Signposts

Useful English tips for speaking

SIGNPOSTS

‘Signpost language’ is the words and phrases that people use to tell the listener what has just happened, and what is going to happen next. Signpost language is usually fairly informal, so it is relatively easy to understand.

Function	Signpost
Handing Over	If you are not the only speaker, you can hand over to somebody else by using one of these phrases. Now I will pass you over to my colleague ‘Mark’. ‘Susan’, the floor is yours.
Introducing the Speaker	The level of formality of your welcome address will also apply to how you introduce yourself. Customize it to match your audience. Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am delighted to be here today to talk to you about… First, let me introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am the “Position” of “Company X”. I’m “John” from “Company Y” and today I’d like to talk to you about…
Introduce a new subject	Today I am here to talk to you about… What I am going to talk about today is… I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about… I am delighted to be here today to tell you about… I want to make you a short presentation about… I’d like to give you a brief breakdown of… Regarding With regard to As regards Concerning Turning to
Starting a point	Let me start with some general information on… Let me begin by explaining why/how… I’d like to give you some background information about… Before I start, does anyone know… As you are all aware I think everybody has heard about…, but hardly anyone knows a lot about it. Moving on now to … Turning to… Let’s turn now to … The next issue/topic/area I’d like to focus on … I’d like to expand/elaborate on … Now we’ll move on to… I’d like now to discuss… Let’s look now at…
Sequence ideas	Firstly The most important reason Another reason Finally
Explanation of goals	The purpose of this presentation is… My objective today is…
Introduce a contrasting idea	However In contrast On the other hand Nevertheless Although Yet
Introduce a similar idea	Likewise Similarly
Add another idea	Also Moreover Furthermore In addition Besides
Give an example	For example For instance A good example of this is… As an illustration,… To give you an example,…
Graphs and images	To illustrate this point… I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you… Let the pictures speak for themselves. I think the graph perfectly shows how/that… If you look at this table/bar chart/flow chart/line chart/graph, you can see that…
Give the cause	Because of Due to
Give the effect	Therefore As a result As a consequence Consequently For this reason
End a section	That’s all I have to say about… We’ve looked at… I’d like to recap the main points.
Linking	As I said at the beginning,… This relates to what I was saying earlier… Let me go back to what I said earlier about… This ties in with…
Conclusions	In conclusion To sum up In summary Let’s summarize briefly what we have looked at. Here is a quick recap of the main points of this section. I’d like to recap the main points. Well, that’s about it for this part. We’ve covered… I’d like to conclude by… In conclusion, let me sum up my main points. Weighing the pros and cons, I come to the conclusion that… That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening/your attention. Thank you all for listening. It was a pleasure being here today. Well, that’s it from me. Thanks very much. That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thanks for your attention.
Questions	Does anyone have any questions or comments? I am happy to answer your questions now. Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Please stop me if you have any questions. Do you have any questions before I move on? If there are no further questions at this point, I’d like to…
Unknown Answers	That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an answer. I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps, I can get back to you later. Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think? That’s a very good question. However, I don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer. Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.