Having one’s Attention

Attention / Silent / Order, please.

Can / May I have your attention, please

Ladies and gentlemen, I need your attention.

Opening the Meeting

Shall we get started?

Now that everyone is here, let’s get down to business.

I’m glad to see that you could all make it to this meeting.

Let's get started. We're here today to discuss …. First, let's go over the report from the last meeting.

Thank you for having me, I'm looking forward to today's meeting.

Setting Objectives

The aim / purpose of the meeting is to discuss the new market project.

The reason why we are here is to discuss the possibility of opening a new market in that area.

The agenda of the meeting is as follows.

Asking for Opinion

How do you feel about this proposal?

What’s your view on this?

Would you like to comment, Tom?

Is there anyone who’d like to say something?

Presenting Opinion

Mr. Chairman, may I make a point here?

I ask for the floor / to speak.

As far as I see it, we have got two options.

I’d just like to say / point out that we can’t afford the time.

In my opinion, it can’t work at all.

Could I just say something? I (really) feel that...

I’m positive that...

I (really) feel that...

In my opinion...

The way I see things...

If you ask me,... I tend to think that...

Controlling the Subject

I think we are getting side-tracked.

Shall we come back to our subject?

We’ve already discussed that. Let’s not go over it again.

Let's not jump too far ahead at this stage.

I see your point, but could we please stick to the main point here?

I’m afraid we’re getting a bit off the point.

Asking for Repetition and Clarification

I’m afraid I didn’t understand that. Could you repeat what you just said?

I didn’t catch that. Could you repeat that, please?

I missed that. Could you say it again, please?

Could you run that by me one more time?

I don’t quite follow you. What exactly do you mean?

I’m afraid I don’t quite understand what your are getting at.

Could you be a little more specific?

I don’t see what you mean. Could you give us further details?

Correcting Misunderstanding

I don’t think I quite made myself clear.

That’s not quite what I meant.

Interrupting

Sorry to interrupt, but I’d like to know if the others agree.

Can I come in here?

Agree / Disagree

I totally agree with you.

Exactly!

That’s (exactly) the way I feel.

I get your point.

I see what you mean.

I go along with you on that. Good point! I never thought about it that way before.

Unfortunately, I see it differently.

(I’m afraid) I can’t agree

I agree / disagree with you on this point.

I’m afraid I don't see it like that.

Up to a point I agree with you, but...

Postponing

Can I come back to that later?

Let’s leave that until next week.

Paraphrasing

In other words, you prefer to have more meetings but shorter.

So when you say “flex-time schedule”, you mean we can choose what time to work ourselves.

Summing up

Let’s summarize what we’ve said so far.

Now let’s have a look a look at what we have got so far.

Close the Meeting

Well, that seems to be all the time we have today.

Unfortunately, we're running short of time. We'll have to leave that to another time.

Thank you very much …. Right, it looks as though we've covered the main items. Is there any other business?

Excellent. I'd like to thank … for coming to our meeting today and giving