Presenting in English. Part 2. Useful vocabulary

Here is some useful vocabulary

WELCOME

At the beginning of each presentation, you should welcome your audience. Depending on who you are addressing, you should extend a more or less formal welcome.

• On behalf of “Company X”, allow me to extend a warm welcome to you.
• Hi, everyone. Welcome to “Name of the event”.

INTRODUCING THE SPEAKER

The level of formality of your welcome address will also apply to how you introduce yourself. Customize it to match your audience.

• Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am delighted to be here today to talk to you about…
• I’m “John” from “Company Y” and today I’d like to talk to you about…

INTRODUCING THE TOPIC

After the welcome address and the introduction of the speaker comes the presentation of the topic. Here are some useful introductory phrases.

• Today I am here to talk to you about…
• I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about…
• I want to make a short presentation about…
• I’d like to give you a brief breakdown of…

EXPLANATION OF GOALS

It is always recommended to present the goals of your presentation at the beginning. This will help the audience to understand your objectives.

• The purpose of this presentation is…
• My objective today is…

STRUCTURE

After presenting the topic and your objectives, give your listeners an overview of the presentation’s structure. Your audience will then know what to expect in detail.

• My talk/presentation is divided into “x” parts.
• I’ll start with…/First, I will talk about…/I’ll begin with…
• …then I will look at…
• …next…
• and finally…

STARTING POINT

After all this preparation, you can finally get started with the main part of the presentation. The following phrases will help you with that.

• Let me start with some general information on…
• Let me begin by explaining why/how…
• I’d like to give you some background information about…
• Before I start, does anyone know…
• As you are all aware…

TRANSITION

Use one of the following phrases to move on from one chapter to the next.

• I’d now like to move on to the next part…
• This leads me to my next point, which is…
• Let’s now turn to…

EXAMPLES

Frequently, you have to give examples in a presentation. The following phrases are useful in that respect.

• For example,…
• A good example of this is…
• As an illustration,…
• To give you an example,…
• To illustrate this point…

DETAILS

In a presentation, you may often need to provide more details regarding a certain issue. These expressions will help you to do so.

I’d like to expand on this aspect/problem/point.

Let me elaborate further on…

GRAPHS AND IMAGES

Presentations are usually full of graphs and images. Use the following phrases to give your audience an understanding of your visuals.

• Let me use a graphic to explain this.
• I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you…
• I think the graph perfectly shows how/that…
• If you look at this table/bar chart/flow chart/line chart/graph, you can see that…

EMPHASIS

To ensure that your presentation does not sound monotonous, from time to time you should emphasize certain points. Here are some suggestions.

• It should be emphasized that…
• I would like to draw your attention to this point…
• Another significant point is that…
• The significance of this is…
• This is important because…
• We have to remember that…

PARAPHRASE

At times, it might happen that you expressed yourself unclearly and your audience did not understand your point. In such a case, you should paraphrase your argument using simpler language.

• In other words,…
• To put it more simply,…
• What I mean to say is…
• So, what I’m saying is….
• To put it in another way….

QUESTIONS DURING THE PRESENTATION

Questions are an integral part of a presentation. These phrases allow you to respond to questions during a presentation.

• Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.
• If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
• Please stop me if you have any questions.
• Do you have any questions before I move on?
• If there are no further questions at this point, I’d like to…

QUESTIONS AT THE END OF A PRESENTATION

To ensure that a presentation is not disrupted by questions, it is advisable to answer questions at the very end. Inform your audience about this by using these phrases.

• There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
• I’ll gladly answer any of your questions at the end.
• I’d be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.

INQUIRIES

After answering a question from the audience, check that the addressee has understood your answer and is satisfied with it.

• Does this answer your question?
• Did I make myself clear?
• I hope this explains the situation for you.

UNKNOWN ANSWER

Occasionally, it may happen that you do not have an answer to a question. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Simply use one of the following phrases to address the fact.

• 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, I 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.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

• At the end of the presentation, you should summarize the important facts once again.
• I’d like to conclude by…
• In conclusion, let me sum up my main points.
• That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening/your attention.
• Thank you all for listening. It was a pleasure being here today.
• Well, that’s it from me. Thanks very much.
• That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thanks for your attention.

HANDING OVER

If you are not the only speaker, you can hand over to somebody else by using one of these phrases.

• Now I will pass you over to my colleague Peter.
• Peter, the floor is yours.