Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some expressions you can use when you're busy. In this lesson, I'm also going to talk about some ways to reschedule your plans, or to cancel plans, and so on. Let's get started.
Okay. I want to begin this lesson with the most basic way to express this feeling, "I'm busy." "I'm busy." This is 100% correct. But, if you tell someone, "I'm busy," when they ask you for something, it might sound aggressive or a little bit cold. So, yes, you can say, "I'm busy," or "I'm busy right now." But, I want to talk about some other expressions you can use that give a little more information than just "I'm busy." So, yes, you can say this to someone you are close to perhaps. But, maybe there's a better way, a more polite way to express your situation.
So, let's look at this next one. "My schedule is full." "My schedule is full." So, "full," in this case, means that there's a lot of something. So, everything that you could possibly put inside your schedule is there already. So, with work, or with activities, with other responsibilities, whatever it is, your schedule is 100% at capacity. "My schedule is full," that's what this describes. You can make this more specific. You could say, for example, "My schedule is full today," or "My schedule is full this week." But, if you want to express that you are at 100% capacity for your time, you can say, "My schedule is full." My schedule is full.
The next expression is, "I don't have time today." "I don't have time today." This expression can be changed to something like, "I don't have time this week," or "I don't have time this afternoon." So, this expresses that you're busy, yes, and you want to express too to the other person you don't have time for that thing. So, you can use this as a response to a request for your time. Like, "Hey! Do you want to eat lunch today?" "Sorry. I don't have time today." Please keep in mind that your response needs to match the question. For example, if someone says, "Do you have time for lunch today?" And, you say, "I don't have time this week." It sounds really strange. So, make sure that your response matches the question that comes to you.
Okay. Another way to express you're busy is, "My weekend is fully booked." "My weekend is fully booked." In this case, I used "weekend," which means Saturday, Sunday, the typical days off. Of course, you can change this to, "My day is fully booked," or "My morning is fully booked." So, this "fully booked" has the same feel as this "full," full. You could say, "My weekend is full," or "My day is full," or "My morning is full," as well. The feeling with "fully booked" is kind of like a restaurant or a hotel. Like you are a person with whom people make reservations, and your reservations are all gone. You are fully booked. So, this sounds kind of like you're a service provider almost. It's a little bit funny in some ways, a little bit more casual. So, you can use this to talk about a specific day or a specific time period. You could say, for example, "My morning is fully booked," to refer to only your morning. This suggests that your afternoon, maybe, has some time available. So, please keep this in mind when you use this expression.
Okay. Next is, "My day is packed." "My day is packed." So, "packed," like "full," refers to having lots and lots of things in it. But, different from "full," which means, "I'm at 100% capacity. I can't add any more," "packed" sounds like there's a lot already in your day. In this case, a day. But, there might be a little bit of time available. Generally, this is a kind of casual way to say, "I don't really have time today." But, in some cases, depending on your request, the person might be able to have -- or rather, might be able to find some time to talk to you or do whatever you need to do. So, "My day is packed," it sounds like the person is very busy, but there's a small chance they might have some time. You could also say, "My week is packed," to refer to one week. Or, "My month is packed," as well, to refer to a very busy month. So, you can change this to refer to different time periods. "My day is packed." "My day is packed."
Okay. Next one, "I don't have any space in my schedule today." "I don't have any space in my schedule today." Again, you can change "today" to "this week," for example. "I don't have any space in my schedule this week." Or, a day of the week, "I don't have any space in my schedule Monday," for example. So, "I don't have any space in my schedule," that means there's no free time in my schedule. So, "I don't have any free time in my schedule" is another way to say this, but we use this "space" a lot, too. "I don't have any space in my schedule this week." So, again, this expresses "I am busy. I'm doing something different from what you want me to do." So, these are all some good ways to express "I'm busy," but they're less aggressive and a little bit less direct.
A couple more things I want to talk about are situations where you are doing something, and someone calls you, or someone makes a request of you. And, you want to express that you are busy right now, but you want to do that in a polite way. Here are a few very common examples. First, "I'm in a meeting right now." "I'm in a meeting right now." You might receive this as a text message. So, you might get a request from someone, and you could reply with "I'm in a meeting right now. Sorry. I can't talk." So, this expresses someone is currently busy, and this is what they're doing. You can say, "I'm in a meeting right now," "I have an appointment right now," whatever you're doing. So, you can say, "I'm in a meeting right now," to mean this is something I'm doing right now. This is the reason I cannot talk to you.
