Hello friends, welcome back. In this video lesson, we'll learn 30 common business English expressions
you can use when speaking in English
Together we'll go through the common expressions or go through the definitions and we'll go through a few examples
to better help you learn, but most importantly remember them when speaking in English.
Friends before we go through these common business English expressions, I would love to hear from you.
Tell me in the comments below this video
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Let's begin with the lesson now.
Let's begin with the first expression and that expression is a tough break. Friends, when something
unfortunate happens, something bad happens, something beyond your control then you could use the expression:
It was a tough break. For example: It was a tough break for us when Mary was on sick leave.
Thursday's were really hard and we really struggled. The next expression: to go back to the drawing board
means to start planning again, to start over and to start from the very beginning and to plan your ideas again.
For example: Me and my colleagues have started working on the new project
but our boss didn't like where we were heading. He told us: Look guys,
you have to go back to the drawing board and do it all as we want it done. Now,
Twenty-four/seven is quite interesting. I use it a lot in spoken form, many other English speakers do as well
and basically this means that something or someone is working 24 hours and seven days a week.
So instead of saying we never close, we work
Now in the situation that your company, your boss or your colleagues are doing something in secret,
they're not doing it in public.
You could use the expression behind the scene. Behind the scenes is a great expression to be using when something is happening in
secret, it's away from the general public. For example:
Apple is working on a great new project behind the scenes. Now if something's happening differently
it's not a following a normal routine. Say for example in your company
everybody has normal routines and procedures that they follow but something is happening very
very differently. In these situations you could use the expression a change of pace. For example: Today
my team worked at a local cafe, and it was a nice change of pace.
Here change of pace is being used as it's different. It's different from our usual or standard routine.
Now the expression to come up short is a very often used expression to describe the fact that maybe you've been
working really really hard to achieve a goal, but you just missed out on achieving that goal.
So you are almost there, but you just missed out. You just came up short from achieving that goal.
For example: In the last financial quarter Bob was given the goal of reaching sales totaling 1 million euros,
He didn't meet his end goal. Here, in this sentence, he didn't miss it by much.
We don't know how much but he missed it. Maybe by a few thousand maybe a few ten thousand.
He just came up short. Now. You may have heard the expression big picture. This doesn't mean in business English
literally a big picture. No, here, the big picture means the whole situation.
For example, Mary and Bob are working in the same company
They both have really small tasks to complete on a daily basis
But every single day their boss tells them about the big picture, so that they know exactly what they're working on.
Here, the big picture doesn't mean that big picture on the wall
It means the whole situation, the whole goals that company has. Now the expression
50/50 basically means that some thing is divided equally, it's divided into two equal parts, hence
fifty-fifty. For example: My business partner and I split everything
50-50. So instead of saying equally we could just say 50-50. It means the same thing.
Now in the situation that maybe an employee or a company is ahead of the curve
This means that they are ahead of the competition.
So they are doing something really well. They have a competitive advantage
maybe, but they are doing something really well and they are above, ahead of their competition.
For example: Apple is investing a lot in R&D to stay ahead of the curve of their
competition. Now in a situation that maybe a company or a
person does something by the book. It means that they do everything by the rules. They follow all the rules.
everything that needs to be done according to all of the rules and regulations
which is set out be that by the regulated body or by the company.
They basically follow the rules a hundred percent.
For example: Mary tries to do everything by the book to avoid issues with the tax
auditors. Now, in the situation that you have to go back to square one. I personally hate these situations.
But basically friends if you have to go back to square one
it means that you have to start everything over from the very beginning. Maybe there was an issue.
There's a complication for some reason, you have to start everything over again.
Forr example: Our team worked on solving that problem for ten hours, but after working for so long,
we realized we were heading in the wrong direction
and we needed to start back at square one.
In the situation that you're at work and you have a little bit of competition with maybe
colleagues or other people, or maybe your company or the company that you're working for has a lot of competitors.
But you want to stay ahead of the game. You want to stay ahead.
Maybe your boss or your manager say: Hey,
we want to stay ahead of the pack so that we win, so that we win the market share in the long term.
Notice here, friends, the expression to be ahead of the pack.
it means that you are more successful than your competitors, be there as a company or as an individua. For example:
Maybe you have an intern position at a company and your boss tells you: Hey,
got to put in the hard work now,
get ahead of the pack, so that you can get promoted in half a year, in a year or in five years time.
In the situation you are at work and you've been working really really long, you're exhausted and you want to finish work.
Instead of saying let's finish work
you could use expression to call it a day. Friends, to call it a day means
basically to finish or to stop working. For example: Me and Mary we've been working for nine hours straight and I'm exhausted.
