Practice English presentations

A presentation lives or dies in the delivery. You can know your slides perfectly and still stumble when you have to say them aloud in English, especially during the questions afterwards.

Airi is an audience you can rehearse in front of as often as you need. Deliver your opening, your key points, your close — out loud — and then let her ask the kind of questions a real audience would. Practicing the Q&A is what separates a smooth talk from a nervous one.

A quick example with Airi

I'm your audience. Whenever you're ready, start your opening.

Good morning everyone. Today I will to present our new product.

Small fix: "Today I will present" — no "to." Strong start! Go on.

Our product help small business to manage orders.

"Our product helps small businesses manage orders." Nice. I have a question about pricing later.

Try a conversation like this, free600 free credits, about 8 minutes of speaking. No card.

The five moments of an English presentation, with a line for each

Most talks, from a team update to a conference session, move through the same five moments. Listeners cannot see your headings, so each change of direction has to be said out loud. Have a line ready for each.

Moment	What the audience needs	A line that works
Opening	Who you are and why they should listen	Good morning, everyone. I'm Lina from the product team, and today I'm going to show you how we cut delivery times.
Outline	A map of the talk	I've split this into three parts: the problem, what we tried, and what we recommend.
Moving on	A signal that one point is finished and the next is starting	So that's the problem. Let's move on to what we tried.
Summary	Your points again, shorter	To sum up: deliveries were slow, the new route fixed that, and we'd like to roll it out.
Close	A clear ending	That's everything from me. Thank you for listening. I'd be happy to take your questions.

Know the opening and the close almost by heart. In between, learn the first sentence of each section and speak from notes: a script memorized word for word can fall apart as soon as you lose one word.

Describing charts and numbers in a presentation

On a data slide, one wrong preposition changes the number. "Sales rose by 10 million" and "sales rose to 10 million" are two different results.

by for the size of a change: "Costs fell by 8 percent."
to for where a number ended up: "Costs fell to 2 million."
from ... to for both ends: "The team grew from 6 to 14 people."
at for a level: "Orders peaked at 900 a day and then stayed at around 700."
After a noun, in for what changed and of for how much: "a rise in costs", "a rise of 8 percent".

On each data slide, say what it shows, then the one thing to notice, then what it means: "This chart shows support tickets per week. Look at the dip after the update. That tells us the fix worked."

Say every number on your slides out loud at least once before the talk. 2.5 million is "two point five million" and 0.4 is "zero point four". Slow down on pairs that are easy to mishear, such as 15 and 50.

Handling audience questions after your presentation

You cannot script the Q&A, but you can prepare a line for each kind of trouble.

When	Say
You did not catch the question	Sorry, I didn't catch that. Could you say it again?
You are not sure what they mean	Just to check, are you asking about the cost or the timeline?
You do not know the answer	I don't have that number in front of me. I'll check and get back to you by tomorrow.
The question is off topic	That's a bit outside what I'm covering today. Can we talk about it afterward?
Someone disagrees with you	I see your point. The way we looked at it was ...
You have finished answering	Does that answer your question?
Nobody asks anything	One thing people often ask me is ...

Repeating a question in your own words before you answer ("So the question is whether this works for smaller teams") is normal: the whole room hears it, and you gain a few seconds.

Mistakes English learners make in presentations

Instead of	Say	Why
Let me explain you the new process.	Let me explain the new process to you.	After "explain", the thing comes first and the person needs "to": explain something to someone.
Can everybody listen to me?	Can everybody hear me?	"Hear" is about sound reaching people. "Listen" is about paying attention.
Sales grew by 10 percents.	Sales grew by 10 percent.	After a number, "percent" has no "s": 10 percent, 50 percent.
Sales were increased by 10 percent.	Sales increased by 10 percent.	When a number goes up, use "increase" or "rise" in the active. The passive suggests someone raised it on purpose.
Do you have any doubts?	Do you have any questions?	To most listeners, having doubts means you are not convinced, not that you want to ask something.
Thank you for your listening.	Thank you for listening.	After "thank you for", an -ing word takes no "your". With a noun it does: "Thank you for your attention."

What to say when you lose your place mid-presentation

Fluent speakers lose their thread too. One calm sentence is enough to get back on track; a long apology only draws attention to the slip.

You lost your place: "Sorry, where was I? Right, the timeline."
A sentence came out badly: "Let me put that another way."
You said the wrong number: "Sorry, I meant fifteen, not fifty."
You cannot find the word: "I can't think of the exact word, but it's the part that connects the two systems."
You are running out of time: "I'm going to skip the next two slides and go straight to the recommendation."

A presentation rehearsal with Airi, step by step

Rehearse in pieces instead of running the whole talk at once: the opening, one section, then some questions.

Set the scene: "You are my audience: senior managers who don't know the technical details. I'm going to give the opening of my presentation."
Deliver your opening and outline, then ask: "What is my talk about, and what are my three points?" If what she says back is not what you meant, tighten the outline and try again.
Say: "Now be a skeptical audience. Ask me three hard questions, one at a time, including one I probably can't answer."
If a small fix comes up for a line from your talk, say that line again the corrected way, then change it in your notes so the slip does not come back on the day.
Finish by giving the opening one more time, without your notes.

How to get the most from it

Rehearse aloud, not in your head

Reading slides silently is not practice. Say every line out loud to Airi.

Prepare for questions

Ask Airi to be a tough audience and throw hard questions. The Q&A is where nerves show.

Nail the transitions

Practice the phrases that move you between sections — "Moving on to…", "That brings me to…".

Start speaking today

Your first 600 credits are free — no credit card. Sign in and have your first conversation with Airi.

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Frequently asked questions

Can Airi ask audience questions?

Yes. After your talk, ask her to play the audience and she'll ask realistic follow-up questions for you to answer live.

Can I practice a specific pitch?

Yes. Tell her your topic and who the audience is, deliver the pitch aloud, and Airi will react and question you as an audience would.

Will it help with nerves?

It can. Rehearsing out loud several times, including the questions, tends to make the real talk feel more familiar. With Airi you can repeat any part as often as you like, with nobody watching.

How do I start a presentation in English?

Greet the room, say who you are, give your topic in one sentence, and say how long you will take: "Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Dani from finance. I'm here to walk you through next year's budget, and it will take about ten minutes." Then give the outline.

What do I say if I can't answer a question?

Say so plainly and promise to follow up: "That's a good question, and I don't want to guess. Let me check and get back to you." A clear "I'll find out" is better than a guess that turns out to be wrong.

Is it free to try?

Yes. You get 600 free credits when you sign up with Google, about eight minutes of speaking. That is enough to rehearse your opening and a few audience questions. After that there are one-off credit packs, with no subscription.

Last updated: 2026-10-03