Moving to the US? The English you'll use in your first month

You've sorted out the visa, the flights and the first month's rent. Somewhere in the middle of all that planning, a quieter question shows up: what happens the first time I have to call someone?

Most people who move to the US already know a lot of English. What catches them off guard usually isn't vocabulary. It's the speed, the accents, and a set of everyday conversations nobody practiced in class: the call to a landlord, the pharmacy counter, the coffee order that comes with three follow-up questions.

The good news is that these conversations are predictable. Here are the ones you'll probably meet in your first month, and the English that gets you through them.

Ordering coffee and food

Ordering sounds easy until the questions start. In a lot of US cafés and fast food places, your order is a short back-and-forth:

"Can I get a medium latte, please?"

"For here or to go?"

"What name should I put on that?"

"Anything else for you?"

"Can I get..." is a normal, polite way to order in American English. If you learned "Could I have..." in school, that works too. "For here or to go?" is asking whether you'll eat or drink in the café or take it with you.

At a restaurant with table service, the server will usually stop by during the meal to ask "How is everything?" When you're ready to pay, you ask for the check, not the bill:

"Could we get the check, please?"

Tipping is part of the conversation too. At sit-down restaurants in the US, a tip of around 15 to 20 percent is customary, and it's usually not included in the price.

"How are you?" from people you don't know

In the US, cashiers, neighbors and the person next to you in line will often open with "How's it going?" or "How are you doing today?" It's a greeting more than a question, and the expected answer is short:

"Good, thanks. How are you?"

"I'm good. How about you?"

"I'm good" is completely standard in American English, so don't worry if it's not what your textbook taught. If you'd like more on keeping these little conversations going, our guide to making small talk in English covers it step by step.

Phone calls, the conversation most people dread

Setting up internet, calling about an apartment, booking an appointment. In your first weeks, a surprising amount of life happens on the phone, often after an automated menu. There's no face to read, and the other person may talk fast.

A few lines carry most of these calls:

"Hi, I'm calling to set up internet at my new apartment."

"Sorry, could you say that a little slower?"

"Could you spell that for me?"

"Just to confirm, that's Tuesday at 10 a.m.?"

Three things tend to come up on almost every call, so it helps to practice saying them out loud:

• Your phone number. Americans say it in groups of three, three and four digits: (555) 218-4091 is "five-five-five, two-one-eight, four-oh-nine-one." Many people say "oh" for zero.
• Your address. Number, street, apartment number, city, state, then ZIP code. The first time you say your new address out loud will probably be on the phone.
• Your name, spelled. Have a way to spell it clearly: "That's M as in Mike, A as in apple..."

Dates are written month first in the US, so 9/10 is September 10th, not October 9th. That one is worth double-checking on forms and appointment confirmations.

Finding an apartment

When you contact a landlord or a leasing office, the same questions come up again and again:

"Hi, I'm calling about the apartment on Maple Street. Is it still available?"

"What's included in the rent? Are utilities included?"

"How long is the lease?"

"How much is the security deposit?"

"When could I come see it?"

A few words you'll hear a lot: the lease is the rental contract, utilities are things like electricity, water and gas, and a studio is an apartment with no separate bedroom.

A lease is a legal contract, so if anything in it isn't clear, ask before you sign. "Could you walk me through this part?" is a normal question, and a good landlord will expect it.

At the doctor and the pharmacy

Describing how you feel is where a lot of people go quiet, because it's hard to find the words when you're not feeling well. It helps to have a few sentence shapes ready:

"I'd like to make an appointment. I'm a new patient."

"I've had a sore throat for three days."

"It hurts when I breathe in."

"I'm allergic to penicillin."

Clinics will usually ask about your health insurance early on, so keep your insurance card close. At the pharmacy, you'll often say "I'm here to pick up a prescription," and they'll ask for your name and date of birth.

For something that needs attention the same day but isn't an emergency, many people go to an urgent care clinic. For an emergency, call 911.

If you're not sure you understood something a doctor told you about your health, ask them to explain it again. Many hospitals and clinics also offer free interpreters, so it's worth asking: "Do you have an interpreter who speaks Spanish?"

Your first weeks at work

American workplaces tend to be informal on the surface. Most people use first names, including with managers, and you'll introduce yourself a lot in the first few weeks:

"Hi, I'm Ana. I just joined the design team."

"Nice to meet you. What do you work on?"

If meetings are where your English goes quiet, this guide to speaking up in English meetings is a good next read. Still looking for a job? Start with the interview questions that almost always come up.

Accents, speed, and asking again

You'll hear many different accents in the US, and people often talk faster than the audio you practiced with. It takes a few weeks for your ear to adjust, and that's normal.

In the meantime, asking someone to repeat themselves is one of the most useful skills you can have. Americans ask each other to repeat things all the time:

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Could you say that again?"

"Do you mean the one on the left?"

That last one checks your understanding without asking the whole sentence again. And if an official, a doctor or anyone else asks you something important you didn't understand, ask them to repeat it rather than guessing.

Say it out loud before you land

Almost every conversation on this list starts with a sentence you can prepare today. "I'm calling about the apartment." "I'd like to make an appointment." "Could you say that a little slower?" None of them need to be memorized word for word. They just need to have come out of your mouth a few times before the day you need them.

That's what Verbalta is for. You can practice the call to your future landlord out loud, and your coach replies and helps it sound more natural. So by the time the phone rings in your new home, you've already said it out loud.