PretakeGet the iPhone app All people, messages, amounts and replies in these examples are fictional. Adapt the wording to your situation; no script guarantees a response.
Before you begin
Check whether the interruption is an urgent correction, a connection delay or a recurring pattern of taking the floor. The same response will not fit every case. You can protect your turn without deciding why the other person interrupted.
Keep an in-meeting phrase short enough to use while a conversation is moving. Save the broader pattern for a separate discussion where neither of you is competing with an audience.
What to say: example wording
Keep your turn
“Let me finish this point, then I want to hear your question. What we need to decide today is whether to move the launch date.”
In this meeting, Lee returns to the substance immediately. A long speech about interruptions can lose the point you wanted to finish.
Address the pattern privately
“In today’s update I got cut off twice before I finished the recommendation, so I never got to explain the trade-off. Could you let me finish before jumping in?”
Describe an event you actually observed. Avoid claims about the coworker’s intentions or what everyone else thinks of them.
Suggest a meeting rule
“For tomorrow’s review, could everyone get two minutes to present before we take questions? I think we’d hear each recommendation in full that way.”
A shared process can address a group problem without turning one person into a public example.
What not to say, and why
- “Can you ever stop talking?” It attacks the person and does not state the turn-taking change you need.
- “I guess my opinion doesn’t matter.” This makes them infer the request and debate the implication.
- “Everyone is sick of you doing this.” Do not recruit unnamed colleagues into your complaint.
How the other person might react
These are invented possibilities to prepare for, not predictions.
They say they were only helping
“I know you had something relevant to add. I still need to finish the recommendation first so the group has the full context.” You can acknowledge the contribution and keep the request.
They say you interrupt too
“I’m willing to work on that as well. Can we both finish a point before the other responds?” Mutual responsibility does not erase the original issue.
They interrupt again
Repeat the short phrase once. If the meeting process keeps failing, ask the facilitator to manage turns rather than increasing your volume to win.
Make space for the next speaker
When you finish, hand the floor back: “That’s the recommendation. What was your question?” Follow-through makes it clear that you were asking for a complete turn, not permanent control of the conversation.
If the pattern affects your ability to contribute, note specific instances and discuss the meeting structure with its owner. Keep the focus on participation and work impact. Rehearsing a sentence cannot fix every power dynamic.
Rehearse it first
Practice a one-sentence interruption response and returning directly to your point. Read it aloud as well; text rehearsal alone does not practice timing in a live meeting.
Pretake on iPhone lets you practice messages with AI and rewind to try different words. It is AI practice, not the real person; a simulated reply cannot tell you what they will think or say. Practice messages are never sent to them.
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Prefer a worksheet? Use the free conversation planner. Read how imported chat text is processed before bringing private context.