Useful Classroom Expressions

When you need to get through but there’s someone blocking your way, say “Excuse me.”

You can also say this phrase to politely get someone’s attention. For example:

Excuse me sir, you dropped your wallet.

Excuse me, do you know what

time it is?

This simple phrase tells people that English is not your native language. If you’re a total beginner, add “just started” after I: “I just started learning English.”

My name is Sophie and I’m learning English.

Use this phrase when you don’t understand what someone means.

Sorry, I don’t understand. spanish seems to be very confusing!

“Could you please talk more slowly?”

This expression is very useful when you don't understand what a person is saying and this is because native speakers tend to speak really fast.

For example:

A: You can give us a call any weekday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at five five five, two five zero eight, extension three three—

B: I’m sorry, could you please talk slower?

When you hear or see a new word, use this phrase to ask what it means.

A: What does “font” mean?

B: It’s the style of letters, numbers and punctuation marks when you type. A common font in the USA is Times New Roman.

English spelling can be tricky, so make sure to learn this question. You could also ask someone, “Could you spell that for me?”

A: My name is Robbertah Handkerchief.

B: How do you spell that?

Sometimes giving information is not enough so at some point you will need extra info to clarify your ideas about the related topic and in this case you can ask the following question: Could you give us an example?

In some topics it is really difficult to see the differences between some things so if you want to get more specific information you should ask the following question.