Hi I'm Anne Marie with Speak Confident English and welcome to this week's Confident English lesson.
Recently one of my students asked a fantastic question and I thought that you might have the same question in English.
Here was her question, "Recently I've been wondering how to leave a really good voice message or even how to set up my own voicemail when I can't pick up my phone." That is a fantastic question because definitely communicating on the telephone is always a challenge and voicemails - particularly in business - are an important part of our daily life.
Now before I go any further I do want to say it was awesome that she used the phrasal verb *to pick up* the phone.
As you know, native English speakers love phrasal verbs and we use them all the time.
*To pick up* the phone is a common phrasal verb that means to answer the telephone.
In her question, we could also say "... when I *can't get to* the phone." That is another common way to say that we're unable to answer or check our telephone.
But now let's get to the focus of today's question: how can you successfully leave a telephone message for someone else and how to set up a voice message in English on your phone.
In today's Confident English lesson we're going to talk about three things: number one the basic rules about leaving voice messages, number two what you should and shouldn't say when you leave a voice message for someone else and I'll give you some examples, and finally how to set up a voice message on your phone so that when you can't get to it, when you can't pick it up, someone can leave a message for you.
Let's start with the basic rules of voice messages and this is a great opportunity to use one of my favorite acronyms and principles in life.
