20 Important Business English Phrases — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hey, I'd love to pick your brains on some best  practices. Do you have a minute to hop on a
2. 0:05call? What in the world, pick your brains?  Am I some kind of Frankenstein monster? No,
3. 0:12absolutely not. These are some common business  English expressions that if you work in English,
4. 0:18if you speak with clients in English, if you  speak with coworkers or colleagues in English,
5. 0:23you need to know these phrases so that you can  accurately convey what you want to say so you
6. 0:29can understand what other people are saying, and  so you're simply not embarrassed in the workplace.
7. 0:34Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  And today I have some good news, you are going
8. 0:42to learn 20 Essential Business English  phrases, plus five bonus acronyms that
9. 0:49you are likely to see in the workplace, and  you need to know what they mean. Like always,
10. 0:53I've created a free PDF worksheet for you with  all 20 of these essential phrases plus the five
11. 0:59acronyms. And at the bottom of the free worksheet,  you can answer Vanessa's Challenge Question.
12. 1:05You can click on the link in the description  to download that free PDF worksheet today and
13. 1:11never forget what you are about to learn.  Let's get started with the first Essential
14. 1:15Business English phrase. It's kind of a  two for one. It is a case of the Mondays,
15. 1:21or you might hear some people say, "Mondays, am  I right?" I got a question for you. Do you love
16. 1:28waking up early on Monday morning and going to  work? If you said no, well, you're not alone.
17. 1:35A lot of people really do not look forward to  starting a new work week. They had a great time
18. 1:41relaxing over the weekend and ugh, here comes  Monday again. So sometimes we just simply blame
19. 1:48Monday. You could say, "Ugh, I just don't have  any motivation to do anything today. I guess,
20. 1:55I have a case of the Mondays." Or  you could say, "Ugh, this printer
21. 2:00really isn't working. Mondays, am I right?" Of course, it's not Monday's fault that the
22. 2:06printer isn't working, but it's kind of a silly  way to blame Monday. Poor Monday. The second
23. 2:12Essential Business English phrase is actually a  question and it's extremely polite and you just
24. 2:18heard me say it at the beginning of this lesson,  when you have a minute or do you have a minute?
25. 2:23This is a great way to ask, do you have some time  to help me? I see that you're in the middle of
26. 2:29your work, but I'd like to ask you a favor. So  you can use this really polite phrase, "When you
27. 2:35have a minute, could you look at this report  for me?" Or, "Do you have a minute to look at
28. 2:40this report?" Wonderful, polite phrase. Essential  Business English phrase number three is a fun one.
29. 2:46I'd like to bounce some ideas off of you. Do you  get the idea here that there's a bouncy ball,
30. 2:53the ideas, and one person shares an idea,  the other person shares an idea. Your idea
31. 2:59gets better and better and better as you  bounce ideas off of each other. This is
32. 3:04a wonderful phrase to use when you want to share  an idea and you want the other person's opinion,
33. 3:09but they don't have to give you solid answers. You just want to share your idea. Let's look
34. 3:15at some sentences. Do you want to grab some  coffee right now? I'd like to bounce some
35. 3:19ideas off of you for this assignment. You  just want their opinion. I've been thinking
36. 3:24about this project and I'd like to bounce  some ideas off of you. Do you have time?
37. 3:29And just a little note, sometimes we cut off the  final of and we simply say, "I'd like to bounce
38. 3:36some ideas off you." Both of these are equally  acceptable, and it's just a personal preference.
39. 3:42Essential Business English phrase number four  is, first thing in the morning. Notice that
40. 3:48there is no the, in this phrase. Take a look at  a sentence, "First thing in the morning, I make
41. 3:55a pot of coffee." Or, "If I don't hear from her  today, I'll call her first thing in the morning."
42. 4:02This is a good fixed phrase to remember  and you can add it when you're talking
43. 4:07about something that you do right away. Sorry,  I don't have time to finish the report today,
44. 4:12but I will do it first thing in the morning.  Essential Business English phrase number five
45. 4:18is pick your brains. This is a fun one, and it  means that you're asking for someone's input or
46. 4:25advice when they have more experience than you. So you could say, "I know you've worked at this
47. 4:30company for five years, so I'd love to pick  your brains about what it's like to work
48. 4:36here." Or you could say, "Could we hop on a  call and I can pick your brains about what
49. 4:42you're thinking about the next quarter?"  This means you simply want to know what
50. 4:46they're thinking about the next quarter. Phrase  number six is one I just used, to hop on a call.
