HOW TO HAVE DIALOGUE IN ENGLISH

GREETINGS
Most conversations in English, and in many languages around the world, begin with a
greeting. In English you’ll find formal and informal greetings that can be used in various
situations.

Formal ways to greet someone:

• Hello
• It’s a pleasure to meet you
• Good morning/afternoon/evening

• Some informal greetings:

• Hi
• Hello
• Hey
• Yo!
• What’s up? – this is an informal way to say: how are you?

QUESTIONS
Questions are an important part of conversational English. It’s polite to ask about another
person, to find out more about them, and to get to know them.

• Hi, how are you?

• How’s your day going?
• Having a busy day?
• How’s life?
• How’s everything?
And there are some basic questions that you can ask anyone, anywhere.

• What’s your name?

• Where do you live?
• Where are you from?
• What do you do?

The type of questions you ask someone in a conversation depend on the topic.
 GIVING OPINIONS
• As far as I’m concerned …
• In my opinion … In my view …
• From my point of view …
• The way I see it is (that) …
• To my mind …
• Well, I reckon (that) …
• I (strongly) believe (that) …
• I (honestly) think (that) …
• I (really) feel (that) …
• Personally speaking, I believe …
• As for me, I reckon …
• In my opinion/In my humble opinion
• I reckon/suppose
• I know
• May I?
• If you ask me
• If I were you
• To be honest
• I could be wrong, but
• I’m no expert, but
• Personally,

2. Asking Opinions:
• What do you think/reckon?
• Do you see what I’m getting at?
• Do you know/see what I mean?
• Do you agree with me?
• Would you go along with that?
• Would you agree with me that … ?
• What are your thoughts on that?
• Don’t you think (that) … ?
• “I don’t know. What do you think?”
• “Has that been your experience too?”
• “Has that ever happened to you?”
• “Why do you think that is (the case)?”
• “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

3. Agreeing:
• I (totally) agree with you / that.
• I couldn’t agree more.
• I’d go along with that.
• I feel the same.
• You’re absolutely right.
 • Absolutely / Definitely / Exactly.
• No doubt about it.
• That’s a good point. / I see your point.
• I see where you’re coming from.

4. Disagreeing:
• I’m afraid I disagree.
• I don’t agree with you / that.
• I’d be inclined to disagree.
• That’s not the way I see it.
• I don’t think so. / I don’t feel the same.

5. Partly agreeing:
• I see your point but …
• I kind of agree with you / that.
• I agree with you to an extent, however, …
• You make a good point, but …

GIVING ANSWERS
It’s important to respond to questions they’ve asked you. This helps to keep the
conversation flowing. You can combine your answers with follow-up questions based on
information the other person is giving you. For example, if someone mentions they used to
live in New York you could say:

• Oh, you lived in New York? How long did you live there?
• I’ve never been to New York; did you enjoy living there?
• I loved visiting New York. Are there things you miss about living there?

REPEAT WHAT THE OTHER PERSON SAID

Do this especially if the other person has said something surprising.

“He won £200 on the lottery.”

“£200!”

“I’m going to Barbados next week.”

“Barbados!”
 CLOSING THE CONVERSATION
Part of being a good conversationalist is knowing when to stop talking. When the
conversation ends, find a way for them to get in touch with you in the future. If you feel
like they might want to chat again, you can give them an opportunity with some of these
phrases:

“Well, if you ever want to chat again, I’m usually here [every Monday afternoon].”
“Let me give you my email address. If you’re ever in the area again it’d be great to meet
up.”
“Feel free to call me if you want to hang out. Here, I’ll give you my number.”
And remember to make them feel appreciated too!

“I really enjoyed our chat. Thanks so much.”

“It was really nice meeting you.”
“I had a great time talking with you. Hope to see you again soon.”

OTHER WAYS TO AVOID SILENCE

Here are some more tips to help you say something – even if you haven’t understood the
other person or there’s nothing else to say.

If you don’t understand

“Sorry, I don’t understand.”
“Sorry, could you repeat that?”
“Sorry? I didn’t get that.”

If you don’t know the word

“I can’t find the word I’m looking for…”
“I’m not sure that this is the right word, but…”
“What I want to say is…”

If you can’t find the word immediately

You don’t want to be completely silent, but you need time to find the words.
“Well…”
“OK…”
“So…”
You can even make some “noises”
“Hmmm…”
“Uh-huh”
“Umm…”
Agreeing with the other person
You want to show that you agree, but you don’t have anything else to say.
“Yeah.”
“Right.”

Changing the subject

Everyone in the conversation has given an opinion, and now you want to talk about
something else.
“Anyway,…”
“Well, as I was saying…”
“So, back to …”
“So, we were saying …”
Rephrase

Sometimes we say things that other people don’t understand, or we give the wrong
impression. Here are some expressions you can use to say something again.

“What I meant to say was…”

“Let me rephrase that…”
“Let me put this another way…”
“Perhaps I’m not making myself clear…”

Go back to the beginning

If you’re explaining something, and you realise that the other person doesn’t understand,
you can use the following phrases:
“If we go back to the beginning…”
“The basic idea is…”
“One way of looking at it is…”
“Another way of looking at it is…”