10 Words to Use Right Now at Work in English

Hey,

it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English and what is the number one thing

that you probably want when you're using English at work?

You want to sound smart and professional.

So today I've got 10 smart words that you should definitely be using to sound

professional, intelligent, and positive at work.

And the best part about today's lesson is these are small changes that you can

make.

Sometimes a very small change can have big results and that's what we're focused

on today.

So be sure to stick with me to learn these 10 smart words and find out exactly

how you can use them with example sentences and be sure to watch to the end

because word number 10 is maybe the most important one that you need to know on

this list.

[inaudible]

Let's get started right away with number one. Certainly.

What are some of the most common words that you hear when someone wants to agree

with you or agree to a request?

We often say words like, okay, or no problem,

but we use them too much and they're pretty casual.

So if we want to sound a little bit more professional and positive certainly is

a great option. For example,

if your boss asks for a document by the end of the day, you could say, okay,

or certainly, or a colleague asks you to help with a project.

Certainly I can do that. Number two,

the word modify. Let's be honest about something.

Most people don't like change.

Let's say that you have a project at work and just before the deadline you get

an email that says there's some changes in the requirements.

How do you feel when you get that email? You're probably not celebrating.

You're dreading it, you're frustrated.

Most people don't like the word change.

A better smarter word that you could use is modify.

It doesn't have the same feeling that the word change can have.

For example, at a meeting,

a colleague might say that we need to change the way that we're dealing with our

customers and that sounds like you have to change everything and nobody really

wants to do that. It sounds like a lot of work,

so instead it's better to say something like,

we should modify the way we deal with customers at work.

Modify doesn't sound so scary or overwhelming.

It's a fantastic word to use in place of the word change.

Smart word number three is complication.

Similar to the word change,

there is another word that no one likes to hear at work and that is the word

problem. There's a problem with the order. We have a customer with a problem.

The boss has a problem she wants you to solve.

None of us like hearing those statements.

The word complication is a great alternative and it doesn't sound as bad or

scary. For example,

instead of saying there's a problem with your order,

you could say there's a complication with your order, but we're working on it.

It sounds much less serious.

Number four is the word sensational.

I'm curious,

when you think of a word that native speakers use to be positive and show that

something is great, what word do you think of?

It might be the word awesome.

Native speakers love the word awesome and it's a fantastic word.

I use it a lot. I love it,

but I want you to have the ability to be flexible and English.

I want you to have vocabulary that you can adapt and use in different

situations.

And the word sensational is a fantastic positive word that you can use in place

of the word awesome. For example,

if I didn't sleep very much last night and I'm feeling super tired at work and a

colleague says, Hey Annemarie, I'm going to go to the coffee shop.

Do you want anything? I could say, oh, that would be awesome,

or that would be sensational.

Smart word number five is elaborate. To elaborate

simply means to give more details and there are many times at work when we need

someone to clarify something or give us some extra details.

So if you're in a meeting and a coworker says something that isn't really clear,

you're not exactly sure what she means. Instead of saying,

what do you mean? You can say, could you elaborate?

It's much more polite and professional.

Word number six is leverage.

The business world loves this word.

If you use the word leverage at work,

you'll definitely impress some other people.

What it means is to get an advantage. So here's a great way we could do that.

If we modify our marketing approach,

we can get some real leverage over our competitors.

We've used two words from our list there.

I could say if we change our marketing approach,

we can get an advantage over our customers. Or I could use these two words,

modify and leverage to impress word number seven,

similar to talking about problems versus complications.

We can use ramifications instead of consequences,

a bad consequences when something negative happens as a result of something

else. And that word consequence can immediately have a negative feeling with it.

So ramification is a great alternative. For example,

if your team is talking about how to modify a marketing approach,

you definitely need to think about the pros and cons and what are some of the

possible ramifications of making that change.

We've got just three more words on our list of 10 smart words to be using at

work. And word number eight is perplexing.

I love this word. I don't know why,

but I love the way it sounds perplexing.

You and I know that confusing things happen at work.

A customer does something weird, files disappear.

Someone says they sent you an email but you never got it.

In those moments you could say,

I'm really confused about that situation or I'm confused how that happened,

but a great alternative is perplexing.

That's perplexing.

That's a perplexing situation or similar to saying,

I'm confused. We could say I'm perplexed.

Smart word number nine is straightforward.

Everyone loves things that are easy to do,

easy to understand and straightforward is a great alternative to using the word

easy. Instead of saying something like, this project is really easy,

you could say this project is really straightforward.

Maybe you're working with a new client and you know that they're going to be

wonderful and easy to work with.

You could also say working with this client is going to be really

straightforward and finally we're at smart word number 10 that you should be

using at work. Kind of.

This word is actually a word that you should avoid and we're going to replace it

with something else. That word is like,

like is used way too much.

It has become a filler word,

a word that we use when we don't really know what to say. In fact,

sometimes I've heard the word like used in the same sentence,

two, three, four, even five times.

This is a word that you definitely want to avoid using because it doesn't sound

smart or professional. In fact,

it can sound uncertain when it's used too much,

but the problem is it's a really great word for some situations,

like when you're going to introduce an example.

Did you notice I just used it there to introduce what I wanted to say.

That is an appropriate way to use this word,

but because the word like is used too much,

I want to give you an alternative.

When you need to introduce information or introduce an example you could use

such as or for instance,

here are a couple of examples.

I could say there are a lot of opportunities like this for our clients or there

are a lot of opportunities such as this for our clients.

That one little change makes the sentence much more professional.

Another example, you need to be really careful with this client.

Like if you go to a meeting, make sure that you're early instead of using,

like I could say, you need to be really careful with this client. For instance,

if you've got a meeting, make sure that you're early. Again,

that little change is much smarter and more professional and now you've got 10

smart words that you can start using it,

work immediately and I want you to practice choose one or two of your favorite

words from this list and use it in an example sentence.

Share it with me in the comments below.

It's a great way to immediately get more comfortable with these words so that

you can use them at work in your daily conversations.

If you found this lesson useful to you, I would love to know.

You can give it a thumbs up on youtube, share it with friends and coworkers,

and be sure to subscribe to this channel so you never miss a future confident

English lesson. Plus,

I've got a playlist for you on advanced vocabulary in English,

including collocations.

Collocations are words that native speakers use together naturally,

and you should definitely be using them in your English as well.

So be sure to check those out. And with that, have a fantastic week.

Thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time for your Confident English

Lesson.