English: Giving a Short Presentation

Level: B2. A good short presentation is not about big words — it is about structure. If your listeners always know where you are (beginning, middle, or end) and where you are going next, they follow you easily. The tool that does this is signposting language: a small set of fixed phrases that mark each move. Learn them and even a five-minute talk sounds confident and clear.

By the end of this page you can…

…open a short talk, state your topic and plan, signpost each section, refer to a slide or chart, handle a close, and invite questions — all with natural, fixed phrases.

The three parts

Keep the old advice in mind: tell them what you’ll say, say it, then tell them what you said. That means three parts.

1. Opening — greet, give your topic, say why it matters, outline your plan.
2. Body — one point per section, each marked with a signpost.
3. Close — summarise, finish, invite questions.

Opening phrases

Start with the audience, then your topic and your plan. A clear plan sentence tells people how many parts to expect.

Signposting the body

Signposts are the phrases that say “we are moving.” Use one each time you change point, so no one gets lost. Many are built from linking words — see cause and contrast connectors and advanced discourse markers.

• Starting: Let’s start with… / First of all,…
• Moving on: Moving on to… / This brings me to my next point.
• Adding: In addition,… / What’s more,…
• Contrasting: However,… / On the other hand,…
• Giving an example: For instance,… / A good example of this is…
• Returning: As I mentioned earlier,… / Coming back to…

Referring to slides and data

When you show a slide or chart, tell people where to look and what it means. Don’t just read numbers aloud — interpret them.

• As you can see on this slide,…
• This chart shows… / The graph illustrates…
• If you look at the figures,…
• The key point here is…

When you read numbers, interpret them (they rise, fall, level off) rather than just saying the figure — tell the audience what the trend means.

Closing phrases

The close is where many talks fall apart. Mark it clearly, summarise, thank the audience, then open the floor.

• Signal the end: That brings me to the end of my talk.
• Summarise: To sum up,… / In short,…
• Thank: Thank you for listening / for your attention.
• Invite questions: I’m happy to take any questions.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Today I will talk about of my project. → ✅ Today I’ll talk about my project. (No of after talk about + object.)
• ❌ I divided my talk in three parts. → ✅ I’ve divided my talk into three parts. (into, and present perfect for the plan.)
• ❌ Let’s start with to the first point. → ✅ Let’s start with the first point. (No to after start with.)
• ❌ As you can see in this slide. → ✅ As you can see on this slide. (Use on for slides.)
• ❌ Thank you for your listening. → ✅ Thank you for listening. (No your before the -ing form here.)
• ❌ I will answer to your questions. → ✅ I’ll answer your questions. (answer takes no to.)

A short conversation

Presenter: Good morning, everyone. Today I’d like to talk about our new app. I’ve divided my talk into three parts: the problem, our solution, and the results. Presenter: Let’s start with the problem. Users told us the old sign-up was too slow. Presenter: This brings me to our solution. As you can see on this slide, we cut it from six steps to two. Presenter: Finally, the results. If you look at the figures, sign-ups rose by forty per cent. Presenter: To sum up: a simpler sign-up, happier users, more growth. Thank you for listening. I’m happy to take any questions. Colleague: Thanks — could you say more about the testing?

Usage notes

• talk about vs discuss: talk about takes a preposition (talk about X); discuss does not (discuss X, never discuss about X).
• slide / handout / deck: a slide is one screen; the whole set is a deck or a slideshow; a handout is paper you give out.
• BrE vs AmE: British per cent (two words) vs American percent; both are read the same. British maths, American math if your topic needs it.
• register: signposting phrases suit both business and academic talks. For a very informal talk you can drop some (OK, next…), but keep the opening plan and the summary.

Example sentences

Play each line and say it aloud. These are the phrases that hold a short talk together.

Quick recap before you practise.

How to say it

A few presentation words trip up English learners — copy the audio, not the spelling.

• presentation stresses the third part: “prez-en-TAY-shun”.
• slide rhymes with “ride” — one syllable.
• figures here means numbers: “FIG-ers” (British) or “FIG-yers” (American).
• audience is three syllables: “AW-dee-ence”.

Practice

Quiz

Recap cheat-sheet

Next

• Previous lesson: English: Complaints & Solving Problems
• Next lesson: English: Small Talk & Networking
• Related grammar: cause and contrast connectors · advanced discourse markers