[English study] Situational topic - Phone Conversations

Here are some expressions like vocabulary, useful expression, grammar related phone conversation topic in English. I had reviewed the English class, and left the consequence of the class.

Vocabulary

• house work
  **House work can't be countable, so it should be only used as a singular word.**
• call waiting; A telephone service that alerts someone using the phone to an incoming call and allows switching between calls.
• hang up; to end a telephone conversation
• cut short; to stop before the end of something(call in this case)
  eg) I am sorry that I have to cut this phone call short.
• on hold; into a state of delay or indeterminate suspension
  eg) she put her career on hold to have a baby.
  eg) can I put you on hold?
• gatekeeper; a person who controls access to something

Useful Expression

• so so
  **You can also another expression like 'not bad', 'nothing special'.**
• Home vs At home
  **What is different between them? No. That's just the same meaning.**
• I am craving something/someone
  eg) I am craving a cigarette/beers/her
  **This expression means desiring something/someone like only one. You can also**
• outdated
  eg) Home phone is outdated
• check on somebody
  eg) My mom is checking on me.
  **If someone is always watching you and worried about you, you can use this expression.**
• make a call
  eg) I make 2 or 3 phone calls a day.
• surf the net
  eg) I surfed the net so late last night. That's why I feel tired so much now.
  **In this case, the net can be a alternative for the Internet.**
• give a refund
  eg) Can you give me a refund of the product that I bought?
• screen someone's call
  **If I don't want to catch a call from someone, you can screen someone's call.**

Grammar Focus - Future possibility
When you use will or won't with adverbs, be sure of the position of adverbs. 'Will' comes before the adverb in affirmative(positive) sentences and after the adverbs in negative sentences.

• will + adverbs
  eg) I will definitely go. (You are certain.)
  eg) I will probably stay. (You are quite certain.)
• won't + adverbs
  eg) I certainly won't go. (You are certain.)
  eg) I probably won't stay. (You are quite certain.)

When you are not so certain of the future, you can use may/might/could. 'May' is normally more formal than others. Especially, you must not use 'could' in a negative sentence. Those are mostly for the present and future.

• eg) I don't think she will pass the exam. She didn't study very well.

In this sentence, I think so surely the reality with 'don't think', so expression 'will' can be the best answer.

• eg) Do you think I might/could leave early tonight?

**When you ask something for someone, it is not so certain. That's the reason that 'might' or 'could' is better than 'will'.

'may' and 'might' are interchangeable each other, but expression 'might' is kind of old-fashioned compared to 'may'.

• eg) Might I have another piece of cake? (Not common these days)
• eg) May I have another piece of cake? (More common nowadays)

You can also make an expression with simple continuous for the near future event. However, you have to use that with a specific time. Here is the example.

• eg) The train is leaving tomorrow at 5pm.

5pm is a specific time period, so the sentence can be explained for the near future event though.

Speaking Mistakes

• call (with) someone
  eg) I usually call with my girl friend. (Incorrect)
  eg) I usually call my girl friend. (Correct)
  **You must not use a preposition, 'with' after the word, 'call'.**
• SMS
  eg) I'll text you tonight before I am going to bed.
  **SMS is not a common word to English people, so it's better to use text message, and they also make the expression more shorten like text.**
• work part-time job
  eg) When I work part-time job, ~ (Incorrect)
  **This is one of the weird expressions for natives. They just say that "I work for~ or I work in~".**
• buy something in the Internet shopping mall
  eg) I bought this winter coat in the Internet shopping mall. (Weird)
  eg) I bought this winter coat online. (Common)
  **Just saying online is more simple and common to people than the Internet shopping mall.**
• late vs lately
  **'lately' normally means that it is so recent, so late and lately have totally different meaning.**
• suite room
  eg) I want to reserve a suite room.
  eg) I want to reserve a suite. (This is better than the one above.)
  **In the sentence, you don't have to make the sentence longer as adding the expression 'room'. It's kind of redundant and most of all people can understand what you want with only expression 'suite'.