Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

calcaneous · Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 32

I get phone calls from businesspeople everyday, and they usually ask

me if they can talk to my father. In such situation I immediately repond

with the very disappointing sentence - "He's not here."

Come to think of it, there's something grammatically wrong with my

expression. The short for "he is not here" should be "he isn't here", right?

Yet, somehow the correct sentence seems awkward to me. It might be

because I got so accustomed to saying "he's not here", but that sentence

"flows" better than "he isn't here". So, my question is... are they both

acceptable?? Also, for example, when someone says "my father's not

very happy about my marks", do you respond with "he's not??' or "he

isn't??"

I would really appreciate if someone can satisfy my curiosity.

p.s: By the way, this is a really nice website. I can't believe I've wasted

my time looking for an English tutor when great ESL websites like this one

is available to me.

flaps · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

hi,
your question is very interesting I think. For me, the natural one is "he's not here" too, but I don't know why. I hope a native speaker would give an answer.

KazAV · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:18 pm Post subject:

Both are correct. As a native speaker, I usually say "he`s not here" too.

KazAV · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:19 pm Post subject:

You can say he's not or he isn't - both are correct.

Sorry for two posts - I thought the first one hadn't worked.

lotus · Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 862

Hi Calcaneous,

In business conversation, we try to be polite and diplomatic, even when the answer is no. "He's not here" by itself would be too blunt. You should always give clients recourse. When you answer the phone, you might say:

He's not here right now. Would you like to leave a message?

He's in a meeting right now, can I take a message?

He's not here right now. Is there anything I can do for you?

He's not available right now. He'll be back in 15 minutes. Would you like to call back then?

He's not here right now. Can he call you back?

He's not available right. Can I take your number and have him call you back?

These calls are important to your father. So, they should be important to you too.

--lotus