Could you elaborate on that a little?
Politely ask for more detail.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Clarifying
Ask politely when you missed something. English meeting phrases grouped by function (clarifying, opinions, pushing back, confirming, declining…) with sample audio to listen and repeat.
Speed
13 phrases
Sorry, could you repeat the last part?
Ask someone to repeat only the part you missed.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Could you slow down a bit? I want to take notes.
Ask the speaker to talk more slowly, with a reason.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Did I get that right?
Check after you paraphrase.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Could you give me an example?
Ask for a concrete example to understand an idea.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Just to make sure I understand, you want us to drop the old endpoint?
Check your understanding by restating the request.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Sorry, I lost you for a second. Could you go back to the diagram?
Admit you lost track and ask to go back to a point.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
So you're saying the cache is the bottleneck?
Paraphrase the speaker to confirm the main point.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
What do you mean by "eventually consistent" here?
Ask what a specific term means in this context.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Which service do you mean, the order service or the inventory service?
Clarify which of two things the speaker means.
Stage 1 · Surviving meetings
Is this a blocker for the release, or a nice-to-have?
Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves.
Stage 2 · Giving opinions
What's the priority between these two?
Clarify priorities.
Stage 2 · Giving opinions
Who is the main user of this feature?
Clarify requirements by asking about the user.
Stage 2 · Giving opinions