Meetings & Standups
English for Meetings and Standups
This hub surfaces Business Dialogue examples for software engineers: workplace conversations, clarifying and following up, requirements discussions, small talk, self-introductions, and scrum standups. Practise a dialogue, then reuse the same lines in your next meeting.
Business English Essentials
Business Dialogue examples
Real workplace conversations — from the Business Dialogues course.
Business DialoguesStart here
Six dialogue lessons for clarifying, following up, small talk, introductions, and scrum standups.
How to Handle Key Workplace Dialogues in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master four essential workplace dialogue scenarios—greetings, negotiating, introducing services, and asking for help in tech roles.
How to Clarify and Follow Up in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master clarification phrases, checking understanding, scheduling meetings, and follow-up emails for tech workplace communication.
How to Discuss Requirements and Scope in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master the vocabulary and phrases used in tech project meetings to discuss requirements, scope, and timelines professionally.
How to Make Small Talk and Use Humour in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master workplace small talk, British banter, and professional humour for tech settings like standups, Slack, and team events.
How to Introduce Yourself in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master professional self-introductions and interview answers for tech conferences, networking events, and job interviews.
How to Speak in a Scrum Standup in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master the exact vocabulary and sentence structures used in daily Scrum standups to report progress, announce goals, and flag blockers.
Most popular
Start with these terms
High-demand lessons with a short definition — open the full page for examples and practice.
Vocabularysync call
A synchronous meeting where team members join at the same time to discuss urgent issues, align on priorities, or solve problems in real-time. It is the opposite of an asynchronous update.
- Vocabulary
table this
To postpone or set aside discussion of a topic so it can be addressed later. It means to temporarily stop talking about something and move on to other matters.
- Vocabulary
temperature check
A quick informal check to see how people feel about something, understand current sentiment, or gauge agreement before moving forward with a decision or project.
- Vocabulary
pre-read
Materials provided to team members before a meeting so they can review them in advance, or the act of reading these materials beforehand to prepare for a discussion.
- Vocabulary
ping
To quickly reach out to someone, usually via message or chat, to get their attention or ask a quick question. It is a brief, informal way to contact a colleague.
- Vocabulary
bring along
To bring or include something or someone as part of an activity or event.
More resources
How to Give a Standup Update in English at Work
ESL English learning: standup meeting English phrases and vocabulary. Master the exact words to report progress, flag blockers, and sound natural in daily scrums.
How to Open and Run a Meeting in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master the key phrases for opening, chairing, and managing tech meetings in English — from sprint reviews to stakeholder calls.
Daily Scrum Listening Example
Article: Daily Scrum Listening Example.
Example Retrospective Meeting in English
Article: Example Retrospective Meeting in English.
Ending a Meeting
Article: Ending a Meeting.
How to Compromise and Close a Meeting in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master phrases for negotiating compromises, keeping discussions on track, asking for clarification, and closing meetings professionally.
How to Conduct a Scrum Meeting in English
Article: How to Conduct a Scrum Meeting in English.
How to Describe Communication Style and Presence in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary for describing body language, professional demeanour, and meeting presence in tech workplace settings.
How to Describe Progress and Movement in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master agile sprint vocabulary and motion phrases to describe progress, blockers, and iteration speed in standups and retrospectives.
How to Describe Work in Progress in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary for describing early-stage projects, MVPs, and prototypes in tech standups, design docs, and team brainstorms.
How to Discuss Collaboration and Time in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master key phrases for parallel work, causation, scheduling conflicts, and time management in tech team communication.
How to Discuss Failures Professionally in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary for post-mortems, deprecation announcements, and project retrospectives in tech workplaces.
How to Discuss Roadmaps and Risk in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master forecasting vocabulary like imminent, impending, and precursor for roadmap presentations and risk discussions at work.
How to Explain and Clarify Ideas in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master meta-communication vocabulary like articulate, elucidate, and reiterate to clarify ideas and redirect conversations in tech meetings.
How to Express Opinions and Uncertainty in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master hedging vocabulary and certainty expressions for technical meetings, RFCs, and design discussions.
How to Express Ownership and Accountability in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary for individual ownership, accountability, and autonomous work style in tech workplace conversations.
How to Give Compassionate Feedback in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master empathy and compassion vocabulary for code reviews, one-on-ones, and supportive leadership in tech workplaces.
How to Give Estimates and Approximations in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vague expressions and approximation vocabulary for giving rough estimates in standups, RFCs, and technical planning meetings.
How to Make and Manage Commitments in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary for making estimates, qualifying commitments, and handling missed deadlines in tech workplace conversations.
