We Were DUE TO Meet, but I'M AFRAID

We Were Due To Meet, But I’m Afraid

Does he love me? Does he love me? Does he love me? Does he love me? Does he love me? Does he love me? Does he love me? Am I beautiful? Am I beautiful? Am I beautiful? Am I beautiful? Am I beautiful? Am I beautiful? Guess what I said? Hang on. Hello, Yeah, who’s this? It’s Becky. Becky! Yeah you alright, love? Yeah, I was just wondering what you were gonna do tonight? I was thinking maybe we could hang out? Tonight I’m a bit busy, love. I could probably fit you in around Sunday lunch though? Yeah, How about we pencil it in? Fit me in? Fit me in? Fit me in? Fit me in? Fit me in? You know what, it’s fine. Totally fine, we’ll do it later. Raincheck? Actually, Becky you know what? Now let’s call if off, love, yeah? Call it off, Call it off? Call it off, Call it off? Okay, responding to an invitation or a suggestion, you need to use the appropriate level of formality. Maybe you need business English for arranging a meeting. Maybe you need formal English to make an appointment, or maybe you’re just using casual English with your friends, or to organize a date. You need to use the appropriate level of formality. In casual English, just be direct. “Hey! Let’s do drinks this Thursday.” Or, even shorter, “Hey, Drinks Thursday?” Again, casual English, just be direct, it’s better. In formal English, a dentist, a doctor, an optician, might invite you to an appointment, like this: “Hi, can you come in Thursday for a checkup?” Next, business English; you’re trying to arrange a meeting with your colleague, for example. They might say, “Can we jump on a call on Thursday?” And yes, there’s that phrasal verb that I hate again. “Can we jump on a call?” It just means, can we have a call? Can we have a video chat? Whatever. You want to confirm those plans. Casual English, “Sure, Sounds good. Let’s do it. I’d love to.” These work for everyone, there’s no specific way to respond to a dentist. “Yeah great.” Or, “That works for me.” They’re neutral, you can use them for everything. Casual, business, formal, it doesn’t matter. These are neutral responses to confirm something.

These, honestly, yeah, you could respond to a dentist or a doctor with these. It might sound a bit friendly but sometimes, that’s fine. I would argue sometimes you need to sound like a human. And then, business English. Your life revolves around a calendar, “I’ll put it in my calendar.” We’ve got some nice connected speech there, so that consonant sound goes to the next word. That consonant sound goes to the next word. So it’s like, “I’ll put it in.” “Put it in.” Faster, “Put it in. Put it in.” “Can we hop on a call Thursday at 2?” “Sure, I’ll put it in my calendar.” If you want to refuse, if you want to say, “No.” With your friends, “Sorry, I can’t.” That’s it, that’s fine. “How about, blah blah blah” You suggest a different date, you suggest a different activity, different time, whatever. Raincheck? Raincheck is more of an American expression, but we understand it, we use it, it’s fine. It just means, “Let’s do this thing later.” So the plan now, no. But later, Yes. Specifically, when making appointments, doctor, dentist, optician, “Sorry, is blah blah blah, this time, this day, available instead?” If you don’t know, the word instead, means in place of. Not that day, but this day, instead. Also, you could say this, “Ah, 2 o’clock, do you have any other slots free?” Next in business English we might say, “Sorry, I won’t be able to make that, are you free this time, this date, instead?” Again, instead, in place of. Before we continue, I won’t be able to make that. If you say, “I can’t make it,” it means I can’t attend, I can’t go. Maybe I’m busy, maybe I’m sick, for whatever reason, I can’t attend this thing. “I can’t make it.” And then, of course, you suggest an alternative day or time. “Are you free, this day, this time, instead?” Or, “Can we do Friday, instead?” We’re using the verb do, to mean can we arrange this? Can we meet up Friday? Now you might be thinking, “Okay, but can I use something like this in a casual situation?” Or, “Just because that’s in a casual situation, can I never use it in formal or business English?” You can use any of these sentences, if the moment is right. So just think, how do you want to sound? Use the appropriate level of formality, easy.

