IT Phrasebook
Ready-to-use professional English phrases for every situation at work — from morning standup to post-mortem write-ups.
Daily Standup
What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? Any blockers?
- Yesterday I worked on…Simple past — specific task
- I completed / finished / wrapped up…Signal a closed ticket
- Today I'm going to / planning to…Present continuous for today's plan
- I'm currently blocked on…State your blocker clearly
- I'm waiting on feedback from…Explain the blocker source
- No blockers on my end.All clear — common phrase
- I should have this done by end of day.Commit to a timeline
- I'm still working through / investigating…Ongoing, unresolved issue
Pull Request Review
Commenting on code, suggesting improvements, approving, requesting changes.
- This looks good to me. Approved!Short, positive approval
- Could you consider / have you thought about…?Soft suggestion — not an order
- I'd suggest extracting this into a separate function.Direct but polite refactor suggestion
- Nit: the variable name could be more descriptive."Nit" = nitpick — minor, non-blocking
- This might cause a race condition if…Flag a potential bug diplomatically
- Can you add a test for the edge case where…?Request a test without demanding
- Left a few comments — nothing blocking.Signal your overall approval intent
- LGTM! (Looks Good To Me)Abbreviation — informal approval
Incident Response
Communicating during and after a production incident.
- We're currently investigating an issue with…Opening incident update
- The root cause appears to be…Cautious early diagnosis
- We've identified the issue and are working on a fix.Reassuring stakeholders mid-incident
- ETA for resolution: approximately 30 minutes.Give a timeframe even if uncertain
- The issue has been mitigated / resolved."Mitigated" = reduced but not fixed; "resolved" = fixed
- All systems are back to normal.All-clear message
- A full post-mortem will follow within 48 hours.Commit to a follow-up
- Approximately X% of users were affected.Quantify impact when possible
Asking for Help
Getting assistance from colleagues without losing face or wasting their time.
- I've been stuck on this for a while — mind taking a look?Friendly, time-aware request
- Do you have 5 minutes to pair on this?Specify time commitment upfront
- I'm not sure I fully understand — could you walk me through it?Honest admission, action-oriented
- I've tried X and Y, but neither worked. Any ideas?Show your work before asking
- Can I ask a quick question about…?"Quick" softens the interruption
- Does this make sense to you? Am I on the right track?Seek validation of direction
- I think I'm missing something obvious here.Self-deprecating but not undermining
- Let me know if you need more context.Proactive offer of information
Meetings & Discussions
Participating in technical discussions, planning sessions, and architecture reviews.
- I have a question / comment on that.Signal you want to speak
- Could you clarify what you mean by…?Ask for clarification, not repetition
- Building on what [Name] said…Add to a colleague's point
- I'd push back on that a bit.Polite disagreement — common in English meetings
- I see your point, but…Acknowledge then counter
- To summarise / wrap up what we've agreed…Useful for meeting minutes
- Who wants to own this action item?Assigning tasks
- Let's take this offline and circle back.Defer detailed discussion to later
Presenting Technical Ideas
Explaining proposals, demos, and technical findings to mixed audiences.
- Let me give you a quick overview of what we're doing.Frame the presentation scope
- The key insight here is…Signal the most important point
- In simple terms, this means…Transition to a non-technical explanation
- The trade-off here is… on one hand… on the other hand…Present balanced options
- This graph shows / illustrates…Introduce a data visualisation
- We went with X because…Justify a decision
- Does anyone have questions so far?Check-in mid-presentation
- Happy to go deeper on any of these points.Offer to elaborate
Giving & Receiving Feedback
One-on-ones, performance reviews, retros, and peer feedback.
- One thing that's going really well is…SBI: start with a positive
- One area to work on would be…"Would be" softens the critique
- I noticed that… and the impact was…Situation–Behaviour–Impact (SBI) structure
- What would help me most is…Clear, specific ask from feedback giver
- Thanks for the feedback — I'll think about that.Receive graciously, even if you disagree
- Could you give me a specific example?Ask for concrete evidence
- I appreciated when you…Positive reinforcement with specifics
- My intention was X, but I can see it came across as Y.Own the impact, explain intent
Async & Remote Communication
Slack, Teams, GitHub, email — writing clearly when there's no live conversation.
- To summarise: [problem] / [decision] / [next steps]BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front
- FYI — this might affect your team:Heads-up for relevant parties
- Blocking issue: needs immediate attention.Flag urgency clearly
- Not urgent — when you get a chance.Explicitly de-prioritise
- Context: [background]. Question: [ask]. Deadline: [date].Complete async message structure
- PTAL (Please Take A Look)Common abbreviation in PR requests
- See thread ↑ for context.Reference earlier messages
- Resolved — closing this thread.Signal closure explicitly in async threads
Want more phrases?
Browse our exercise categories for deeper practice in each communication situation.