Joining and leaving a conversation at an event
Ask before you join a person or group: “Can I join you?” Then ask an easy question about the event. “I hear you work for …” means someone told you about the person, and it shows interest.
Leaving after a few minutes is normal: say “Please excuse me”, give a short reason and close with “Nice talking to you.” In this exchange, Maya joins Leon at an event. Listen for her reason for leaving.
- “Can I join you?” – “Yes, of course.”
- “Is this your first time here?”
- “What do you think of the event?” – “It’s really useful.”
- “Can I get you something?” – “No, thanks. I’m fine.”
- “Sorry, I need to go. My next meeting starts at two.”
Maya Can I join you?
Leon Yes, of course. Is this your first time here?
Maya Yes. What do you think of the event?
Leon It's useful. I hear you work for Field & Form.
Maya That's right. Please excuse me; my workshop starts now.
Leon No problem. Nice talking to you.
Talking about the event afterwards: irregular past verbs
Many verbs you need to report on an event are irregular: they don’t take -ed, so learn each past form as a new word. In negatives and questions, “did” carries the past and the main verb stays in its base form: “I didn’t go to the dinner.”, “When did you come back?”
- “go” – “went”: “I went to a trade fair last Tuesday.”
- “meet” – “met”: “I met three new contacts.”
- “give” – “gave”: “He gave me his card.”
- “have” – “had”: “We had lunch at one.”
- “speak” – “spoke”: “We spoke about local suppliers.”
- “come” – “came”: “I came back on Wednesday evening.”
Time expressions: last Tuesday, on Wednesday, two days ago
Use “last” without “on” or “the”: “last Tuesday”. Use “on” with a day, “at” with a clock time and “in” with parts of the day, but say “on Wednesday evening” when you name the day. “Ago” comes after the length of time: “two days ago”. Say “last night”, not “yesterday night”.
- “last Tuesday”, “last week”
- “on Wednesday evening”
- “at one”, “in the morning”
- “two days ago”, “a week ago”
Networking words: connect, share, join, follow
Your professional network is the people you know through work. Watch the small words after the verbs: you connect with a person, share something with someone, comment on a post and join a group, with no “to” after “join”.
- “She has a strong professional network.”
- “We connected after the conference.”
- “Please share the event link.”
- “Can I join your professional group?”
- “I follow our main supplier.”
A four-part follow-up email
Write within a day or two and name the place or event in the subject; “Hello” tells the reader nothing. The third part matters most: “Nice to meet you.” alone could go to anyone, but one real detail shows that you remember the person.
- 1. Subject: “Good to meet you in Hamburg”
- 2. Where and when: “Hello Leon,” / “It was good to meet you at the clean-energy event on Tuesday.”
- 3. One real topic: “Thanks for telling me about your supplier project.”
- 4. Link or next step, and close: “Here is the link we discussed. Could we have a short call next week?” / “Best, Maya”
Common mistakes
These mistakes are easy to notice:
- “I meeted him.” Irregular verbs don’t take -ed: “I met him.”
- “I didn’t went.” After “didn’t”, use the base verb: “I didn’t go.”
- “on last Tuesday”. Just say “last Tuesday”.
- “before two days”. Say “two days ago”.
- “How do you think of the event?” Ask “What do you think of …?”
- “Can I join to your group?” Say “join your group”.
A 10-minute daily practice routine
Practise out loud, in the same order each day.
- 3 minutes: say the six verb pairs and one sentence with each.
- 3 minutes: repeat the conversation line by line, then change the reason for leaving.
- 4 minutes: write a four-part follow-up to a real or invented contact and read it aloud.
What comes next
Next, turn good email habits into a simple team guide: action, owner and deadline. Then you give directions to an office department with past, through and between. At B1, you welcome business visitors.