Making an Appointment

Making an Appointment

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Making an appointment

Being able to make and cancel an appointment is an important skill in English. You need to be able to:

• make an appointment,
• respond to an appointment and
• cancel an appointment.

Here are some expressions you can use to do this concisely and clearly.

Asking to meet:

Are you	available on... / next...? free on... / next...?
Can we	meet on... / next ...?
would	next ... be ok?
What about	next ... ?
Is	next ... ok?

Examples:

• "Are you available on the 17th?"
• "Can we meet on the 16th?"
• "How does the 3rd sound to you?"
• "Are you free next week?"
• "Would Friday suit you?"
• "Is next Tuesday convenient for you?"
• "What about sometime next week?"

Responding to an appointment:

Yes,	... is fine .... would be fine.
....	suits me would be perfect.
I'm afraid I'm sorry	I can't on .... I won't be able to... on ...
I really don't think I can	on ...

Examples:

• "Yes, Monday is fine."
• "Monday suits me."
• "Thursday would be perfect."
• "I'm afraid I can't on the 3rd. What about the 6th?"
• "I'm sorry, I won't be able to make it on Monday. Could we meet on Tuesday instead?"
• "Ah, Wednesday is going to be a little difficult. I'd much prefer Friday, if that's alright with you."
• "I really don't think I can on the 17th. Can we meet up on the 19th?

Cancelling an appointment

You can cancel an appointment as follows

• Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen business, I will be unable to keep our appointment for tomorrow afternoon.
• Would it be possible to arrange another time later in the week?
• I’m afraid that I have to cancel our meeting on Wednesday, as something unexpected has come up.
• You know we were going to meet next Friday? Well, I'm very sorry, but something urgent has come up.
• I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to meet you after all. Can we fix another time?

Expressing Indifference

Expressing Indifference

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How to express indifference?

Sometimes you may have no particular interest or concern about something and you want express indifference during a conversation. Here are some expressions you can use:

Expressing indifference

• So what?
• Who cares!
• I don’t care!
• It’s all the same to me.
• I have no preference.
• I suppose so.
• I don’t mind.
• It doesn't matter to me
• Whatever (you want).
• Whatever you do?
• I don’t mind.
• It’s your decision.
• Who knows!
• Why should I care?
• It makes no difference to me.

Talking About Favorite Things

Talking About Favorite Things

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Talking about favorite things

When you talk about your favorite things you talk about the best liked or most enjoyed things.
Examples:

• "What's your favorite color?" "Green."

Study the dialogue:

Leila is talking to her new friend Cathy:

Leila:	What kind of films do you like best?
Cathy:	Science fiction. And you?
Leila:	Comedy. And who's your favorite actor?
Cathy:	Tom Cruise.
Leila:	I like Robert de Nero most.

Asking about favorite things:

• What's your favorite sport?
• What sport do you like best?
• What sport do you like most?
• What kind of sport do you like best?
• Who's your favorite football player?

Responding:

• My favorite sport is football.
• I like football best.
• I like football most.
• My favorite football player is Ronaldo.

Things to remember:

• "Favourite" is British spelling.
• "Favorite" is American spelling.

Listen to a related song:

Telling The Time

Telling The Time

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How to tell the time in English?

There are two common ways of telling the time in English. For 2:40 you can use one of these two ways.

• Digital: the easier way - "Two forty "
• Classical: you say the minutes first then the hour - "twenty to three"

Here are the different ways to ask for and tell the time.

Asking about the time:

What	time is it?
	time do you make it?
	's the time?
Have you got	the right time?

Telling the time:

Digital	It's ...	It's ...
2.00	two o'clock	two
2.06	six minutes past two	two oh six
2.09	nine minutes past two	two oh nine
2.12	twelve past two	two twelve
2.15	a quarter past two	two fifteen
2.20	twenty past two	two twenty
2.25	twenty-five past two	two twenty-five
2.30	half past two	two thirty
2.35	twenty-five to three	two thirty-five
2.40	twenty to three	two forty
2.45	a quarter to three	two forty-five
2.50	ten to three	two fifty
2.55	five to three	two fifty-five
2.57	three minutes to three	two fifty-seven
2.58	nearly three o'clock	two fifty-eight
3.00	three o'clock	three

Example:

Question:	What's the time, please?
Answer:	It's two o'clock.