Vocabulary and Phrases for Making Presentations in English

Here's a step-by-step guide for making presentations in English. You'll find the phrases you need for each step of your presentation.

Overviews

After you give your opening statement, give a brief overview of your presentation. Say what your presentation is about, how long you will take and how you are going to handle questions.

For example, a presentation to sales staff could start like this:
"Welcome / "Hello everyone."

(Opening statement)
"As you all know, this company is losing its market share. But we are being asked to increase sales by 20 – 25%. How can we possibly increase sales in a shrinking market?"

(Overview)
"Today I am going to talk to you about how we can do this. My presentation will be in three parts. Firstly I am going to look at the market and the background. Then I am going to talk to you about our new products and how they fit in. Finally, I'm going to examine some selling strategies that will help us increase our sales by 20%. The presentation will probably take around 20 minutes. There will be time for questions at the end of my talk."

Useful language for overviews

"My presentation is in three parts."
"My presentation is divided into three main sections."
"Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally..."
"I'm going to...
take a look at...
talk about...
examine...
tell you something about the background...
give you some facts and figures...
fill you in on the history of...
concentrate on...
limit myself to the question of...

"Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions."
"There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation."
"I'd be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation."

The main body of the presentation

During your presentation, it’s a good idea to occasionally remind your audience why your presentation and ideas are important or relevant.

"As I said at the beginning..."
"This, of course, will help you (to achieve the 20% increase)."
"As you remember, we are concerned with..."
"This ties in with my original statement..."
"This relates directly to the question I put to you before..."

Keeping your audience with you

Remember that what you are saying is new to your audience. You are clear about the structure of your talk, but let your audience know when you are moving on to a new point. You can do this by saying something like "right", or "OK". You can also use some of the following expressions:

"I'd now like to move on to..."
"I'd like to turn to..."
"That's all I have to say about..."
"Now I'd like to look at..."
"This leads me to my next point..."

If you are using index cards, putting the link on the cards will help you remember to keep the audience with you. In addition, by glancing at your index cards you will be pausing - this will also help your audience to realise that you are moving on to something new.

Phrases for introducing visuals

It's important to introduce your visual to the audience. You can use the following phrases:

"This graph shows you..."
"Take a look at this..."
"If you look at this, you will see..."
"I'd like you to look at this..."
"This chart illustrates the figures..."
"This graph gives you a break down of..."

Give your audience enough time to absorb the information on the visual. Pause to allow them to look at the information and then explain why the visual is important:

"As you can see..."
"This clearly shows ..."
"From this, we can understand how / why..."
"This area of the chart is interesting..."

Summarising

At the end of your presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of what you have told them:

"That brings me to the end of my presentation. I've talked about..."
"Well, that's about it for now. We've covered..."
"So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we..."
"To summarise, I..."

Relate the end of your presentation to your opening statement:

"So I hope that you're a little clearer on how we can achieve sales growth of 20%."
"To return to the original question, we can achieve..."
"So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I asked you..."
"I hope that my presentation today will help you with what I said at the beginning..."

Handling questions

Thank the audience for their attention and invite questions.

"Thank you for listening - and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased to answer them."
"That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have."

It’s useful to re-word the question, as you can check that you have understood the question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the question.

"Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?"
"That's an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?"
"Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?"

After you have answered your question, check that the person who asked you is happy with the answer.

"Does this answer your question?"
"Do you follow what I am saying?"
"I hope this explains the situation for you."
"I hope this was what you wanted to hear!"

If you don't know the answer to a question, say you don't know. It's better to admit to not knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:

"That's an interesting question. I don't actually know off the top of my head, but I'll try to get back to you later with an answer."
"I'm afraid I'm unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you later."
"Good question. I really don't know! What do you think?"
"That's a very good question. However, we don't have any figures on that, so I can't give you an accurate answer."
"Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to answer that."

What to say if things go wrong during your presentation

You think you've lost your audience? Rephrase what you have said:

"Let me just say that in another way."
"Perhaps I can rephrase that."
"Put another way, this means..."
"What I mean to say is..."

Can't remember the word?

If it's a difficult word for you - one that you often forget, or one that you have difficulty pronouncing - you should write it on your index card. Pause briefly, look down at your index card and say the word.

