How to Arrange a Meeting in English: Useful Phrases and Exercises

Have you attended a lot of meetings in the last month? No matter where you are (working from home or at an office), I’m sure you got some invitations to attend business meetings in English recently. In this guide, we cover some phrases and words that can help you arrange a meeting with your managers and peers. We will also present you with a few phrases you can use to reschedule a meeting, because unexpected things can happen to any of us, right? Let’s get started!

Reasons for meeting someone

Why do people meet in the workplace? Let’s go over some of the most common reasons for having a meeting. Of course this all depends of the industry and department that you work in, but is common to meet people to discuss company strategy, to prepare for a conference, to interview candidates for a job opening, to negotiate deals, to discuss the financial situation of the company, to review your performance at work, besides many others.

You can also meet with your manager on a weekly or daily basis to simply check in. A check-in meeting is a way for managers to get updates on current projects, blockers, and challenges their team is facing. Also it is a good opportunity to reinforce goals.

Think about your last three meetings. What kind of meetings were they? Read more about meetings in English here.

Dialogue: arranging a meeting to go over a report

It’s Monday. Julie is Paul’s manager and she wants to arrange a meeting with him. Listen to the dialogue below and take notes. We will ask you some comprehension questions afterwards.

How many times did you listen to the audio? If you heard it twice and you don’t understand some words or phrases, please go ahead and read the transcript below while listening to their dialogue.

Julie: Paul, good morning!

Paul: Hi Julie, how is it going?

Julie: I’m good. How was your weekend?

Paul: Pretty good! I went to that new Chinese restaurant everyone is talking about. It’s pretty good.

Julie: Oh, good to know! I will try to go there for lunch sometime this week.

Paul: Yes, you should.

Julie: So, Paul, I’d like to arrange a meeting with you to discuss the latest sales report. I think I will ask Megan, the intern, to join us as well.

Paul: Sure, that sounds good.

Julie: Are you available on Tuesday at 2 p.m.?

Paul: Let me take a look at my calendar real quick.

Julie: Sure.

Paul: Unfortunately, I can’t make it. I have a meeting with the Product team.

Julie: Oh, no worries. How does Thursday at 10 a.m. sound?

Paul: Yes, that work.

Julie: Great, Paul. See you then! Let me know if anything comes up.

Paul: I will. See you, Julie!

Now, answer the questions below about meetings in English:

15 useful expressions for meetings in English

Let’s take a look at 15 useful phrases for you to arrange a meeting in English, suggest times for meetings, and confirm a meeting. Let’s go!

If you want to suggest a day or time for a meeting, you can say phrases like:

How about _______ (day or time)?
Are you available on ________ (day) at ________ (time)?
How does ________ (day or time) sound?
What about _________ (day or time)? Does that work?

Now, if you want to say that you are available at said day or time, here are some useful phrases:

Yes, I’m available on _________ (day) at __________ (time).
________ (day or time) sounds fine.
________ (day or time) works for me.

If you are not available, you can choose from one of these expressions:

Unfortunately, I can’t make it on _________ (day).
Unfortunately, I can’t make it at _________ (time).
I’m sorry, but I have another meeting.
I’m sorry, but I have another appointment.
I can’t make it.

In order to confirm a meeting, you can say:

Great. See you then!
That’s perfect. See you _________ (day).
Looking forward to meeting you.

Something’s come up…

Unexpected things happen and sometimes we need to cancel or reschedule a meeting. Whenever you need to reschedule or cancel a meeting, here are some expressions that can help you:

Could we postpone this meeting to _________ (day/time)?
Sorry, something’s come up. Can you make it on _________ (day) instead?
I apologize for the late notice but I won’t be able to attend the meeting today.
I’m sorry, but I’m in traffic and won’t make it to the meeting. Tomorrow is open for me, so we could meet. Let me know if that works for you.

Recap: days and times

Now you know more about how to arrange a meeting in English. As you have probably noticed, we need to use vocabulary related to days of the week and times quite often when arranging or rescheduling a meeting. If you want to know more about these topics, make sure to check our blog post about days of the week and our blog post on telling the time in English.

If you ever need to arrange a meeting in English, I’m sure this blog post will help you. Take notes of all the vocabulary we presented here today and you will never struggle to arrange a one-on-one with your manager again. Have a great meeting!