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IELTS Speaking vocabulary: Meetings
To meet someone
To have a meeting (formal)
- To meet up (informal – with friends/colleagues)
- To get together (informal – with friends/family, colleagues)
- To have a get-together = family and friends gathering for a dinner / a party
Let’s meet up with your family for a meal on Friday and then we can get together with my family the following day.
- To touch base with someone = to meet and get up to date
- To catch up with someone = to get the latest news
I want to touch base with you about the project deadlines, do you have time today?
If you are organising a meeting at work you can say,
- to hold a meeting
- to call a meeting
- to host a meeting
- to set up a meeting
- to schedule a meeting
- To attend a meeting = to go to a meeting as a participant
What makes a successful meeting?
Here are some ideas on what can make a meeting a successful one:
- Having a well organised and enthusiastic chair (person) – smiling, good mood, good attitude,
- Having a clear and shared agenda (= meeting plan)
- Good organisation
- Having a clear purpose / goal / outcome
- Have a results-oriented approach
- Setting the ground rules (=basic meeting rules)
- Good time management
- Getting everyone involved
- Listening carefully
- Being participative
- Working as a team
- Sticking to the agenda
Find more guidelines and useful language about running an effective meeting here.
- To set an agenda
- To circulate an agenda
- To follow the items on the agenda
- To stick to the agenda = to follow
- To chair a meeting = to organise the discussion
- To take the minutes = to take official notes
- Save your questions to the end
- Chip in with (= contribute) your questions any time
- Chime in with (= contribute) your questions any time
Idioms about meetings
To begin a meeting we can say,
- Let’s get the ball rolling
- Let’s get down to business
- Let’s kick off
To get people ready to start and do some hard work, we can say,
- It’s time to roll up our sleeves
To keep people focussed we can say,
- Don’t beat around the bush, please get to the point.
- Let’s get down to brass tacks.
- To beat around / about the bush = to be indirect
- To go around the houses = to be indirect
- To get to the point =to be direct (in your speech)
- To get down to brass tacks = To get to the important details
When it comes to working as a team we can say,
- Put your heads together = to work together
- Work hand in hand = to collaborate
- Two heads are better than one = more people, more ideas
To end a meeting we can say,
- Let’s wind up here
- Let’s wrap up the meeting
- Let’s call it a day.
IELTS Speaking: How to describe meetings
Adjectives to describe meetings
When a meeting is good and with a positive outcome, we often say,
- Successful
- Valuable
- Fruitful
- Productive
- Constructive
When a meeting doesn’t go well and doesn’t have a good outcome, we often say,
- Pointless = without meaning
- Fruitless = no result
- Difficult = hard work and no clear result (maybe due to personality clashes, disagreements)
- Inconclusive = no conclusion
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