How to Give a Presentation in English – Tips, Tricks, and Useful Phrases

In the article we’ll figure out how to give a presentation in English properly with tips, tricks and useful phrases.

This post has been written for those who learn English.

Often in our lives, we are faced with the need to make presentations, whether a defense of a doctoral dissertation or a new business strategy project. Foreign companies, as a rule, impose a requirement on their applicants not only to know the language but also to be able to present their work in English. Some potential candidates are baffled by this requirement or even discouraged. In this article, we have collected useful tips for making business presentations in English, so you will not have any problems with it.

Greetings and introductions

The first thing to do is to greet your audience and, if you are speaking to strangers, introduce yourself and, if necessary, your company. You can do this with simple but formal phrases:

• Welcome, everyone.
• I’d like to start by thanking you all for coming.
• Allow me to introduce myself.
• It’s a pleasure meeting you.
• I represent the X company.
• The name of our company is…
• I will take some minutes of your time.

Structure

The most important element of any presentation is a structured speech, which must necessarily be divided into an introduction, the main part, and the conclusion. This not only facilitates the perception of information by the audience but also helps the speaker not to get lost in thought, sticking to a certain plan. For each structural element, we have selected easy-to-remember phrases.

Introduction

In the introduction, you should not only touch on the title and purpose of the presentation but also outline the plan of your speech.

• Today, I am going to talk about…
• The topic of my presentation is…
• The purpose of my talk is…
• There are three main areas I want to look at today.
• My talk will be in three parts.
• We are currently working on…

Main body

• The central part, if necessary, can be divided into several meaningful blocks.
• I want to start with…
• Let’s begin by…
• We’ve looked at …
• Now, we’ll move on to…
• Let me turn now to…
• I’d like now to discuss…
• Let’s consider this in more detail.
• A good example of this is…
• To illustrate this point …
• That’s all I have to say about…

Conclusion

• Let’s briefly summarize what we’ve looked at.
• Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues we’ve covered.
• In conclusion…
• To sum up…
• I’d like to finish by emphasizing the main point(s).

Simple language

A presentation on any topic should be easy to understand and should be of interest to the listener. To do this, it is necessary to speak as simply and to the point as possible, even if you are discussing serious issues. You can simplify your speech in several ways, such as using simple sentences instead of complex ones or replacing long phrases with synonyms. Below you will find an example of how this can be done in English.

The sentence

“It is likely that this effect will especially affect firms that have relatively recently appeared on the market.”

can be replaced by a more concise

“We expect this effect to be especially strong for younger firms.”

We replace the long phrase “firms that have relatively recently appeared on the market” with “younger firms” and use complex objects to make the first part of the sentence easier to hear.

Use of conjunction words

As a separate item, we have highlighted the use of conjunction words in the presentation. They both structure and simplify your speech for perception.

Order of elements:

• Firstly…secondly…thirdly…lastly…
• First of all…then…next…after that … finally …
• To start with…later…to finish up…

Oppositions:

• Nevertheless.
• Unlike.
• Despite.
• While.
• Although.
• However.

Giving examples:

• For example.

Introduction of additional information:

• Furthermore.
• Moreover.
• Besides.
• In addition to.

Discussion and answers to questions

The final part of your presentation should be a discussion of the presentation and answering questions about the topic.

You can encourage discussion by using the following phrases:

• Now, I’ll try to answer any questions you may have.
• Are there any questions?
• Now, we have a few minutes for questions and discussion.
• When answering questions, you should use phrases such as:
• That’s a good question/point.
• I think that’s a really difficult issue.
• Does that answer your question?
• As I think I said near the beginning of the talk…
• Is that the kind of information you were looking for?
• I’d like to deal with this question later, if I may.
• I could certainly send those figures to you later. Is that OK? 

By using these simple rules, you can not only improve your English presentation skills, but you can probably get the job of your dreams.

FAQ

Still have questions about how to give a presentation in English? Write them in the comments and we’ll answer them in details!