10 Must-Have Phrasal Verbs for Work in English

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

This week we're talking about 10 essential phrasal verbs to use at work in

English.

I know that you might have a love/hate relationship with phrasal verbs.

Have you kind of love phrasal verbs because they're cool to know about,

fun to use and help you sound more natural when you speak English,

but there's a little bit of hate there as well because there are so many of them

in English and honestly they can be really challenging to understand.

So today I want to make it easier for you so that you have 10 phrasal verbs that

you love to use at work.

When I say that these phrasal verbs are perfect to use at work,

I mean that you can use them in a variety of conversations,

whether it's small talk and chatting with colleagues or having a serious

conversation in a business meeting.

Plus we often use these phrasal verbs outside of work as well.

Let's dive right in with our list of 10 essential phrasal verbs to use at work

with each phrasal verb.

I'll tell you exactly what it means and give you an example sentence so you know

how to use it. At the end of this lesson,

I'm also going to give you the opportunity to practice so that you can add these

phrasal verbs to your active English vocabulary and use them easily when you

communicate. Phrasal verb number one is to get ahead.

This means to make progress or to be more successful doing something,

and here's a common way to use to get ahead tonight.

I'm going to work later than usual so that I can get ahead on my to do list.

In other words, I want to make more progress on my to do list before tomorrow.

Another example, to get ahead in this industry,

you need to be well-connected. It's not about what you know,

it's about who you know.

Are you in a profession or industry where who you know is really important and

it's essential to have strong networking skills. If you are,

then this example is perfect for you.

Phrasal verb number two to burn out and this is something we absolutely want to

avoid.

It means to fail or become exhausted because you're overworked.

Here's how I would use it in an example. Did you hear Sarah quit her job?

I guess working every day for 12 hours a day was just too much and she got burnt

out. I don't really blame her. What about you?

Have you ever felt burnt out in your job?

Maybe you were working long hours and weekends for several weeks in a row and in

the end you started to feel exhausted because you were overworked.

Phrasal verb number three is to zero in on something.

This is one of my favorites on this list today to zero in on something,

it means to give your full attention or focus on one specific thing or person.

A great synonym to use is to pinpoint something.

One way that we often use this phrasal verb is when we talk about trying to find

the root or the primary reason for a problem.

So if you're in a business meeting or on a video conferencing call and your

whole team is talking about a specific problem, you could say something like,

I think I've zeroed in on the problem. It took a while,

but I found the primary issue. In other words,

you've pinpointed or found the specific reason for the problem.

Phrasal verb number four is to put something off.

A good synonym is to postpone,

but when we talk about putting something off,

it has a slightly different feeling or connotation.

When you put something off,

you're postponing something that you really should be doing.

It is a priority. It might be at the top of your to do list,

but you don't really want to do it.

So you find a lot of other things to do to occupy your time and attention and in

the end you put off those priority items.

Do you ever do that? Now before I go onto phrasal verb number five,

I want to let you know that if you want more examples for any of these phrasal

verbs,

I have those available for you in the online lesson on the Speak Confident

English website. So after you watch this video,

you can use the link in the notes below this video to visit the online lesson

and get even more examples. All right, with that,

let's get back on track with phrasal verb number five.

This is another one of my favorites on this list today.

To spell something out.

When you spell something out, you make it easy,

plain, simple to understand.

This is a great phrasal verb to use if you are explaining something complex in a

simple and clear way so that it's easy for someone to understand.

You could say that in this lesson,

I'm trying to spell these phrasal verbs out for you so that they're easy to

understand and use. Another example.

My husband is a pilot. That's true, and to be really honest with you,

I have no idea how airplanes work or how it's possible for them to fly.

So I often ask my husband to spell it out for me.

I ask him to explain this really complicated process.

At least it's complicated for me and to make it easier to understand.

So here's a couple of ways you could use this at work.

If there's something complex that you're not clear about at work,

you could ask a colleague to spell it out for you and when you do that,

we simply say, could you spell this out for me? I still don't understand.

What you're asking is for them to make it a little bit easier or clearer.

Similarly,

if you are the one trying to explain something complex in a simple way,

you could tell your colleague, I'm going to spell it out for you.

In other words, I'm going to make this plain and simple.

Phrasal verb number six is to think through something.

What this means is to think carefully about every aspect or detail.

If you're trying to zero in on a problem happening at work,

you will need to think through all of the details to help you do that.

Phrasal verb number seven is to roll something out.

I have three favorites on this list today and this is the third one.

To roll something out means to introduce something and we usually use this when

a company is introducing a new product or service.

That's why it's perfect for work.

Here's an example of how to use it and this sentence is 100% true.

This summer,

my team and I will be rolling out a new summer workshop.

Another example, if you are a software developer,

you and your team might be working on rolling out a new feature.

We have three more phrasal verbs on our list today,

but I want to pause and ask how are you doing?

I know phrasal verbs can be challenging to understand and use accurately,

so I want you to take your time with this video.

If you need to watch it two or three more times,

that is 100% okay. In fact, I encourage it.

Repetition is the key to remembering and knowing how to use new vocabulary and

don't forget at the end of this video I'll also give you the opportunity to

practice some of these phrasal verbs,

but now let's move on to phrasal verb number eight to go after something or

someone. When you go after something,

it means that you try to get something or someone that you want.

For example, your company might go after a new client. In other words,

they do all the work necessary to get a new client that they want.

One last example for how to use this at work might be encouraging your coworkers

with something like let's do everything we can to go after this opportunity.

Phrasal verb number nine on our list is to go over something.

This means to review.

If you have a new contract before you sign that contract,

you need to go over it carefully.

You need to review every detail and make sure you understand it well.

If you work in a medical lab or you're a scientist,

you will want to go over the results of your testing before you publicly release

that information because again, you want to make sure that it's correct.

A third common way to use this phrasal verb is at the end of a meeting you might

say,

let's go over this agenda one more time to make sure we didn't miss anything

before we finish today.

The last phrasal verb on our list today is to call something off.

This means to cancel something. So if an emergency comes up,

you might call off a meeting or a video conference. Similarly,

if you're planning a dinner party with friends and then something comes up,

some emergency happens, you might need to call off the dinner party.

And with that you have 10 essential phrasal verbs to use at work in English.

And here's what I want to know.

I want to know what are your top two favorite new phrasal verbs on this list?

Share those two phrasal verbs with me in the comments below.

And I want you to include an example sentence that you could use and your real

life in English.

This is the perfect opportunity to practice a new phrasal verb.

Make sure that you understand how to use it correctly and add it to your active

vocabulary. And if this lesson was helpful to you,

I would love to know. You can tell me in three simple ways. Number one,

give this lesson a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to this channel so you

never miss one of my Confident English lessons. Number two,

you can share this lesson on Facebook or LinkedIn. And number three,

you can email it directly to a friend or coworker who would also love to add new

phrasal verbs to their English vocabulary.

Thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to seeing you next time for

your Confident English lesson.