10 Essential English Phrases to Lead a Meeting with Confidence

Leading a meeting in English can feel intimidating. 😓

A recent topic which is has been coming up regularly with my students, is the difficulty in chairing a meeting where you already need to remember your content in English, and, at the same time, be able to orchestrate the various participants and transitions. They wanted some simple and easy to remember sentences which could facilitate the process.

So this is what we came up with ( joint effort between myself and my students 😁)

Meetings require a specific type of language. This is why they can seem intimidating.

You need to do all the following:
Open the discussion
Manage the conversation
Interrupt politely
Bring people back on topic
Close clearly

And these phrases are rarely taught explicitly.

But in fact you don’t need hundreds of expressions. Just a few carefully chosen phrases, which are easy to say (and consequently, easy to remember 🤔)

Here are 10 essential phrases you can start using immediately.

🟢 1. Starting the meeting

👉 “Shall we get started?”

Simple, natural, and professional.

🟡 2. Setting the agenda

👉 “Let’s start with…”

Example:
“Let’s start with the budget review.”

🔵 3. Giving the floor ( meaning when you give someone their turn to speak)

👉 “I’ll let you take it from here.”

Perfect when handing over to a colleague.

🟣 4. Interrupting politely

👉 “Sorry to interrupt, but…”

Essential and very natural.

🟠 5. Bringing the discussion back

👉 “Can we come back to that later?”

Useful when conversations go off track.

🔴 6. Managing time

👉 “We’re running a bit short on time.”

Professional way to move things forward.

🟤 7. Asking for opinions

👉 “What are your thoughts on this?”

Encourages participation.

⚫ 8. Clarifying

👉 “Just to be clear…”

Helps avoid misunderstandings.

⚪ 9. Summarising

👉 “So, just to summarise…”

Signals structure and control.

🟢 10. Closing the meeting

👉 “Let’s wrap this up.”

Simple, natural, and widely used.

So you see? These are really simple and easy to remember. Letting you focus on the important matters of the meeting.

💡 Why These Phrases Matter

Meetings are not about complex English.

They’re about:
✔ clarity
✔ structure
✔ control

Using the right phrases makes you sound:
✅more confident
✅more professional
✅more fluent

Even with simple English.

💭 Final Thought

You don’t need perfect English to lead a meeting.

You need the right phrases at the right moment. And once these become automatic , your confidence changes completely.

👉 If you’d like to practise these phrases and feel more confident leading meetings in English, I can help.

I’m Liz Aldam, an English teacher with more than twenty years of experience, having worked with companies like Yamaha, Faurecia and others. I live in the Val-d’Oise region in France and I teach online.

📲 Click the WhatsApp icon below and contact me 😊