Making an Appointment

Making an Appointment

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Making an appointment

Being able to make and cancel an appointment is an important skill in English. You need to be able to:

• make an appointment,
• respond to an appointment and
• cancel an appointment.

Here are some expressions you can use to do this concisely and clearly.

Asking to meet:

Are you	available on... / next...? free on... / next...?
Can we	meet on... / next ...?
would	next ... be ok?
What about	next ... ?
Is	next ... ok?

Examples:

• "Are you available on the 17th?"
• "Can we meet on the 16th?"
• "How does the 3rd sound to you?"
• "Are you free next week?"
• "Would Friday suit you?"
• "Is next Tuesday convenient for you?"
• "What about sometime next week?"

Responding to an appointment:

Yes,	... is fine .... would be fine.
....	suits me would be perfect.
I'm afraid I'm sorry	I can't on .... I won't be able to... on ...
I really don't think I can	on ...

Examples:

• "Yes, Monday is fine."
• "Monday suits me."
• "Thursday would be perfect."
• "I'm afraid I can't on the 3rd. What about the 6th?"
• "I'm sorry, I won't be able to make it on Monday. Could we meet on Tuesday instead?"
• "Ah, Wednesday is going to be a little difficult. I'd much prefer Friday, if that's alright with you."
• "I really don't think I can on the 17th. Can we meet up on the 19th?

Cancelling an appointment

You can cancel an appointment as follows

• Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen business, I will be unable to keep our appointment for tomorrow afternoon.
• Would it be possible to arrange another time later in the week?
• I’m afraid that I have to cancel our meeting on Wednesday, as something unexpected has come up.
• You know we were going to meet next Friday? Well, I'm very sorry, but something urgent has come up.
• I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to meet you after all. Can we fix another time?