Using your voice when making presentations

Don't speak in a flat monotone - this will bore your audience. By varying your speed and tone, you will be able to keep your audience's attention. Practise emphasising key words and pause in the right places - usually in between ideas in a sentence. For example "The first strategy involves getting to know our market (pause) and finding out what they want. (pause) Customer surveys (pause) as well as staff training (pause) will help us do this."

Don't forget - if you speak too fast you will lose your audience!

Making Presentations Quiz

Level: Pre-intermediate and above

1. At the beginning of your presentation you can say, ''I'm going to __ about...''

do
talk
tell
You ''talk about'' something (but ''tell'' a person).

2. You can also say, ''I'm going to give you some __ and figures.''

facts
information
numbers
''Facts and figures'' is a useful phrase to mean the hard details about something (rather than opinion).

3. When you go to the next part in your presentation, you can say: ''I'd now like to __ on to...''

move
speak
talk
Move on to = move to the next part

4. When you talk about a graph (or other figure / diagram) you can say, ''This graph __ you...''

demonstrates
indicates
shows
Only the verb ''shows'' can be followed by ''you''. You could also say, ''As this graph indicates...'' or ''This graph shows / demonstrates / indicates ...

5. If you want to show that one thing is directly linked to the next thing, you can say, ''This __ me to my next point''.

guides
leads
links
''This leads me to my next point'' = My next point it a logical next step from the previous point. (Lead = a straight road running from one point to another point.)

6. When you want to show that you have finished your presentation, you can say, ''That __ me to the end of my presentation.''

brings
concludes
summarises
''That brings me to the end of my presentation'' is a useful phrase to show you have finished talking.

7. You can then say, ''Thank you for __''

attending
listening
taking part
''Thank you for listening'' or ''Thank you for your attention'' are phrases you can use to thank your audience when you finish speaking.

8. If you want to invite people to ask you questions, you can say ''Please feel __ to ask questions.''

fine
free
happy
Feel free = don't hesitate (to do something).

9. After you reply to a question, you can say ''Does this __ your question?''

answer
reply
satisfy
''Does this answer your question?'' = Is what I said clear to you?

10. If you want to repeat, clarify or say something in a different way (perhaps because someone didn't understand you when you gave an answer) you can say, ''__ another way...''

In
Put
Spoken
''Put another way'' is a useful way to rephrase something.

80 thoughts on “Vocabulary and Phrases for Making Presentations in English”

Hannah November 9th 2013 at 08:09

Thanks! that's very helpful
rike November 10th 2013 at 22:41

very useful. thank you.
Imdad Hussain November 26th 2013 at 17:36

thanks ! its helpful
TIPONDK December 9th 2013 at 15:09

THANKS
adel January 14th 2014 at 18:26

thanks alot
Sahayarani January 23rd 2014 at 23:48

Thank you!!.. Really Helpful.
Vishal February 13th 2014 at 07:02

Very useful, Thanks !!!
khan February 22nd 2014 at 06:23

very helpful....thank u very much
Amy March 9th 2014 at 08:45

Thanks! Well done and very useful!
ashif ahmed April 25th 2014 at 21:07

so useful .thanks
andoyo May 2nd 2014 at 00:24

It is very useful ... thanks a lot ..
savith May 30th 2014 at 06:10

i like it.
khe cang May 31st 2014 at 11:15

Very useful. Many thanks.
Amit June 9th 2014 at 21:31

Thanks
wasim khan June 22nd 2014 at 18:25

thanks
philip abou July 11th 2014 at 10:01

Thank so much
Sinan August 10th 2014 at 17:03

its perfect... thank a lot... :)
neha August 20th 2014 at 13:55

I was very worried as I had to tomorrow give presentation on chicken pox. This really helped me in great way
Kamsing September 8th 2014 at 21:15

Very useful. Thank you very much
cle September 27th 2014 at 16:20

It´s so helpful.
Halesh October 10th 2014 at 05:02

It is very fluent and helpful
SRUTHI P October 14th 2014 at 11:11

tooo useful, thanks to all members
Gökhan November 20th 2014 at 14:49

Certainly very helpfull, thanks.
Sumedh Sutar January 4th 2015 at 15:48

that's very helpful
prabhat January 6th 2015 at 04:32

thanks..
Alex Phanthavong January 16th 2015 at 09:17

Thank you very much for these useful expressions.
ahmaid January 21st 2015 at 13:25

