Tone and Intonation

As noted in the Telephone Basics lesson, it’s harder to convey emotion and meaning over the phone because we lose eye contact, body language and facial expressions, all of which can “soften” a neutral or negative statement. To make up for this, English speakers in business use more politeness words over the phone (please, thank …

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Sometimes you might know a person well and can speak a bit informally over the phone. Other times (especially in business), it’s safer to use a formal tone with strangers, customers, managers, or other people who expect a more formal interaction. Different words convey different levels of formality; formal tone is considered more polite than …

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