How to Negotiate Trade-offs in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master negotiation vocabulary for tech professionals — reciprocal, concession, magnanimous, frugal — to discuss trade-offs and resource allocation.
How to Present Data and Metrics in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master statistics vocabulary and number expressions for presenting KPIs, A/B test results, and data trends confidently in tech meetings.
How to Raise Concerns and Push Back in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary and phrases for raising concerns, pushing back on decisions, and escalating issues professionally in tech workplaces.
How to Reflect on Past Decisions in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master retrospective and lessons-learned vocabulary to discuss past projects, regrets, and architectural decisions in engineering teams.
How to Talk About Colleagues and Routines in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master workplace English for describing team relationships, collaboration styles, and schedules in tech environments.
How to Talk About Diversity and Inclusion in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master vocabulary for discussing barriers, bias, and representation in tech workplaces—from ERG meetings to inclusive job descriptions.
How to Talk About Risk and Probability in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master risk vocabulary like propitious, adverse, debacle, and fiasco for SLO reviews, incident retrospectives, and engineering leadership presentations.
How to Talk About Scope and Inclusion in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master inclusion and exclusion vocabulary for sprint scope discussions, access control, and team culture in tech workplaces.
How to Talk About System Capacity and Scalability in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master capacity and scalability vocabulary for system design discussions, architecture reviews, and explaining constraints to stakeholders.
How to Talk About Time and Deadlines in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master time idioms, deadline vocabulary, and scheduling phrases for distributed tech teams and async communication.
How to Talk About Your Team in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master collaboration vocabulary like cohort, peer, and counterpart to describe your tech team in standups, retros, and 1:1s.
How to Use Animal Idioms in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master animal metaphors like unicorn, elephant in the room, and dog-fooding to sound natural in tech standups and Slack.
How to Use Linking Phrases and Commitments in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master four essential phrase sets for structured professional writing and speech in tech workplace contexts.
How to Use Natural Word Combinations in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master tech collocations like 'run tests,' 'push code,' and 'spin up' to sound natural in standups, PRs, and Slack.
How to Use Phrasal Verbs in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master essential tech phrasal verbs like roll back, spin up, kick off, and wrap up for standups, Slack, and code reviews.
How to Use Reported Speech in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master reported speech grammar for tech workplace scenarios like standups, client calls, and meeting follow-ups.
How to Use Tech Acronyms and Abbreviations in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master tech acronyms like API, CI/CD, SLA, and OKR—learn how to pronounce, explain, and use them correctly in workplace English.
Introducing a Meeting
Article: Introducing a Meeting.
Retrospective Meeting
Article: Retrospective Meeting.
Scheduling a Meeting Internally 2
Article: Scheduling a Meeting Internally 2.
Scheduling a Meeting With a Client
Article: Scheduling a Meeting With a Client.
Scrum Meeting
Article: Scrum Meeting.
Setting Up a Meeting and Following Up in English
Article: Setting Up a Meeting and Following Up in English.
Sprint Planning in English
Article: Sprint Planning in English.
- sync callPopular
- table thisPopular
- temperature checkPopular
- pre-readPopular
- pingPopular
- bring alongPopular
- deckPopular
- out of scopePopular
- boot upPopular
- async
- async standup
- async-first
- async/await
- calibration meeting
- daily scrum
- hardening sprint
- meeting notes
- meeting overload
- planning poker
- quarterly planning
- retrospective
- scrum
- scrum master
- skip-level meeting
- sprint
- sprint demo
- Standup
- sync together
Frequently asked questions
- How do I give a standup update in English?
- Use three parts: what you finished yesterday, what you will do today, and any blocker. Example: “Yesterday I finished the API auth. Today I’m writing tests. I’m blocked on the staging credentials.” Keep it under 30 seconds.
- What should I say if I have a blocker?
- Name the blocker and who can help: “I’m blocked on the design review — @Alex, could you take a look today?” Avoid vague lines like “I have some issues.”
- Where should I start on this Meetings hub?
- Start with the Business Dialogues course examples — especially the scrum standup dialogue and clarification/follow-up lessons. Those cover most daily meeting English for B2 engineers.
- What’s the difference between a standup and a retrospective in English?
- Standups are short status updates. Retrospectives discuss what went well, what didn’t, and action items. Different phrase sets apply — status language vs feedback and reflection language.
Related topics
See all topics
Listening
Real tech-English audio and listening practice: standups, code reviews, pronunciation, and workplace English.
Code Reviews & PRs
Feedback phrases, pull request vocabulary, and softener language for code reviews.
Interviews
Mockly interview prep modules: self-intro, STAR, strengths, technical rounds, and culture.
Grammar & Pronunciation
Tense, voice, modifiers, stress patterns, and pronunciation for tech terms.
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