I just told Mary: Mary, let's call it a day. Here, what I'm basically saying is, Mary
Now a common acronym you may hear English speakers using in written form is
A. S. A. P. and I intend to use it quite often in spoken form being ASAP.
Friends if somebody says can you do that for me ASAP? Basically what they're telling you is can you please get it done?
possible. Now in the situation that you've started a new business or a project
you have nothing, you had nothing just an idea. You could use the expression:
I started the project from the ground up. This means that you have no resources, you had nothing and you built it yourself.
For example, Richard Branson built Virgin from the ground up.
So he worked from the very beginning to build it up to where it is today.
But in the unfortunate situation that maybe you go broke. If somebody or if a company goes broke
basically, it means that they have no more money. They go bankrupt.
Broke is a little bit more of informal expression you could use to describe this somebody's gone bankrupt.
For example: Mary invested everything in company XYZ,
but unfortunately due to some poor decision-making,
they went broke. The situation that maybe you as an individual employee or a company has wasted
something or lost something. In this situation you could use the expression to go down the drain to explain that something has been
For example: A company invested ten billion dollars in advertising.
But it all went down the drain as it wasn't planned out properly. Here to go down
the drain is being used as it was a complete waste of money.
Expression to go the extra mile means that either an employee or a company or an individual is working extra hard
then what is expected of them.
For example: The staff in Tesco work extra hard. They go that extra mile to keep us
customers satisfied. Now the expression to go through the roof means something's increasing rapidly,
really really really really fast. For example, Microsoft shared prices have gone through the roof over the last 24 hours.
Here this means that they've been increased rapidly, really really fast.
Now in a business city, where maybe you're negotiating a contract
or some deal, but there's an area that's not clear to you. In this situation you could describe this as being a grey area.
Friends, a grey area is something that's not really clear to you. Maybe not being defined. Well, it's not been explained
Well, it's a grey area. For example, we got given a new
contract yesterday, but I have to go through the contract with my lawyer. There's a few grey areas
I don't really understand. Now, the phrase there's a lot of at stake is a very often used phrase
you may hear English speakers using to describe that there's a lot at risk.
Here at stake is used to describe risk, and there's a lot at stake. It means there's a lot at risk-
For example, our boss is really nervous about presenting
ideas to the management board as it really is a lot at stake.
The project requires a lot of heavy investments and a lot of risk. There's a lot at stake.
In a situation maybe that you've surprised somebody by doing something or somebody
surprised you with an idea. You may have caught them off-guard.
Friends, if you catch somebody off-guard, if you're caught off guard, it means that you're taken by surprise
by something unexpecte. For example, a boss wanted to buy the new shipping company. It really caught us off guard.
We weren't expecting it. Now in the situation that you're negotiating,
but maybe somebody's managed to persuade you to, persuade you to
accepting their deal or their way of thinking, you may have caved in.
Friends, to cave in means to give in or to agree to something that you previously
didn't want to agree on. For example, Mary wants to change the working conditions at her job, but her supervisor
refuses to cave in. Now, if you're a person or you're working for a company that likes to take the easy way out,
the easy option and maybe not spend as much money as required, you like to take shortcuts. In this
situation you could say that the company or the person likes to cut corners, you like to take the easy option.
For example: In our company, we don't like to cut corners, as in the long term there are no benefits.
Now if you decide to count ones losses
Basically, it means that you start doing something that's bringing no results.
So you're stopping doing something, which is not beneficial at all.
For example: Mary's advertising campaigns were expenses. She decided to cut in losses and end those campaigns.
Now these two expressions blue-collar and white-collar
workers are both common expressions. I'm sure you've come across and doing business,
simply just talking in English. Now, friends a blue-collar worker is somebody who works with their hands.
They may be a tradesman. They may do something
physical, for example carpenters, plumbers, electricians.
These are all blue-collar workers among many other professions, but a white-collar worker is somebody who works in an office.
So they don't do as per se physical work, but they work inside. Maybe they work on computer. They have some sort of job
indoors, this could be customer service, management, marketing, etc.
In a situation that you, an employee or a company is very ambitious.
You have big goals, big dreams.
You could say that you think big. To think big is a great expression
you could use when speaking in English to say that you're ambitious, have great great great goals and dreams. For
example: Mary's not happy with only having one store in her local city.
She's thinking big and she's opening up three stores at different locations around the country.
Now in the situation that your job, you may have some problems.
Some problems that you need to resolve and your boss may tell you: Hey try to think outside the box when solving those problems
here, if your boss is telling you to think out of the box, they're telling you to be creative.
They're telling you to try to think of unconventional
solutions instead of thinking of the most common solutions.
Finally, if something is difficult to achieve, there's many obstacles, there's many hurdles. There's a lot of problems on the way
You could say that that proble, well resolving the problem is an uphill battle. For example:
Mary wants to be the president of a management board, but she needs to be voted in.
It's going to be an uphill battle for her to get all the votes as she needs.
Uphill battle here is used because there's a lot of obstacles.
There's a lot she needs to do to get there. There you have it friends.
Use these 30 common business English
xxpressions to better help you express yourself in business or work settings in English.
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