Very helpful.
Thank you a lot of yiur wrk
ana January 24th 2015 at 17:31

thanks! very helpful :)
Muthu Selvam February 23rd 2015 at 11:10

Hi,

Thank you for sharing this info..
sandy March 4th 2015 at 09:00

I read it. wasn't disappointed
Xu September 10th 2015 at 18:01

many thanks
Olamide September 12th 2015 at 09:02

This is amazing. Helpful indeed. Thanks
Nasser November 23rd 2015 at 23:08

Hepful and i the point
k.dawood December 13th 2015 at 15:29

good
Qnir December 13th 2015 at 16:43

Thank you
It's helpfull
Nalin December 19th 2015 at 10:31

THANKYOU SO MUCH
Faisal Zulfiqar December 29th 2015 at 11:57

Really informative !
Nadia morocco January 24th 2016 at 16:02

thanks so MÜch, that's very helpful and it"s a good initiative
ragapriya February 19th 2016 at 03:26

Very thanks.It is helpful for me.
vishnu February 22nd 2016 at 02:34

its awesome tips for presentation & i love all artical ... thank vary vary much sir....
Nkwengoua Zondegoumba Ernestine February 24th 2016 at 17:31

Happy Day
I'm very sure that, working with your webside, many and many people will improve their level in English.
Thank you so much
Ernestine
Kennedy Kung'u February 29th 2016 at 13:56

Thank you for enlightening us.
Naomi March 5th 2016 at 12:16

Very good!!! Very important!
Zaid Khazal March 27th 2016 at 14:23

Many Thanks
mehdi April 27th 2016 at 17:07

thank you.exactly what i was looking for
Dhruv Kumar May 5th 2016 at 03:42

Thanks! It's very helpful.
Babyboy May 18th 2016 at 06:50

It'll help me a lot. Thank you so much
bunnak cambodia May 26th 2016 at 09:39

Thanks ! It's very good for me
daudi paul m June 26th 2016 at 18:46

thanks its good for me!
Nima July 11th 2016 at 11:39

Thanku so much....its really very nice instructions for giving an effective presentation... once again thanks a lot...
shazia July 15th 2016 at 09:31

That,s perfect exercise. I really appreciate
Ammu August 11th 2016 at 04:57

its very nice and also helpful
Tutul September 7th 2016 at 11:19

Very nice & and helpful also.
vindya October 27th 2016 at 13:32

Really mind blowing..thanks
hind November 11th 2016 at 21:25

Thankss , it's so helpful
Omaima November 22nd 2016 at 21:39

Thank you for useful information
tototototo December 19th 2016 at 10:54

THANK YOU THIS IS PERFECT
Kumar December 30th 2016 at 12:18

Above contents are really nice and also the practice questions.
Endang k January 5th 2017 at 13:56

Good information, good article, I like it, thank you.
Hossein January 31st 2017 at 06:35

That's great!, Thank you.
Salah February 16th 2017 at 16:01

Thankful for this article it is graet
Willy February 22nd 2017 at 12:21

Thank you
Prajal christian March 9th 2017 at 19:44

Really helpful
fahma March 15th 2017 at 10:06

thank u for your clarification
Desire March 24th 2017 at 01:33

thank you
Alice March 25th 2017 at 13:20

Great! Thank you
Suresh April 10th 2017 at 19:39

I am impressed. Thank u
madu April 12th 2017 at 18:57

thanks a lot
Apored the real April 23rd 2017 at 20:02

thanks for the fresh help!
Alexandre April 25th 2017 at 09:11

Thank you alot
Amer April 26th 2017 at 10:27

This way is the best to do presentation. Thanks a lot for this value information
khlid May 1st 2017 at 13:17

It is great, thank you
ashley May 17th 2017 at 14:07

thanks for this information, it is very handy!!
juan June 13th 2017 at 04:28

appreciate it
Omer August 7th 2017 at 08:48

Every single word in this is very meaningful to me and I benefited a lot from the way you explained and clarified any bit of information in every step
SOOOOOOOOO
Thanks
Omer
Amir hosein sarkaboodi September 10th 2017 at 19:23

really good and usaful
ZMK September 16th 2017 at 06:56

Very useful
Paulino Henrique Ribeiro September 29th 2017 at 05:55

Thank you so much for such a wonderful hands out and example of presentation. It helps me a lot.
Abdul Rehman October 20th 2017 at 07:05

Its Awesome .... Thanks
Sunil Kulkarni April 14th 2018 at 10:08

Very useful ,nice material

Comments are closed.