English Vocabulary for learners
Expressions for Clarifying Information
Making sure that your are understood.
It is important to make sure that you have understood what has been said, that the meaning is clear for you.
Here are some common phrases and expressions that will help you ask for clarification
or express your lack of understanding.
- CLARIFYING INFORMATION:
checking that you've understood
- Does that mean … / Do you mean … ?
- If I understand correctly, you're asking me to …
- I don’t think I quite understand what you mean. Would you mind repeating that?
- Could you repeat that please? I think I may have misunderstood.
- I’m not sure if I got that right. You would like us to …?
- To avoid any misunderstanding, would you mind if I rephrased that?
- I’m afraid it’s not quite clear how you propose to...
- Let's go through the arrangement again if you don't mind.
- Would you mind if we went over that again?
- So, unless I’m mistaken, you're asking us to …
- Let's see if I’ve understood you correctly. You would like to...?
- So, your idea would be to ...
- Could you clarify what you mean by ...?
- Could you be more specific?
- Sorry, I don’t quite understand. Perhaps you could give me an example?
- Do I understand you to mean that ...?
- Just to be absolutely clear, you’re offering to... if we agree to ...?
- To put it another way, you're suggesting / you're saying that …
- So, correct me if I'm wrong. What that means is …
- So what you are saying is… Does that sound right?
- In other words you agree with my proposal?
- So, to be perfectly clear, we both agree to …
- Am I right to conclude that …?
- I appreciate the clarification. It makes more sense to me now.
- Would you mind confirming that in writing?