51. 4:53This could be a phone call or it could be a Zoom  call, which are becoming more and more popular
52. 4:58nowadays. And it means you're talking probably  unexpectedly. It's not planned, it's spontaneous,
53. 5:05and you want to discuss something. So you could  say, "Do you have a minute to hop on a call?
54. 5:10Our client has some questions and I don't know  exactly how to answer them." Or you could say,
55. 5:15"I was going to send you an email,  but it might be easier to talk.
56. 5:19Can we hop on a call?" Great phrase. Essential  Business phrase number seven is kind of two for
57. 5:25one. It is to shoot off an email or to fire off  an email. Both of these verbs to shoot and to
58. 5:32fire have the sense of it's quick, it's fast,  it's organized, it's not long and drawn out. So
59. 5:39this means that you are quickly sending an email.  You could also shoot off a text on your phone,
60. 5:45but it has this idea of something fast. So you could say, "I'm going to fire off
61. 5:50an email with these questions before we meet with  the client." Or you could say, "Shoot me an email
62. 5:56and I'll get to it first thing in the morning."  Oh, a good way to combine both of these phrases,
63. 6:01shoot me an email and first thing in the  morning, check. Check Essential Business
64. 6:07phrase number eight is keep someone in the loop. If we have a loop, that means that no one is left
65. 6:15out, everyone is included. So we often say, "Hey,  I missed the meeting yesterday, so could you keep
66. 6:22me in the loop and still send me the emails?"  This means I don't want to be not included. Please
67. 6:28send me the information I need to know. We can  change that pronoun in the middle. You could say,
68. 6:34"The boss wants you to keep her in the loop." That means you are going to need to tell her
69. 6:41everything that's going on. You need to tell  her everything, you need to keep her in the
70. 6:48loop. Essential Business phrase number nine  is brainstorm. This is commonly used to talk
71. 6:55about generating new ideas. So you could  say, "Hey, tomorrow during our meeting,
72. 7:01we are going to brainstorm our new marketing  ideas for the next quarter." Great.
73. 7:06Everyone's going to throw out ideas. Maybe some  of them will be great, maybe some of them won't
74. 7:10be great, but we're going to put all ideas on the  table and just see what works. Or you could say,
75. 7:16"Our team got together to brainstorm  better ways to help our customers."
76. 7:21Excellent. Essential Business phrase number  10 is debrief. This is when you're kind of
77. 7:28summarizing or giving information after an event. So you could say, "After the project is complete,
78. 7:35let's have a meeting to debrief." Maybe you're  getting together and you're talking about what
79. 7:41went well, what didn't go well, how can we  do it better the next time. After the project
80. 7:45is finished, we'll have a meeting to debrief.  You can use this as a noun. So you could say,
81. 7:51"We had a debrief and decided to make some  changes the next time we do this project."
82. 7:57This is a debrief versus to debrief, but they all  mean the same thing. Essential Business phrase
83. 8:05number 11 is one that you do not want to have to  use. It is a slacker. Oh, no. This is someone who
84. 8:14is lazy and does not do their part of the work.  You might unfortunately say, "Ugh, he's such
85. 8:21a slacker. He's always late with his projects  and he expects me to work harder to keep up."
86. 8:27No one wants to work with someone who's a  slacker. Have you ever been part of a group
87. 8:33project and said this? In every group project,  there's always a slacker who expects other people
88. 8:40to do the work for him. That's so frustrating,  isn't it? But on the other hand, our next phrase
89. 8:48is beautiful. Essential Business phrase number 12  is the opposite of a slacker, it is a workhorse.
90. 8:55This is someone who works really hard and  diligently. So you might say, "He is a real
91. 9:01workhorse. Whether it's in the office or at home,  he always gets projects done." Or you could say,
92. 9:07"She really deserves a promotion. She's a  workhorse." We know that she is always on
93. 9:13the ball. So I hope for you, you are more of  a workhorse and less of a slacker. Essential
94. 9:19Business phrase number 13 is all hands on deck. This used to come from boating and sailing.
95. 9:27The main part of a boat where you walk is  called the deck, but here we're using this
96. 9:33more figuratively to talk about a project that  is really all consuming, so we need everyone
97. 9:40to be active. We need all hands on deck. So  you could say, "We need all hands on deck if
98. 9:46we're going to finish this project on time." You  might even hear this phrase twisted just a bit.
