May I tell X who is calling? If they refuse, I hang up. There's not one perfect answer for every situation. If you don't hear the name the 1st time, just say that. I encounter this often.
Although I am a native English speaker, most of my callers speak Spanish. So, I am confronted with two problems: First, the need to know the full name of the caller; and second, the fact that I am not trained in the culturally-appropiate way to ask my client's identity in Spanish.
And the most appropriate way to ask this, may vary from country to country, anyway. My advice is to listen to the caller, and to respond in a way that seems correct for that situation. Your tone of voice, and your attitude, probably are more important than the exact words that you use.
Based on a polite way to ask this in my language, I think an equivalent in English is "Whom have I the honor of speaking to? Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.
Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What's a polite way of asking "who are you? Ask Question. Asked 3 years, 8 months ago. Active 3 years, 7 months ago. Viewed 94k times. Improve this question.
Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. JeremyC JeremyC 5, 2 2 gold badges 12 12 silver badges 19 19 bronze badges. This one or some variant is probably the one I hear most often.
An even softer alternative might be: "Yes, Joe is here. Can I tell him who's calling? I usually respond with "Who's calling please? The advantage of "should I say" is that softens the potential rudeness of demanding that a stranger identify himself and gives a reason why you are asking because you're going to pass this information along to whomever the caller is trying to reach.
Sometimes you need a quick way to show that you understand what someone just said to you, without expressing any opinions on this. You can do that by saying:. When somebody is explaining something to you, or asking you to do something, replying to them with one of these words is a polite way to show that you are listening and can follow what they are saying. If you had trouble understanding someone the first time round but now it is clear, these phrases are very useful.
Use these phrases to show that you not only understand what someone is saying, you also agree with them. These are both good ways to reassure someone that you understand their feelings and point of view, especially if they are angry or upset about something.
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Get our special offer before it runs out! Listen to the episode to get role plays of Michelle and Lindsay using these phrases in a real conversation. View Full Bio. July 27, Your browser does not support the audio element. If you use this phrase for that purpose it makes you sound old fashioned and irrelevant.
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