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Context: I was interviewing for a job and I scheduled a lot of calls with recruiters/ hiring managers. I was available to talk twice a week from 8 am till 10 am or 4 pm till 5 pm. Sometimes I scheduled so many calls that all the slots in my calendar were taken.

Is it correct to use "I'm booked for tomorrow" in this situation? I wanted to say that I cannot talk tomorrow because I scheduled too many calls and don't have time for another one.

Can I use it like this:

"Thank you for reaching out. I'm booked for tomorrow, but I'd love to talk on Monday."

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    I see several variations of "all booked up" below, but (at least in the US) a common alternative is "booked solid"
    – A C
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 5:17
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    Actually, it is not wrong, it just has a different meaning. "I'm booked for tomorrow" is right for say a hooker or any person that you can directly book - but you won't want to use it in any place.
    – Mahdi Tahsildari
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 11:54
  • You cannot what?? To be booked is used by those who require appointments: hairdressers, doctors, dentists, and so forth. Are you someone who requires appointments??
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 15:15
  • @Lambie I missed the word "talk" ("I wanted to say that I cannot talk tomorrow because I scheduled too many calls and don't have time for another one."). It's hard to say if I require appointments. I was interviewing for a job and I scheduled a lot of calls with recruiters/ hiring managers. I don't work in the service industry. I wanted to express that "all my available slots (to talk) are taken."
    – Codewife_101
    Commented May 6, 2021 at 1:56
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    Generally, a job applicant would not say they are booked up. That is said by people who are in services like accountants, doctors and so forth. Unfortunately, the answers just looked at grammar, not at this context....So, I stand by my answer.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 6, 2021 at 12:35

6 Answers 6

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Saying "I'm booked for tomorrow" implies to me that you only have one meeting/presentation/errand/gig slot and it's already taken. This is fine if you're a band, or a motivational speaker, or some other profession of that nature that can't do more than one thing in a day.

That said, it totally makes sense and I would understand your meaning.

An alternative turn of phrase would be "I'm all booked up tomorrow," or "My schedule is fully booked" or even "All of my appointment slots are booked for that day" to make it more clear. Adding "I'd love to talk Monday at 9 or 10:30 am, or any time between 2pm and 5pm" would be a good choice. Obviously, use good times for your calendar! :)

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    I think this singular, all-day event is the significant difference from all the other answers. I work in an industry where you can only have 'one booking per day' so this is a very common term.
    – DoneWithThis.
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 19:13
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    If I were taking it literally, I would not take it as there being only one slot, but that all slots are booked. Taking it more loosely, I would consider it to possibly mean that there are already so many booking that a further one would be a significant imposition (e.g. there is still one more slot open, but filling it would mean no lunch break left over).
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 23:12
  • @rossum I added the context to this expression. I'm not a performer. I was interviewing for a job and wanted to express that all slots in my calendar are taken, so I thought I would use this expression. Sometimes I scheduled three calls one after another on the same day.
    – Codewife_101
    Commented May 6, 2021 at 2:17
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I personally would make it more explicit, e.g.

"Thank you for reaching out. I'm all booked up for tomorrow, but I'd love to talk on Monday."

or

"Thank you for reaching out. My schedule* is full for tomorrow, but I'd love to talk on Monday."

*"schedule" is US usage but will be understood in the UK. Brits would perhaps say "diary".

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    Diary? Can I use "schedule" instead?
    – Codewife_101
    Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 19:40
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    @Codewife_101 - Yes.
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 19:42
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    @Codewife_101 For what it's worth, "diary" might confuse American English speakers (we'd figure it out from context, but for us, a diary is a personal journal). "Schedule" works fine -- or "calendar"
    – A C
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 5:14
  • @A C - Okay. I'll edit.
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 11:00
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    @AC Based on personal experience, ‘’calendar’ is probably more likely to be more widely understood than either ‘diary’ or ‘schedule’. It’s kind of becoming the norm in most of the more technologically-savvy native-speaking communities as it’s the term used by most software for this type of thing.
    – Austin Hemmelgarn
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 21:05
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I would understand and accept that. I might say "I'm booked up for tomorrow".

Using Google, most uses of "I'm booked" are when a person has a particular booking with someone.

Hello, is that the gym? (Yes) I'm booked for tomorrow at 5pm and I wanted to check that the showers are fixed, because last Friday they were out-of-order.

On the other hand "booked up" is used in the sense that you want:

Well I'm booked up for tomorrow, and I only have 1 appointment left for Wednesday, pm me if you want to be pampered.

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    "Is that gym?" doesn't sound idiomatic. "Is this the gym?" is how you would confirm that you're talking to someone at the gym.
    – Barmar
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 15:13
  • Yes, sorry, fixed. "this" or "that" are both possible in a telephone conversation. (Demonstrative pronouns haven't quite kept pace with telecommunications)
    – James K
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 21:08
  • In my experience, "Is that the gym?" is a question someone next to the person talking to the gym would ask. "Is this the gym?" is what you ask when calling the gym to confirm.
    – Barmar
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 21:11
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Context is important.

"I'm booked for tomorrow," in the US, typically implies that you're unavailable.

However, if it's in response to a question like "Is the appointment made for 2:00PM?" it can actually be a confirmation that you've scheduled a meeting. Conversationally, both make sense.

'Booked' means that you've reserved something. Set a placeholder for that timeframe, etc. It only becomes semantically tenuous out of context.

As other's have stated, being explicit in your response is always the best case scenario to avoid ambiguity, but "I'm booked for tomorrow" is a perfectly acceptable response to either circumstance (confirm or deny.)

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to book an appointment: with people who provide services such as: doctors, dentists, hairdressers, dog groomers, manicurists, etc. etc. etc.

So, if you are "all booked", you have no time open to take another client.

book an appointment is also expressed as schedule an appointment.

Unless you are talking to someone who is trying to book an appointment with you, you would not say it. It is basically only used in that context.

As for scheduling too many calls, without more context, that is meaningless.

If you make marketing calls for a living (which I would not call scheduling calls), and have too many calls to make, you would say to someone you know: I'm busy tomorrow and have no time to talk.

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From a UK viewpoint,

I'm booked for tomorrow, but I'd love to talk on Monday.

feels slightly odd as the

I'm booked for tomorrow

comes across almost as a notification that you do have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, which doesn't match with the second part.

The phrase that would probably be used as you intend would be

I'm fully booked for tomorrow,...

or even

Unfortunately, I'm fully booked for tomorrow,...

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  • Agreed that "I'm booked for tomorrow" could mean there is an appointment, as in "I'm booked for tomorrow but I'm being called into work (and can't make my appointment). Can we do Monday instead?" but the context of who is saying this should prevent confusion. From the service provider, I believe that an existing appointment would be "You're booked for tomorrow, but I've just been notified of an emergency. Can I rebook you for Monday?" while when the service provider says "I'm (already) booked for tomorrow" it simply means that someone has appointments, but not the other party.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 20:58
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    Inline code spans should not be used for emphasis It’s better to use block quote formatting, bold, or italics.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 6, 2021 at 2:42
  • This. "I'm fully booked" was totally the variation I was expecting to see suggested. I'm so surprised other answers have overwhelmingly used "I'm all booked up". Maybe an American English/British English thing.
    – user29750
    Commented Mar 7, 2021 at 10:24

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