Checking, understanding and clarifying

Here are some common phrases and expressions you can use to express your
lack of understanding and ask for clarification in English.

Checking for Understanding:

Do you understand?

Are you following me?

Do you understand what I mean?

Do you understand what I’m saying?

Any questions?

Got it?

Expressing lack of understanding:

I don’t get it.

Sorry, I didn’t get your point.

What do you mean?

I’m not sure I got your point.

I beg your pardon, but I don’t quite understand.

I don’t quite follow you.

I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you mean.

Sorry, I didn’t quite hear what you said.

Asking for clarification:

Could you clarify that, please?

Could you explain that, please?

What do you mean by that?

Could you say that again, please?

Could you repeat, please?

Could you put it differently, please?

Clarifying:
Sorry, let me explain…

Let me clarify it for you…

To put it differently…

Let me put it in another way…

Showing Understanding:
I see.

I understand.

I got it.

Ok, I got what you mean.

I understand what you mean.

Exercise: Clarifying and confirming in a meeting

Read and following part of a business meeting where several of the
attendees ask another attendee to clarify some points about a proposed
expansion into the American market he has made/said.

From the context, try to guess what the meaning of the words/phrases
in bold are.

Peter: 'So, I recommend that now is the time for our company to
expand with this new venture in to the US market.'

Ray: 'Peter, going back to what you just said about subsidizing the
venture for the first 3 years, could you clarify what you mean?'

Peter: 'Well, with all the additional costs of starting a new operation
there and being new to the market, if we don't make a loss on each
product we sell, then nobody will buy them.'
Ray: 'So, correct me if I'm wrong, but do you mean we will make a
large loss for the first 3 years?'

Peter: 'It's not exactly what I meant. It won't be a large loss, we've
calculated it at about $150,000 over the 3 years. By the fourth year, we'll
be making a profit as we sell more units. Does that make everything
clear?'

Ray: 'More or less.'

Hans: 'Peter, I'm sorry, could you go over that again?'

Peter: 'No problem Hans, we've calculated that the loss at about
$150,000 over the 3 years. By the fourth year, we'll be making a profit as
we sell more units.'

Jennifer: 'Sorry, I must have misunderstood what you said, do

you mean that there isn't a market for our products in the US at the
moment? And that we are going to be losing money until we can create a
market there?'

Peter: 'No, I meant that the market is there. We just need to do what
we did in Turkey and we'll be certain of making a profit by the fourth
year.'

Jennifer: 'I don't like the sound of this. What exactly do you mean
by what we did in Turkey?'

Peter: 'By using the same business strategy we used when we entered
the Turkish market. We made a small loss at the beginning on each
product sold due to the set up costs, like marketing, advertising, building
etc... In a nutshell, It'll take 3 years to build up a market for our
products and then we make money.'