Placing an order by phone
A phone order has four steps: product and quantity, item number, price, then a request to confirm in writing. Open with “I’d like to order …”; “I want …” can sound blunt to a supplier.
Listen to the call below, then take the customer’s role with your own product. Say codes digit by digit, “H four two”, so nobody hears 42 as a quantity.
Maya Good morning. I'd like to order twenty headsets.
Owen Do you have the item number?
Maya Yes. It's H four two.
Owen One headset is thirty euros. Delivery is included.
Maya Good. Can you confirm my order by email?
Owen Yes. I'll email that now.
Unit price, total and delivery
“One headset is thirty euros.” gives the unit price: the price of one item. The total is the unit price times the quantity, so twenty headsets at thirty euros are six hundred euros.
“Delivery is included.” means delivery costs nothing extra, but it doesn’t give the day. Ask “When do you deliver?” and use “on” with days: on Friday.
- “What’s the total?” – “Six hundred euros.”
- “When do you deliver?” – “We deliver on Friday.”
Writing the order confirmation email
Put the quantity first, then the item number and the product: “twenty H42 headsets”. “This confirms your order for …” works for any order.
If delivery is free, add “Delivery is included.” If the order changes, recalculate: thirty-five headsets at thirty euros are €1,050, “one thousand and fifty euros”.
- Greeting: “Hello Maya,”
- Order: “This confirms your order for twenty H42 headsets.”
- Total: “The total is six hundred euros.” or “The total is €600.”
- Delivery: “Delivery is on Friday.”
- Closing: “Best,” and your name on the next line
Big numbers: thirteen or thirty?
Numbers are where phone orders often go wrong. Said alone, thirteen to nineteen are stressed at the end and finish with a long “ee” and an “n”: thir-TEEN. Thirty to ninety are stressed at the start: THIR-ty. If unsure, ask: “Sorry, thirteen or thirty?”
British English puts “and” after “hundred” (“one hundred and forty-five”); American English often drops it. “Hundred”, “thousand” and “million” take no -s after a number. In figures, use a comma for thousands and a point for decimals: 21,340 and €12.50.
Owen Twenty-seven. Eighty-two. One hundred and forty-five. Six hundred and ten.
Maya Three thousand nine hundred. Twenty-one thousand three hundred and forty. One hundred and seventy-two thousand. Fifty-eight million.
Owen Thirteen, thirty. Fourteen, forty. Fifteen, fifty.
What a company does: “it makes”, “it doesn’t sell”
To describe a company, use the present simple with “it”: the verb takes -s (makes, sells, exports) and “have” becomes “has”. Negatives use “doesn’t” plus the base verb; questions start with “Does”. He and she work the same way.
Add the industry or the nationality. Nationalities take a capital letter, and “an” goes before a vowel sound: “It’s a Japanese company.”, “It’s an Italian company.”
- “It makes electric trains.”
- “It has one factory.”
- “It doesn’t sell food.”
- “Does it export products?” – “Yes, it does.”
- Industries: energy, retail, electronics, automobile (cars and vans), aeronautical (aircraft)
Common mistakes
People will understand you, but these cause problems in orders:
- “It make trains.” With it, he and she, add -s: “It makes trains.”
- “Does it exports?” After does and doesn’t, no -s: “Does it export?”
- “Two hundreds euros.” After a number, no -s: “two hundred euros”.
- The unit price as the total: twenty headsets don’t cost thirty euros.
- Not reading numbers back: “So that’s twenty headsets, item H42?”
A 10-minute daily practice routine
Practise out loud, with your own products and prices.
- 3 minutes: play the call, repeat each line, then take the customer’s role with your own product.
- 2 minutes: say thirteen/thirty, fourteen/forty, fifteen/fifty, then five prices from a price list.
- 2 minutes: describe three companies: “It’s a … company. It makes … It doesn’t …”
- 3 minutes: change the quantity or unit price, recalculate the total and write the email.
What comes next
Next, write a team event notice with an invitation, then a four-step instruction email. At A2, you can explain an order mistake and send a corrected document.