99. 9:51You might hear someone say, "The boss called  for an all hands meeting on Thursday." That
100. 9:58means everyone needs to be there. It sounds  pretty urgent. Talking about manager's,
101. 10:03Essential Business English phrase number 14 is  really annoying. It is micromanage. Ugh. This
102. 10:14is somebody, usually a boss or a manager,  who tries to control every little detail
103. 10:20that their employees do. If you've ever been  micromanaged or you've had a micromanager
104. 10:26watching you, ugh, that's so frustrating. You could say, "He tries to micromanage his
105. 10:33team by telling everyone how to do their job."  And if you have a boss who micromanages you,
106. 10:40you might say, "No one likes to be micromanaged.  Can't you just trust me to do my work?"
107. 10:46Business English phrase number 15 is align.  Notice that the G is silent align. And this is
108. 10:55talking about being in agreement or supporting  something. So you might say, "You know what?
109. 11:02That project does not align with the company's  goals, so we're not going to do it." For example,
110. 11:08I get contacted by companies all the time who  want me to promote their products, but 99.99% of
111. 11:16these products don't align with the Speak English  With Vanessa goals, which are teaching you better
112. 11:23English and helping you speak confidently.  So I just tell these people, "No, I'm sorry.
113. 11:29Our goals don't align. This isn't a good fit  for us." We can also use this to talk about
114. 11:34supporting someone else or another company. So  you could say, "The company aligns itself with
115. 11:42other organizations that have similar  goals." They're friends or allies with
116. 11:48other companies. It aligns itself. This is a  very beautiful business english expression.
117. 11:53Essential Business English phrase number 16 is  to streamline. This is not going crazy all over
118. 12:01the place. Nope, it is effective and efficient.  So you could say, "If we take time to streamline
119. 12:09this process, we will lower costs and be more  efficient." So when you have a good system,
120. 12:17when your system is streamlined, it's not  an email here, a document here, a call here.
121. 12:22No, it's very streamlined. They know what to  do at what time. You can lower costs and be
122. 12:28more efficient. Or you might say, "The  organization streamlined its company by
123. 12:34reducing the number of managers." Great.  Essential business English phrase number
124. 12:3917 is scalable. You'll especially hear this  for small businesses that would like to grow.
125. 12:47This means that you are efficiently able to expand  the business and grow profits at the same time.
126. 12:53So you could say, "This business is  small, but it is scalable and has a
127. 12:59lot of potential for growth." For example, if  I were teaching English in a classroom, well,
128. 13:05I can only fit maybe 30 people in the classroom,  but teaching English on YouTube is scalable. I can
129. 13:13teach millions of students around the world  at the same time. Great. Or you could say,
130. 13:18"She proved that her idea was scalable and  it brought increased profits to the company."
131. 13:25Essential Business English phrase number 18  is in the weeds. Sometimes we say lost in the
132. 13:33weeds. This is the idea that you are too focused  on unimportant details and you're not seeing the
133. 13:41big picture. So you could say, "Let's not get lost  in the weeds. We need to focus on the main goal."
134. 13:48If you're having a meeting about an  important topic and people start to
135. 13:52go off topic and they're sharing ideas that  maybe are too detailed or there's something
136. 13:57that you should focus on later down the road  in the process, you can use this expression,
137. 14:02"All right, everyone, let's not get lost in the  weeds. We can focus on those details later. Let's
138. 14:08talk about the overall goals right now." Essential Business English phrase number
139. 14:1319 is to circle back. So if you start here and  then you make a circle and you end that circle,
140. 14:21where are you now? You're at the same place that  you began. That's the idea here. It means you
141. 14:27are going to come back to something or reconsider  something later. So talking about a meeting that
142. 14:34kind of gets out of hand. People are talking about  things that are not so related to the main topic.
143. 14:39You might say, "Okay, can we circle back  to those questions later in the meeting?
144. 14:45I want to make sure that we can finish the  main reason for our meeting first." Okay.
145. 14:50Your questions are important, but we will circle  back to those later. And maybe if someone forgot
146. 14:57to circle back to your question, you could  say, "To circle back to my question earlier,
147. 15:03when do we need to get this done?" Great. That means, "Hey, I asked you this earlier.
148. 15:08You haven't answered it yet, but I want to  politely and clearly tell you my question
149. 15:13again." Beautiful. All right. Let's go to  our 20th Essential Business English phrase
150. 15:18before we get to some bonus acronyms. Our final  Essential Business English phrase number 20,
151. 15:25is to put a pin in it. This is somewhat  similar to circling back to something. It
152. 15:32means that, Hey, I think your idea's important. We don't have time to discuss it now, but let's
153. 15:37[inaudible 00:15:39] put a pin in it, so a mental,  or maybe you're writing it down, a little reminder
154. 15:43to circle back to this later. Let's put a pin in  it and we'll circle back to that later. Wonderful
155. 15:49phrase. So you might say, "Let's put a pin in  it and we'll discuss it at next week's meeting."
