English for Stand-ups and IT Meetings: Phrases and Sample Scripts

October 2026  ·  6 min read

Meetings are where many developers feel their English is weakest. There is no time to think, people speak fast, and accents vary. The good news is that IT meetings are very predictable. The same phrases come up again and again, so a small, well-practised set goes a long way.

1. The Daily Stand-up: Structure and Phrases

Keep your update to 30–60 seconds. Use the same structure every day.

Two grammar tips: use the past simple for yesterday (“I fixed”), and “going to” or “will” for today. Avoid “Today I do…”, which is the most common stand-up mistake.

2. Sprint Planning and Estimating

• “What’s the priority for this sprint?”
• “Do we have acceptance criteria for this story?”
• “I’d say it’s about three points, assuming the API is ready.”
• “It’s hard to estimate until we’ve looked at the legacy code. Could we add a spike first?”
• “That’s more than a day. Roughly two to three days, including tests.”
• “I think we’re over capacity. Something will have to move to the next sprint.”

In planning poker, if your estimate is very different, explain it briefly: “I went higher because we also need a database migration.”

3. Retrospectives

Retros ask for opinions, which is harder than giving status. Useful frames:

• What went well: “I think pairing on the payment bug worked really well.”
• What did not: “One thing that slowed us down was…” · “We kept getting blocked by…”
• Suggesting change: “Maybe we could try…” · “What if we…?”
• Action items: “Who’s going to own that?” · “Let’s check next retro whether it helped.”

Talk about the process, not people: “Reviews took a long time”, not “Tom reviews slowly”.

4. Disagreeing Politely and Interrupting

Direct disagreement (“No, this is wrong”) sounds aggressive in most English-speaking teams. Soften it, then give a reason.

5. When You Do Not Understand

Asking for clarification is a sign of a professional, not of weak English. Everyone does it, including native speakers.

• “Sorry, could you say that again? The connection broke up.”
• “Could you speak a bit more slowly, please?”
• “Sorry, what does ‘spike’ mean in this context?”
• “Just to check I’ve understood: you want me to…, right?”
• “Could you put the link in the chat?”

The last two are the most useful: paraphrasing confirms the task, and asking for things in writing gives you something to read at your own speed.

6. Demos and Sprint Reviews

• Opening: “I’m going to show you the new export feature. It should take about five minutes.”
• Context: “The problem was that users had to download each report separately.”
• Walking through: “If I click here…” · “As you can see, the file now includes…”
• When something breaks: “That’s not what should happen. Let me try that again.” · “It worked on staging this morning; I’ll look into it after the call.”
• Closing: “That’s it from me. Any questions?”

7. Sample Stand-up Scripts: B1 and C1

Same situation, two levels. Both are fine at work. The C1 version adds context, risk and a proposed solution.

B1:

“Yesterday I worked on the login bug. I found the problem. It is in the email encoding. Today I’m going to fix it and write tests. I have one blocker: I need access to the staging logs. Can somebody help me with this? Thanks.”

C1:

“Yesterday I tracked down the login error. It turns out emails with a plus sign weren’t being encoded before we call the auth service. The fix itself is small, so today I’ll get the PR up with tests for a few other special characters. The only thing holding me up is staging log access. Sam, could you sort that out after the call? If that’s not possible today, I can reproduce it locally instead, it’ll just take a bit longer.”

If you are at B1, use the B1 script with confidence. Short and clear is better than long and confused. To move up, add one sentence of “why” to each update.

8. Listening Tips for Different Accents

International teams mix Indian, American, British, Eastern European, Latin American and many other accents. Some practical steps:

• Listen to varied speakers on purpose. Conference talks and tech podcasts give you hours of real engineering speech in many accents.
• Use subtitles in stages. English subtitles first, then none, then replay only the parts you missed.
• Learn connected speech. “Gonna”, “wanna”, “lemme check”, “didja” are how fast speech really sounds.
• Preview the agenda. Read the tickets before planning, so you already know the key words.
• Shadow short clips. Repeat a sentence right after the speaker, copying rhythm and stress. More ideas in how to practise speaking alone.

Derstina’s English for IT courses (A1 to C2) include stand-up and meeting lessons alongside tickets, code reviews and documentation. For the vocabulary used in this article, see technical English vocabulary for developers, and for written communication, emails, tickets and code reviews in English. Not sure what level your team expects? Read what level of English developers need.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I say in a daily stand-up in English?

Answer three questions in under a minute: what you did yesterday, what you will do today, and whether anything is blocking you. For example: “Yesterday I finished the login fix. Today I’m going to write tests. No blockers.”

How do I ask someone to repeat in English politely?

Say “Sorry, could you say that again?” or “Could you speak a bit more slowly, please?” To check the meaning, paraphrase: “Just to check I’ve understood, you want me to…, right?”

How do I disagree politely in a meeting?

Acknowledge the other view, then give your concern and a reason: “I see your point, but I’m not sure it will scale, because…” Focus on the idea, not the person.

What English level do I need for stand-ups?

At B1 you can give a prepared stand-up update. At B2 you can answer follow-up questions without notes. At C1 you can raise risks, negotiate priorities and lead the discussion.

How can I understand different accents in meetings?

Listen to a wide range of speakers regularly, for example conference talks and tech podcasts, use subtitles in stages, learn common connected-speech forms like “gonna”, and read the agenda or tickets beforehand so you know the key words.