How to start a video conference in English? Super practical English sentences you must know!

Under the continuous influence of the epidemic, many companies choose to let their employees work from home (WFH, work from home), and many large and small meetings are changed to online video conferencing. In addition to communication problems, for example, only one person can be at the same time. Speaking, otherwise you will not be able to hear what the other party is saying, and the most common problem is that you are not sure who is online, or technical problems, such as the microphone is not turned on or the sound is intermittent...etc. When encountering these problems, How to express it in English? What are some useful English sentences in video conferencing?

1. Can you hear my voice?

Before the meeting, ask if you can be heard or seen.

You can also say "Is the audio working?" (is there a voice?) or "Can you see me clearly?"

2. Sorry, there's a lot of static/echo on your end.

If the other party's voice is unclear, or there is noise or echo interference, you can say this.

3. "You're breaking up." (Your signal is on and off.)

Sometimes you will encounter the problem of unstable network signal. You can tell the other party that the signal is intermittent, or "You've frozen." (Your screen freezes.)

If your coworker accidentally disconnects and needs some time to re-enter the online meeting, you can say "My coworker OOO just lost connection, please wait for a moment." (My coworker OOO just lost connection, please wait for him. )

4. "Excuse me, you are on mute. Please open your microphone."

Because some video software will automatically mute other people, or some people may have pressed mute and forgot to turn on the microphone, you can remind the other party.

5. "To begin, let's take attendance to see who will be joining this meeting."

The roll call can confirm whether all the people who should be present at the meeting are here, and the English of the roll call can also be used do/take a roll call. To check if someone is online, say "Is OOO there?" (Is OOO there?). If the person named is online, others can help by saying "OOO is on."

6. "Who was that that came in?" (Who just joined this meeting?)

If someone is late or late into the meeting room, you can also confirm who just joined the meeting.

7. "Please wait for a moment so I can share my screen." (Please wait for a moment so I can share my screen.)

Sharing the screen is also a frequently used function in video conferences . The English word for sharing the screen is share the screen. You can also say "Can you see the screen I just shared?" (Can you see the screen I shared?)

8. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I would like to ask a question."

In a video conference, because only one person speaks at a time, it usually takes more time to communicate. If you really want to interrupt someone else's speech, you can use interrupt. If you didn't hear what the other party said, in addition to "Pardon.", a more polite way of saying is "Sorry, I didn't get your last sentence. Could you repeat that Please?" I didn't catch a sentence, can you say it again?) or "Sorry, I didn't catch the details of the part about OOO." (I didn't understand what you just said OOO.)

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that in addition to the problems mentioned above, video conferences must reserve enough preparation time to ensure the smooth progress of the conference and even improve the efficiency of the conference.