10 Business English Expressions You Need To Know | Vocabulary

Hello! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.

English in the workplace.

At work, in the office.

Knowing the idioms, phrasal verbs

and unique vocabulary that's

used in these professional contexts is so important!

I'll admit that there is a lot to learn there.

But today I want to focus on some really common,

very useful expressions that you'll hear often at work

and in these professional contexts .

At the office. With your colleagues.

With your boss. With your clients, your customers.

In interviews, speaking exams, with your teacher

or your university professor.

If you haven't already noticed, you'll soon realise

that the office is where idioms and English expressions

go wild.

At times it feels like people only speak

using idioms and slang.

So whether you're flat out, getting off-track,

losing your train of thought or banking on an early finish,

these 10 essential business English expressions

will help you to sound more natural and confident

at work.

Learning these expressions is essential

and a fantastic way to hear them being used in context

is by listening to audiobooks.

I use Audible to listen to books all the time

and I've teamed up with them to offer you a free trial,

a free audiobook for 30 days,

so that you can try it out yourself!

I've been using Audible for years now

but while I don't often have time to sit and read a book,

I can listen while I'm driving

or while I'm going for a run or I'm waiting for the train.

So they offer a really fantastic solution

to keep practising your English and for this lesson,

I've listed some fantastic books relating to business

in the description box below.

So you can check out my recommendations for Audible

right there.

So let's start with "flat out".

If you're "flat out", you're incredibly busy,

you have lots to do,

so much that you can't stop to have a break.

I'll be flat out next week

because there's a new shipment arriving.

I've been flat out all week, I'm exhausted!

In Australia where I'm from, we might also use

"flat chat".

It's used in exactly the same way

to mean that someone is very busy.

Train of thought.

Have you ever been talking about something and then

completely forgotten what you're talking about

and why you're talking about it.

It happens to me more often than I'd like to admit

but this happens when your train of thought

gets distracted by something else.

The clear progression of your thoughts are stopped

by something.

So the expression that you'll most commonly hear is

"Oh! I've lost my train of thought!

What was I talking about?"

I've lost my train of thought.

My mum called and

completely disrupted my train of thought.

Can I ask you a question?

Just give me a minute,

I don't want to disrupt my train of thought.

Now if you lose your train of thought you'll need to

get back on track.

If something is on track, it's happening as it should be

there's no problem at all.

If something is not happening as you planned and

you want to change it, you want to get back on track.

We missed the deadline last week,

but we've just submitted the report now,

so we're getting back on track.

Are you on track to complete the report

by the end of the week?

So logically, if something is not on track it's not

happening as it should be, then you're off track.

Imagine this, you're busy, you're flat out,

and you have to attend a meeting about a project

that you're working on.

But the people at the meeting are not prepared

and the conversation is just going everywhere!

People are talking about their kids, what they had for

dinner last night, any other issue

except what you should be talking about.

So you decide to interrupt the conversation and say:

We're getting off track here guys.

We've only got ten more minutes left

and we need to confirm the marketing budget.

It's used to say that a person or a group of people

have become distracted from their main purpose.

They've lost their focus.

That's just like my aunt Mary actually,

she does it all the time!

She lives on her own which is probably why

but her house is beautiful and she's got

the dogs to keep her company.

Sorry, I'm getting off track!

Here are a few more examples.

It's difficult to stay on track with so many disruptions,

perhaps we should move to the conference room.

I don't want to get off track, but we can all agree that the

new marketing manager is difficult to get along with.

We should have completed the work by now,

but the team got off track with some technical issues.

This idiom also has a literal meaning.

To get lost or lose your direction.

To literally get off the track and here,

a track means a path or a road.

So if you're off the track, you're not on the road,

on the path that you need to be on.

To bank on.

To bank on something means to bet

that something will happen in a certain way.

To be really sure

or confident that something will happen

So for example.

I'm banking on Sarah to get a promotion,

so that I can apply for her position.

Since it's a public holiday on Monday,

we're banking on an early finish tonight.

It can also be used in a negative sentence,

often advising someone against something.

I wouldn't bank on it.

That means it's not a good idea

to assume that it will happen.

To brush up on.

This is a phrasal verb, but one that's idiomatic

and it means to update or to improve your skills

in some way.

It can be used in any context really, formal or informal,

but this expression is

so useful in a professional context

because sometimes it can be a little awkward or

embarrassing to say that you don't have fantastic skills

in one area.

Right?

But by saying that you need to brush up on those skills

is a much softer way of saying that you're

not that good at something but you are willing to

practise or study to improve those skills.

I'm brushing up on my Italian

because I've got a business trip in July.

I got the job at the publishing company!

But I really need to brush up on my editing skills.

I'm out of practice!

To bring something to the table.

So this idiom means to provide something

that will be of benefit. Something useful.

And it's often used in a professional context

to describe the skills or experience that someone

brings to a team or to a company.

The great thing about Sam is that she brings

years of management experience to the table.

See how the "something" in our structure is

a noun phrase here.

This is really common with this expression.

He brings excellent communication skills and

award-winning design experience to the table.

But during a meeting you might also hear

someone use this expression.

What have you brought to the table?

And that means what suggestions or ideas did you

bring to the meeting, can you offer to the people

in the meeting.

To bring up.

Now this is a very common phrasal verb.

You've probably heard it before.

It means to mention or introduce a topic.

Someone can bring something up during a meeting,

a call or a casual conversation.

I'll bring it up with Stephanie when I see her next week.

Our presentation is missing some of the key points.

So I'm going to bring it up with the team tomorrow,

we can spend some more time on it.

To turn down.

Again, this is another common phrasal verb

but it's also idiomatic.

It means to say no to something or refuse something.

They offered me tickets to the conference,

but I had to turn them down

because it's my son's birthday.

He turned it down

because they offered him the promotion,

but told him that they couldn't increase his salary.

I applied for the position but then I found out

I had to spend six months of the year

living in New Zealand. So I had to turn them down.

Now when you do something without planning

or preparing for it,

there are a couple of useful expressions

that you can use.

You can say that you'll "wing it".

My presentation's on my laptop,

which I left at home, I'll just have to wing it.

If you haven't received the notes,

you'll just have to wing it.

Usually this idiom suggests that you didn't really plan it

to be that way but for some reason,

you're under-prepared.

If you do something that's off-the-cuff,

you're doing something without preparing for it

but you're kind of comfortable with that

you're cool with that.

I wish that I was confident enough to make

presentations off-the-cuff,

I spend so much time

planning for our monthly board meetings.

Paul won an award last night

and made a fantastic speech totally

totally off-the-cuff!

Well that's it for this lesson,

I hope you learnt some new expressions.

Remember that these expressions are often used in a

professional context

but not only in a professional context.

You'll often hear them used in casual, informal contexts

as well, so they're good ones to learn and practise.

You guys know that I release new lessons every week,

so make sure you subscribe by clicking that red button

down there so you never miss one of my lessons!

There are plenty of other video lessons

right here on the mmmEnglish Youtube Channel

for you to check out.

Like this playlist here of English idioms

and this one right here.

Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week.

Bye for now!