TELEPHONE ENGLISH (INFORMAL GREETINGS)

Hello everyone and good morning! Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope your week is going well so far.

Today we continue with telephone greetings, but today we will look at more informal greetings. These are more common when you answer the phone at home, but depending on the company, they might be appropriate at work.

TELEPHONE GREETINGS - Informal (at home): We usually say "Hello?" when we answer the phone at home, and then wait for the person to reply. Some people also identify themselves with their name or with the family name. Below I have listed some options, and then some examples with each option. 

Option 1) Hello?

Option 2) Hello, YOUR NAME speaking.

Option 3) Hello, this is YOUR NAME.

Option 4) Hello, this is the FAMILY NAME residence.

Example 1: Hello? [Note: The word hello has a question intonation here.]

Example 2: Hello. Lisa speaking. [Note: The word hello has an affirmative intonation here because it is followed by another phrase.]

Example 3: Hello. This is Lisa.

Example 4: Hello. This is the Jones' residence. [Note that we do NOT identify ourselves by saying "I am Lisa." It would also be considered rude to answer the phone by saying "Yes?," as we often do in Spanish.]

Tomorrow we'll look at how to ask to speak to other people on the phone.

If you have any questions about informal telephone greetings, please don't hesitate to pose your questions on one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky). Or, you may want to create a short dialogue to practice with these phrases and post them to Facebook or Bluesky. We will answer you as soon as we can.

Enjoy the rest of your day. All the best!