“Can I take that in two parts?”

When to use it

Compound questions, or when you want to answer the easy part first.

What it replaces

Answering only the half you remember.

The hedged version is not wrong English. It is English that asks the interviewer to do the work of deciding whether you meant it. The confident version makes the decision for them.

In an answer

“Can I take that in two parts? The tooling first, then the team side.”

How to make it automatic

1. Say it aloud five times now, at normal speed, with contractions.
2. Pick one story from your own work where it fits, and say that story once using it.
3. Record a 60-second answer tomorrow and listen for whether it came out on its own.