12 Common English Expressions for Work

Hi, everybody. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, we're going to

look at some business English expressions, but not technical business. We're going to

look at business idioms, because remember, even in business, you still have to have some

casual conversations, some everyday situations, and when you're talking or dealing with your

own staff or with co-workers, you're still going to be very... You can be very informal

still and use idioms. However, you're not going to use most of these in writing. Some

of them you can, and I'll point out which ones, but most of them are a little bit too

informal for formal writing.

So, let's start with the first one. "To get all of one's ducks in a row." And you can

put "all of" or without the "of", both okay. "Get all one's ducks in a row." Now, "ducks"

are like the little animal, but with... I'm not really sure where the expression came

from, but I think it's from, like, games where you have to shoot the ducks. If you put all

your ducks in a row, it means you get all the pieces ready so that you can begin doing

something. So, before you start a project, you want to make sure you get all your ducks

in a row. You have your investors, you have the people who are going to work on the project,

you potentially have a client ready to buy whatever it is you're making or the service

you're providing, so you have everything ready, and then you actually begin. If you don't

have all your ducks in a row, there may be problems down the line or there may be no

point in even starting this project because it's not going to go anywhere. So, basically,

get everything ready, have all the pieces in place before you begin something.

Now, that is actually very much related to the next idiom, which is "dot the i's and

cross the t's". So, what you're going to do, you're going to dot the i's, make sure there's

a dot, and cross the t's. Basically, it means make sure that all the details have been taken

care of. So, especially when you're talking about paperwork, you want to make sure there

are no errors, nothing is missing, nothing is misspelled, for example. In a contract,

if you misspell a word and you mean something other than what you intended, it could be

a huge problem. A contract is a legal document, so you want to make sure everything is perfect

and correct before anybody signs, before you go on with whatever business. So, make sure

all the details, the dots on the i's, the t's are crossed, nothing is missing.

Because if you don't do this, if you don't take care of the details and you don't have

all your ducks lined up, you may end up going back to square one. "Back to square one" means

back to the beginning. You have to start over. So, if you made mistakes along the way, it

doesn't matter how much work you did, if you have to go back to square one, back to the

beginning to start the whole process from scratch - oh, that's actually a good expression

too. From scratch. From scratch means from nothing. You're starting from complete zero

and you're building your way back up, back to square one, similar to from scratch. So,

that's not a good situation.

Now, when you're doing business, some companies or different companies operate in different

ways. Some companies do everything by the book. "By the book" means legally, according

to the rules, exactly as it's supposed to happen. They follow the standards. Other companies

cut corners, means they try to take shortcuts or they try to do things to save money. So,

for example, if we're talking about a building, a lot of builders try to cut corners by using

cheaper material, or by not installing certain things, or by hoping that the clients don't

really notice that something is broken or not working properly. They're trying to cut

corners. Usually, this ends up costing everybody more at the end. Doing things by the book

might be a little bit more expensive, it might take a little bit longer time, but you will

have no problems when the project is finished, when the production is finished.

So, again, bad, good to do.

Now, to get something off the ground, so especially if you think about, like, startup companies,

but it doesn't have to be any business or any individual who wants to get a business

started or to get a project started, he's trying to get it off the ground. "Off the

ground" means working, right? So, the first thing you need to get a project off the ground

is money. So, you get investors, you get people to - the banks maybe even to give you a loan,

you get all the money so that you can get the project off the ground and get it started,

get it building towards completion.

If something comes with no strings attached, "strings" basically means conditions. So,

usually, for example, if you go to the bank, they will give you a lot of conditions, there's

a lot of strings about getting a loan from a bank. You're paying interest, there's a

deadline, there's a monthly fee, they own - you have to sign over your house or some

sort of collateral. If you go to a loan shark and say, "Here's your money", no strings attached

except for one. If you don't pay me the money back with 50% interest, I break your legs,

something like that.

In relationships, people often use this expression in relationships. Some people say, you know,

let's just be together. No strings attached means there's no commitment, no conditions,

just have fun and when it's over, it's over. Does it work? I don't know. For some people,

yes. For some people, no. There's actually a movie called No Strings Attached, you can

watch that and decide. But this is a very common expression. When somebody wants you

to do something for them and they say, "No strings attached", remember there's probably

some strings attached somewhere.

Think outside the box. Now, this is a very, very important expression. A little bit too

popular, to be honest. A lot of people use this expression in their resumes or CVs. They

say, "Oh, I'm a very creative person, I like to think outside the box." If you write on

your resume that you think outside the box, then actually you don't think outside the

box because everybody's writing the same thing. To think outside the box means to think differently.

To get out of cliché, to get out of the standard, to be very creative or very innovative. A

box has limits. Outside the box, limitless. So, this is just a key. If you're writing

a resume, don't tell them you think outside the box because every other applicant might

be saying the same thing.

Word of mouth. So, the best way to advertise a product is not to spend a lot of money on

ads and promotions, and TV spots, and YouTube spots, and all that. The best way is word

of mouth. When a happy customer tells his or her friends about your product, and they

tell their friends, and they tell their friends, and your reputation grows, and awareness of

your product grows as people tell each other, and as one person tells the other, it's called

word of mouth. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, and it spreads, and it spreads, and it

spreads. Best advertising, and free if you can do it.

Let's go cutthroat. When we talk about competition, some companies are very successful because

they are big, and they can afford to offer cutthroat prices. Cutthroat means like the

cheapest of the cheap, so that the nearest competitor can't actually compete with them

because the prices are so low to the customer that if the competition decides to offer the

same price, they will go out of business. This is how big companies destroy little companies.

They offer customers cutthroat prices, the small companies can't compete, they lose customers,

they go out of business. And you can also think about cutthroat approaches. Somebody

does something in a way that no one else can compete with them, it's very, I guess you

could say it's mean, but business people are generally a little bit mean, I think. If you're

going to be a successful business person, you have to be a little bit mean to be the

best.

And last one, it takes two to tango. Tango is a type of dance, but you can't dance this

dance by yourself, you need two people to make this dance work. Just like you need two

people to make certain relationships work. So, a business, for example, a business cannot

succeed without the customer being involved. So, if a business owner or a manager tries

to do something because he or she likes it, it doesn't matter. If the customer doesn't

like it, you're going to go out of business, because it takes two to tango. Both sides

have to enjoy or want to do something in order for it to work.

Also, if - let's say there's an industry where there's really only three big companies. If

I want to push one of the companies out, basically make them go out of business, I'm going to

need the help of the second company, because by myself I don't have enough power. And if

the two of them get together, they can take me out. So, I need a partner because it takes

two to tango, it takes two to get something done. Okay?

So, there you go. There's some good business expressions for you. Think outside the box,

word of mouth, get something off the ground, buy the book, cut corners, these are all usable

or basically these are the most usable ones in terms of writing. All the rest can be used

in speaking, a bit informal situations. Okay?

If you have any questions about any of these idioms, please go to www.engvid.com. You can

ask me in the comments section there. There's also a quiz where you can test your understanding

of these idioms. And yeah, I hope you liked it, this video. Give me a like if you did.

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videos. And come back soon, I'll give you some more idioms, vocab, grammar tips, etc.

See you. Bye-bye.