Funeral speech examples
Most guides treat every funeral speech as a eulogy. They are not the same thing. There are five different speaking jobs at a typical funeral, they are different lengths, and getting the wrong one is what makes people feel out of place at the lectern.
Last updated 21 May 2026
Which speech have you been asked to give?
Before you write anything, work out which of these you are doing. It changes the length, the tone and whether you introduce yourself at all.
- The eulogy — the main tribute. Three to five minutes. Usually one person, sometimes two.
- A short tribute — two minutes, when several people each say something. You cover your slice only.
- Introducing a reading or a piece of music — twenty to thirty seconds before the thing itself.
- Words at the graveside or committal — one to two minutes, outdoors, people standing.
- The thank-you — under a minute, at the end of the service or at the wake. Practical, warm, brief.
If nobody has told you which, ask the funeral director. “How long have I got and where does it come in the order?” answers almost everything.
1. The eulogy
The main tribute: two or three specific memories that build one honest picture. This is the longest thing anyone says and it carries the service.
Six complete eulogies, in different voices and lengths, are on our eulogy examples page, and there is a step-by-step method on how to write a eulogy. The shape, briefly: open with your bond and a specific image, tell two or three memories, say what they leave behind, say goodbye.
2. A short tribute, when several people speak
The most commonly misjudged speech at a funeral. People are asked for two minutes and deliver a compressed eulogy — re-introducing the person, summarising their life — which the room then hears four times.
Your job is one story the eulogy will not cover. Do not set the scene. Do not summarise. Start inside it.
Short tribute from a colleague
About 180 words · around ninety seconds
I worked with Ray for nine years on the late shift, so I want to tell you about him at four in the morning, which is a version most of you will not have met.
At four in the morning Ray sang. Badly, and only ever the same eight or nine songs, and if you asked him to stop he would take it as encouragement.
There is a particular kind of tiredness at that hour where everything becomes slightly unbearable, and a man singing at you is objectively the worst thing that could happen. And yet every single person on that shift will tell you the same thing: the nights Ray was off were longer.
He kept us going and he made it look like nothing. He would be appalled to hear it described as a skill.
Nights are going to be very quiet now, Ray.
3. Introducing a reading or a piece of music
Twenty to thirty seconds. Say who you are, say why this piece, then read it. The introduction exists so the room knows why they are hearing it — without one, a reading can feel like an item on a schedule.
I’m Katie, Frank’s niece. Frank had this poem cut out of a newspaper and stuck inside a kitchen cupboard for about thirty years, going yellow, and none of us ever asked him why. I’m going to read it now, and I still don’t know why, and I quite like that.
We’re going to hear a piece of music next. It is not Mum’s favourite piece of music. It is the one she used to put on very loudly on a Sunday morning when she wanted everybody out of bed, and if you lived in that house you will recognise it in about four seconds.
4. Words at the graveside or committal
Short, plain, and built for the conditions. People are standing, usually cold, often unable to hear well outdoors. Long sentences disappear in open air. One to two minutes at most.
At the graveside
About 130 words · around a minute
Thank you all for coming out here with us. She would have said it was too much fuss and too far to walk.
This is the churchyard she walked through every day for thirty-one years, on her way to the shop and back, and she knew the names on most of these stones. She used to tell us about them. She said it was only polite to know your neighbours.
So she is among people she knows, in a place she chose, and I find that easier than I expected to.
We are going to say goodbye now. Take your time. There is tea at the village hall whenever you are ready, and nobody is in a hurry.
5. The thank-you at the end or at the wake
Not a second eulogy. It is hospitality: thank people for coming, thank the ones who helped, tell everyone what happens next. Under a minute. Someone steady should do it — often not the closest relative.
Thank-you at the reception
About 120 words · under a minute
Before people start drifting off — on behalf of all of us, thank you for being here today. Some of you have come a very long way and it has been noticed.
Thank you to the staff here, who have been kind to us all week. Thank you to Iris, who has answered a hundred phone calls she did not have to answer.
There is food at the back and it needs eating. Please stay as long as you like.
And if you have a story about Dad, find one of us before you go and tell it. That is genuinely the thing we want most today.
If several of you are speaking, coordinate
Overruns and repetition come from the same cause: nobody talked beforehand. Ten minutes of coordination fixes both.
- Divide the territory. One person on family life, one on work, one on friendship. Say out loud which story you are each telling, so three people do not all tell the one about the caravan.
- Only the first speaker sets the scene. Everyone after starts inside their own material.
- Agree times and be honest. Four speakers at three minutes, plus walking to and from the lectern, is already about fifteen minutes.
- Decide who takes over if one of you cannot continue, and hand that person a spare copy before the service starts.
More to read
Eulogy examples has six complete eulogies in different voices and lengths. Our collection of short eulogy examples has five complete eulogies of under two minutes. Sample eulogy takes one eulogy apart paragraph by paragraph, then shows it again at two minutes. How to write a eulogy walks through the whole thing in six steps, from a blank page to something you can say out loud. If you are not speaking at all, what to write in a sympathy card covers the shorter job of writing to the family.