چگونه یک مکالمه را پایان دهیم

Hi everyone It’s Jennifer. In one of my earlier lessons, I gave suggestions for refusing a request or declining an invitation. It’s not always easy to say no, is it? Another thing that can be hard is ending a conversation. But sometimes we just don’t have the time to talk. So what can we say?

If there’s somewhere else, you need to be, say so.

Well actually I gotta go, I’m late for an appointment.

I have to get going, I’m late for something.

You’ll hear: I’ve got to get going. I have to get going. I gotta go. I think we all know that people may or may not be telling the truth when they say, “I’ve gotta go.” But if they say this, it’s a signal to end the conversation.

Second, you can simply say, “I’m sorry, now’s not a good time.” This works on the phone. For example, your friend calls, you don’t want to ignore their call, so you answer and say:

Hey good to hear from you, listen now’s not a good time can I call you back in a hour?

If a topic is rather serious and you want to postpone it, you can say: Can we talk about this later?

Maybe someone is bringing up a topic that you want to talk about when there’s more privacy. Over the phone you can say:

I’m at work right now, can we talk about this later?

Sometimes people aren’t prepared for a discussion. This could happen at a business meeting.

Did you know that “table” could be a verb? We have the expression “to table a discussion.” This means to postpone it you set it aside and you want to address it at a later time.

So “to table a discussion” is an appropriate expression for the workplace.

Let’s table the discussion. I think it’s best to table the discussion.

Of all the expressions, this one is the most formal.

Here are the expressions again. Repeat after me.

I gotta be going.

I have to get going.

I’m sorry now’s not a good time.

Can we talk about this kater?

Let’s table the discussion.

I think it’s best to table the discussion.

Well, we’re going to end here. I’m sure I’ll have more lessons like these in the future, but for now I hope I’ve given you enough to study.