Master these powerful business idioms and expressions to elevate your workplace communication instantly!
Are you struggling to communicate effectively in your professional environment? The right business English phrases can transform your workplace interactions, boost your confidence, and accelerate your career growth. Whether you’re a non-native speaker or looking to refine your corporate language skills, these expressions are essential.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore 10 essential business English phrases and idioms that successful professionals use daily. These expressions will help you navigate office communication with clarity, precision, and confidence in any UK or international business setting.
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Why These 10 Business English Phrases Will Transform Your Office Communication
Using the right business English phrases and corporate expressions demonstrates professionalism, builds credibility, and ensures your message is understood clearly. These 10 workplace English expressions are used daily by successful professionals across industries and will immediately enhance your business language skills.
1. Action Point
Definition: A specific proposal for action to be taken, typically arising from a discussion, report, or meeting.
How to use this business idiom:
- “They drew up a list of action points on the board at the workshop.”
- “As an action point, I will watch some training videos.”
- “I came out of the meeting with five action points. Number one – email the marketing team about the new ad campaign. Number two…”
2. Annual Leave
Definition: The time a person is allowed to take off work as holiday in any one-year period.
How to use this workplace English expression:
- “She realised that she was burnt out and made a note to ask her boss for annual leave in her next one-to-one meeting.”
- “The Company cared about the welfare of employees. They offered a good starting salary and 30 days of annual leave.”
- “A third of office workers do not take all their annual leave with some feeling guilty about asking for time off, research suggests.”
3. At the End of the Day
Definition: In conclusion and after everything else has been considered.
How to use this business English collocation:
- “The new accountant was a nice person but, at the end of the day, she couldn’t do simple calculations and she had to leave the firm.”
- “Our Company needs to hire more employees. It’s a costly decision but, at the end of the day, the company will not be able to meet demand if we don’t.”
- “She loves her job and at the end of the day that’s more important than a higher salary.”
4. Ballpark Figure
Definition: A number that is a guess but is near the correct number.
How to use this professional English phrase:
- “The organisation requested that the building company provide a ballpark figure for materials needed for the project.”
- “But what are we talking about here a few thousand or a million followers. Could you give me a ballpark figure?”
- “I’ll need to go away and calculate the cost carefully, but as a ballpark figure I’d say that it will be about 1.5 million dollars.”
5. Behind Schedule
Definition: Not having progressed as much as is necessary to meet a particular deadline.
How to use this corporate English expression:
- “He planned his project timetable very carefully so he didn’t fall behind schedule.”
- “He was worried. He was behind schedule with the report that he’d promised his boss for Friday.”
- “The plans to link our cities with motorways are behind schedule.”
6. Bring Home the Bacon
Definition: To earn a salary and to bring home money earned at a job.
How to use this business idiom for non-native speakers:
- “I’ve got to get to work if I’m going to bring home the bacon.”
- “He lost his job so now his wife has to bring home the bacon.”
- “I felt a responsibility to take care of my child. That was the motivation to bring home the bacon.”
7. Get Straight to the Point
Definition: To talk about the main part at once and avoid talking about what is not essential.
How to use this English for meetings phrase:
- “I don’t have much time so please get straight to the point of your story.”
- “I’ll get straight to the point. I’m afraid we’re going to have to make some budget cuts.”
- “Her boss was annoyed with him. He wasn’t answering her question about his poor work performance and sales she told him to get straight to the point or risk losing his job.”
8. Get the Wrong End of the Stick
Definition: Complete misunderstanding of a situation, plan, or idea.
How to use this UK business English expression:
- “She got the wrong end of the stick and thought she’d done poorly in the interview. In fact the opposite was true. She’d done a brilliant interview and the next day she got the job.”
- “You’ve got the wrong end of the stick. She’s not going abroad and I am going instead.”
- “He misunderstood the message that he received from his boss. He got the wrong end of the stick.”
9. Start from Scratch
Definition: To start doing something over from the beginning and to begin something from nothing.
How to use this business English phrase for professionals:
- “If you want to start your own business you’ll have to start from scratch, do lots of research and build it from the ground up.”
- “We’ll have to start from scratch. We lost all the programming code and had no backup.”
- “Can we fix the current computer system or would it be better to start from scratch with a new system?”
10. Take the Bull by the Horns
Definition: To directly confront a difficult situation in a brave and determined way.
How to use this professional communication idiom:
- “She took the bull by the horns and finished the assignment a week early.”
- “My team constantly delayed projects so I took the bull by the horns and fired several of them.”
- “He took the bull by the horns and asked his boss for a sales bonus. His boss agreed much to his delight.”
Activity: Test Your Business English Knowledge
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