Writing SET PHRASES FOR WRITING LETTERS Opening by thanking Thank you for your letter of 22 January in which you We have received your letter of telling us that Thank you for your letter of informing us that Thank you very much for your inquiry about Thanking you for your letter of, we Referring I am writing with reference to I am writing in connection with With reference to With regard to Further to Giving/responding to good news I am pleased to tell you I am delighted to inform you I am happy to advise We were delighted to hear that Giving/responding to bad news I regret to tell you I am sorry to inform you We regret that We were sorry to hear that I was extremely sorry to learn from your letter of of the problems you have experienced. We were sorry to learn about the inconvenience you had to suffer Problems, complaining We were surprised to find that We found that I found that service was not up to the usual standard. We have not yet received It appears there must have been some misunderstanding I regret that I have to complain about We would like to point out that We wish to call your attention to You may probably have overlooked the fact that 1
Responding to complaints We appreciate your pointing out the error that was made Thank you very much for your comments. We always welcome comments from our guests Thank you for calling to my attention that I was disturbed to hear that you were unhappy with Apologising We must apologise for We apologise for We are extremely sorry for losing that we lost We are sorry for the inconvenience you had to suffer. Please accept our apologies for the problems caused by this error. We will make immediate inquiries about the incident. We assure that we will do our best to settle the matter immediately and to your satisfaction. We hope that this has not caused you any inconvenience. With apologies once again The problem will not be repeated. Giving reasons This is owing to due to as a result of because of due to the fact that Saying what you can and cannot do: We are able to We are unable to Inquiries Would you kindly inform us about Please let me know as soon as possible I am writing to ask We would need information on We would like to know about... if you could We are particularly interested in Requests Please could you? We would be grateful if you could as soon as possible. We would appreciate it if you could Please let us know your decision by 5 February. Please let us have a reply by Please send us written confirmation of this booking by Will you please confirm this booking no later than Please let us know whether these arrangements suit you. 2
Refusals Unfortunately the is not available on.. Regrettably we cannot accept We regret not being able to offer We have been forced to Enclosing Enclosed is a We have pleasure in enclosing I am enclosing the relevant brochure Please find enclosed our latest price-list. Closing Please contact me if you require any further information If you need any more information, please, do not hesitate to let me know Should you have a complaint, please let us know immediately so that we can deal with the problem right there and then. I hope you find this information of use and look forward to seeing you in the near future. We look forward to your early reply. Thank you for you cooperation. Hoping to have the pleasure of welcoming you, we remain 3
Speaking SET PHRASES FOR SPEAKING Beginning Well, Actually, In fact, As a matter of fact, I would like to begin with I would like to begin by pointing out that There are three points I would like to make I would like to comment on the problem of The most important points seem to me to be On the one hand Ordering First of all, we must bear in mind Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, Then we must mention Finally, Introducing a new point I would now like to turn briefly to the problem of The next issue I would like to focus on is Turning to Adding In addition, Additionally, Furthermore, Moreover, Besides, I might add that One/Another/A further/an additional (major) advantage/disadvantage of is Another positive/negative aspect of Balancing On the other hand Although, we mustn t forget Despite/In spite of the fact that, I still think Apart from However, Still, (itt mégis jelentésben) 4
Introducing examples Let me give an example To illustrate this point, let us consider This is shown by the fact that For example/for instance Such as/like In particular/particularly Especially Explaining In other words That is to say I mean To be more specific Generalising Generally/In general Generally speaking On the whole In practice All things considered, In most cases It is often claimed that Most people/experts believe that Expressing causes Owing to/due to (the fact that) Because As/Since (itt: mivel jelentésben) Expressing effect Therefore As a result Consequently For the above mentioned reasons Expressing opinion In my opinion To tell you the truth, I (firmly) believe/think I am convinced that To be honest with you, I m sure/certain that As I see it, As far as I m concerned As for me From my point of view It seems to me that I would say that Well, it s common sense. 5
Expressing uncertainty I m not sure, but Well, it depends. I m afraid I don t know it exactly, but As far as I know As far as I can remember Agreeing, partly agreeing, disagreeing I completely agree. I think you are (not) right. I think we can accept your position on that. There s no doubt about it. I agree in principle, but I m uncertain about I m not certain that I have doubts about I don t completely agree with you on that. I agree up to a point. To a certain extent/degree In a way You are right, but I know what you mean, but You are mistaken. I totally disagree with you. I m afraid I can t accept that/your point of view. I m sorry that s unacceptable for me. Interrupting (I m) sorry to interrupt you May I interrupt you for a moment? I don t want to interrupt, but Excuse me, but I d just like to point out that Coming back to a point As I was saying As I have mentioned Coming back to To return to Asking for clarification Could you repeat that, please? Could you explain that, please? What do you mean by this? When you say do you mean that? Sorry? I beg your pardon? Sorry, I didn t catch you. I m afraid I don t understand what you mean. This word is familiar to me, but I don t remember the meaning. Could you explain it? 6
Asking for confirmation Is that right? Am I right? Playing for time How can I put it? Let me think That s a very interesting question. That s a difficult question to answer. I m glad you ve asked that question. Concluding In conclusion, it seems that All things considered, it can be said that Taking everything into consideration, there is no doubt that Undoubtedly, we must say that To sum up, it is obvious that All in all, it may be concluded that So, obviously Others As you know The point is Anyway, By the way/that reminds me of 7
Some further phrases for typical situations I am at your disposal. That sounds correct/good/great. Would you mind if I asked? I strongly recommend that I advise you to In my view, the only solution is I propose that I wonder if I might suggest Wouldn t it be a good idea to? Wouldn t it be better to? What about? I see no objection to that. I m totally opposed to the proposal. Frankly speaking, that s out of the question I m afraid we can t help you with that. Have you taken into account? I was wondering if you d thought of? There are other considerations, for example I wonder if you have considered I can assure you that We understand your concern about and we assure you that we will make all our efforts to I would like to remind you that I wish to draw your attention to We cannot overlook the fact that We are prepared to on condition that I think we could I don t think we could, unless We are ready to We are willing to I believe we can, if Is that acceptable? Would that be acceptable? Would that be satisfactory? We hope that this will be acceptable. I think that would be perfectly acceptable. In that case, we should That seems to be a reasonable compromise. I ll think it over and we ll get back to it. Good bye! 8