.
Using your voice when making presentations
Don’t speak in a flat monotone – this will bore your audience. By varying your speed and tone, you will be able to keep your audience’s attention. Practise emphasising key words and pause in the right places – usually in between ideas in a sentence. For example “The first strategy involves getting to know our market (pause) and finding out what they want. (pause) Customer surveys (pause) as well as staff training (pause) will help us do this.”
Don’t forget – if you speak too fast you will lose your audience!
Making Presentations
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