156. 15:54Okay, you're saying, "I want to talk about it. We can't talk about it right now,
157. 15:58but I made a mental note that we'll talk  about it next time." Before we go today,
158. 16:03I'd like to share with you five important Business  English acronyms that are specific to work culture
159. 16:09in English. I'm sure you'll see these in emails.  You might even hear people say them, and hey,
160. 16:14even if you don't use English in the workplace,  you'll probably see these on TV shows and movies.
161. 16:19You might get an email that says, "We need  this report by EOD on Wednesday." What in the
162. 16:27world? EOD means end of day. But they maybe  didn't want to type out that whole thing,
163. 16:33so they might have written, "We need that  report by EOD on Wednesday." You're not
164. 16:39really likely to hear someone say this, but you  will definitely see this in emails or in reports.
165. 16:44You might send someone an email, and then you get  an auto reply back that says, "Sorry, I will be
166. 16:52OOO until February 5th." What? This means out of  office. I don't know why someone didn't just write
167. 17:02out of office, but hey, you're going to see OOO to  mean I'm not here, but I'll be back at this date.
168. 17:08The next business acronym you will hear people  use in spoken conversation as well as written
169. 17:14Business English, and that is this fun one, ASAP. That's how we would pronounce this. Or you can
170. 17:21say each individual letter, A-S-A-P. And it  means immediately. So you could say, "Hey,
171. 17:28I didn't receive your reports that you sent me  yesterday. Can you send them over ASAP?" Or, "Can
172. 17:34you send them over ASAP?" This conveys extreme  urgency, now. I need it now. So be careful using
173. 17:42ASAP because it does mean this is really important  and I need it absolutely without any delay.
174. 17:49You can use this in written English. For example,  in an email, you might say, "I'm sorry, I didn't
175. 17:54receive the reports yesterday. Can you send them  over ASAP?" Make sure you capitalized ASAP. What
176. 18:02if you got an email that said this, "FYI, the  meeting time has changed to 1:30." FYI? For
177. 18:10your information. If you're just adding a little  extra bonus information, this is something that's
178. 18:15pretty important though too. You might add FYI. It's just like saying, "Hey, just to let you know,
179. 18:23the meeting time has changed to  1:30." But in business emails,
180. 18:27you might see that written as FYI. Sometimes  you'll hear people say this in spoken English,
181. 18:32"Oh, FYI, I can't make it to the party tomorrow."  You might hear people use that in spoken English,
182. 18:37but it's more common in written English. Our final business acronym, and the last one
183. 18:43to finish off this lesson is a fun one, TGIF.  I can't wait for the weekend. If you have a
184. 18:51company chat where you chat about different things  throughout the day, at the end of the work week,
185. 18:57you might see someone send you TGIF. Huh? This  is thank God, or thank goodness it's Friday.
186. 19:06This is a expression of, "Yes, it's the weekend.  We finished this week, and now I can go and have
187. 19:13a relaxing or fun weekend." So this is a common  thing to write. You might hear people say this
188. 19:19in conversation, "TGIF, have a good weekend."  But it's a little less common to say. Instead,
189. 19:25you might write this in a business chat with  someone or in a chat with a friend, TGIF.
190. 19:30Great. Well, congratulations on learning 20  Essential Business English phrases in English
191. 19:36plus five bonus acronyms. I have a question for  you. In the comments let me know, do you need to
192. 19:43use English for your work? Or maybe you'd like  to get a job where you need to use English? This
193. 19:49can be a great motivating way to practice  English if you have to use it for your job.
194. 19:54Let me know in the comments. And don't forget  to download the free PDF worksheet for this
195. 19:59lesson with all of the essential phrases,  sample sentences, ideas, and concepts. You
196. 20:05can download that free PDF with the link in the  description and never forget what you've learned.
197. 20:09Well, thank you so much for learning English  with me, and I'll see you again next Friday
198. 20:14for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.  Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend
199. 20:20watching this video next where you will learn  some essential polite Business English phrases,
200. 20:26including how to politely leave a conversation  if someone's talking too much and you need to
201. 20:34get out of there. Watch that video  to find out, and I'll see you there.