Okay, now you have a date, a time, a thing, planned, but uh-oh, something has come up. Remember that phrasal verb? It means something appeared unexpectedly. And now you need to reschedule. How do we do that? We were due to, or we were going to meet tomorrow, but unfortunately, or I’m afraid, something has come up. So, if you want to be more formal, use due to. That’s more formal. It basically means, we were scheduled to do something. I have a whole video on “due to”, click here to see it. Alternatively, to be more casual, just say, “We were going to meet tomorrow, but,” here you have a choice, “Unfortunately, I’m afraid, something has come up.” “I’m afraid.” It just means “unfortunately,” or, “I’m sorry, but blah blah blah.” “Hi, yeah, we were due to meet tomorrow but I’m afraid something has come up, sorry.” So this is a good example, a good structure to use at every level of formality, when you need to cancel or reschedule.

What happens next? So let’s change the time, the date, or just cancel the meeting. How do we do that? We’re going to start our sentence with, “I’m afraid.” Remember, it means unfortunately, or “I’m sorry, but blah blah blah.” If you just want to say no, and you don’t want to give more details, you could just say this, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it.” Stop, that’s it. “I won’t be able to make it.” You already learned this, “I won’t be able to attend.” “Sorry, I’m afraid I have to put off, postpone, or put back the meeting, the event, the whatever.” These three, all mean the same thing, to make it later. Raincheck, for example.

So those three mean to make it later. What about to make it earlier? “Sorry, I’m afraid, I have to bring it forward an hour.” To “bring something forward” to make it earlier. Or if you just want to cancel, use this, “Sorry, I’m afraid, we have to call off the meeting.” “I’m afraid, we have to cancel the meeting.” So lots of really useful phrasal verbs that you can use, when you want to reschedule, to cancel, make something later, or make something earlier. And again, remember, that all of these can be used at every level of formality.

So we explained, something has come up, we need to change the date, or the time, of the meeting or of the event. Now, we are going to suggest an alternative. “Can we reschedule for Friday?” You know the prefix, re, it means again. So schedule again for Friday. Let’s say, “Can we do it Friday instead?” Or, “Can we make it Friday instead?” I know, do, make, mean the same thing in this context and they’re both fine.

So if you have taken notes through today’s lesson, you can make your own example dialogues or, in real life. If you’re trying to arrange an appointment, a meeting, a date, a hangout day with a friend; send them a message. Let me know what happens in the comments. I want to read your dialogues.

So now I’m going to show you three example conversations at each different formality level, business, formal, and casual English so you can hear how a natural conversation might sound. First, business English.

Hello? T-man! Is this Patrick? The one and only. How are you, T-Man? You having a good day? Yeah, a bit busy, but good, you? I’m good, I’m good. Listen, I was just wondering if this week was good for you to jump on a call with me, maybe we could talk about the details of this contract. Yeah, sure. Amazing. When works for you, T-Man? I’m pretty busy most of the week, but how about Thursday? I’m afraid, I can’t make Thursday, T-Dog! How about Friday? No, yeah, I think Friday works for me. Can I pencil you in for 2? And I’ll have to confirm with you later, is that alright? Sure thing, T-Bone, I’ll see you later. Alright, great, thanks, Bye.

Next, a conversation which might happen arranging a date. Hello? Hey Kyle? You alright, Becky love, How you doing? Yeah, I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to get pizza tonight. Yeah, pizza sounds good. What? Really!? I mean, yeah cool, whatever, that’s fine. What time are you coming to pick me up? Can you do 7? Yeah, whatever. Okay, I’ll see you then? Alright. Bye. Alright. See you then, Bye.

And finally, making an appointment. How might that conversation go? Hello? Oh, hi, yeah, I was due for an appointment today at 1:30 but something’s come up and I can’t make it anymore. Is it possible to push it back 2 hours? Yeah sure, we can fit you in at 3:30. Does that work for you? Amazing, alright thank you so much. See you then. Okay great, see you then.