Okay. The next one is, "I'm on the way to an appointment." "I'm on the way to an appointment." So, you can change "appointment" to any plan. "I'm on the way to a lunch," "I'm on the way to a concert," "I'm on the way to," some plan that I have. You can change that, but "appointment" is nice because it's open. "I'm on the way to an appointment." You don't have to share details about your personal life, for example. Make sure you use "on the way to." So, don't forget this "on the way to," don't forget that preposition. "I'm on the way to," place.
And, one more. "I have to take this phone call." "I have to take this phone call." This is a really good one to use if you are in a meeting, or maybe at a lunch with someone, or at dinner, having coffee, whatever. You receive an important phone call, or an emergency phone call, to excuse yourself and say kind of an apology. You can say, "I have to take this phone call." If you use "I have to," it sounds like you have some responsibility to take the phone call, to pick up the phone. "I have to take this," sounds like it's kind of a responsibility for you. And, if you don't take the phone call, something bad might happen. So, this is a really good way to express it's important, you pick up the phone, and you don't want to be rude. But, you really need to in this moment.
Okay. So, these are some expressions you can use to talk about your schedule, and being busy without sounding super direct. But, another important point when you're expressing your busy schedule, is to suggest a different time to reschedule or to cancel your plans or appointments. So, it's very natural to use one of these expressions together with one of these expressions in blue. First is, "Can I call you back?" "Can I call you back?" This is more common than "Can I return your call?" So, generally, we say, "Can I call you back?" So, this is used of course when you receive a phone call. If someone comes to your desk in the office, you cannot say, "Can I call you back?" You need to follow up with that person later. In those cases, you can say, "Can we talk later?" You can use in this expression, "later." "Can I call you back later?" Or, a specific time, "Can I call you back in an hour?" Or, "Can we talk in an hour?" or tomorrow. So, you can choose the time frame. You can choose when you want to return the person's request or inquiry. So, a natural flow might be something like, "Hmm, let's see. We could use maybe… I don't have any space in my schedule this morning. Can I call you back later?" So, that might be a natural way to say "I'm busy right now. Here is a time frame that works for me. Is that okay for you?" So, use them together in this way.
Okay. One more. "Do you have time on, day?" "Do you have time on, day?" So, this can be used to specify a day of the week for a meeting. Like, if you want to reschedule. "Do you have time on Monday?" "Do you have time on Tuesday?" So, a natural way to use this with one of these expressions is with something like this, "I don't have time today. Do you have time on Tuesday?" So, you can ask for someone else's schedule to reschedule when you are too busy.
Okay. Next is, "How about," day, "at," time? "How about, day, at, time?" In this sentence, you can replace "day," with the day of the week, and "time," with the time of day. "How about Wednesday at 10 o'clock?" Or, "How about Thursday at 3:00?" So, again, this is a way to reschedule. So, let's take a look at one of these sentences. You could say, for example, "Hmm, my day is packed. How about Friday at 2:00?" So, again, we're expressing we're too busy at this moment, but we have a different suggestion. It's generally a good idea to offer to reschedule with someone. This shows that you are still interested in what the person is talking about and that you are going to make an effort to make time for them. So, it's important to do these kinds of steps to maintain your relationships.
Okay. Finally, if you need to cancel for some reason, you can use an expression like this, "I'm sorry but I have to cancel our meeting," or "I'm sorry but I have to cancel our appointment," or "our lunch," whatever your plan is. You can use it here. "I'm sorry but I have to cancel." So, it's generally a good idea to provide a reason, "Why are you canceling?" So, share some information like, "I had a family emergency," or "A work project came up," something like that. If you need to cancel and you don't want to reschedule, you can use this. You can also say, "I'm sorry but I have to cancel our meeting. Do you have time on this day?" You can cancel completely, and then just reschedule it for another day. You might hear that. But, you can also use this expression to just completely cancel and not reschedule your appointment.
So, the key here is make sure that you use these expressions together with these busy expressions. The "I'm busy" expression. If you just say this, you might sound kind of cold and like you don't want to work together with the other person. So, make sure if you are busy, you express it. And then, you follow up with a change in your schedule. So, I hope that this helps you to express when you are busy in a more polite manner. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye.

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