Business Phrases Business English Expressions: These are some common business English expressions that if you work in English if you speak with clients in English, if you speak with coworkers or colleagues in English, you need to know these phrases so that you can accurately convey what you want to say, so you can understand what other people are saying, and so you’re simply not embarrassed in the workplace.
In this article, you are going to learn 20 Essential Business English phrases, that you are likely to see in the workplace, and you need to know what they mean.
Business Phrases: Business English Expressions
- A Case of the Mondays/ Mondays, am I right?
- When You Have a Minute
- I’d Like to Bounce Some Ideas Off of You
- First Thing in the Morning
- Pick Your Brains
- Hop on a Call
- Shoot Off an Email/To Fire Off an Email
- Keep (Someone) in the Loop
- Brainstorm
- Debrief
- Slacker
- Workhorse
- All Hands on Deck/All-hands
- Micromanage
- Align
- Streamline
- Scalable
- In the Weeds/Lost in the Weeds
- Circle Back
- To Put a Pin in It
1. A case of the Mondays/ Mondays, am I right?
Meaning: The heavy feeling when starting a new work week.
Explanation:
Do you love waking up early on Monday morning and going to work? If you said no, well, you’re not alone. A lot of people really do not look forward to starting a new work week. They had a great time relaxing over the weekend and then comes Monday again. So sometimes we just simply blame Monday.
Examples:
- This printer really isn’t working. Mondays, am I right?
- I just don’t have any motivation to do anything today. I guess, I have a case of the Mondays.
2. When you have a minute Do you have a minute
This Business English phrase is actually a question and it’s extremely polite. This is a great way to ask, do you have some time to help me?
Meaning: To politely ask someone for a favor
Examples:
- When you have a minute, could you look at this report for me?
- Do you have a minute to look at this report?
3. I’d like to bounce some ideas off of you
Meaning: to discuss ideas with someone else
When to use:
When one person shares an idea, the other person shares an idea. Your idea gets better and better and better as you bounce ideas off of each other. This is a wonderful phrase to use when you want to share an idea and you want the other person’s opinion, but they don’t have to give you solid answers. You just want to share your idea.
Examples:
- Do you want to grab some coffee right now? I’d like to bounce some ideas off of you for this assignment.
- I’ve been thinking about this project and I’d like to bounce some ideas off of you. Do you have time?
Note: sometimes we cut off the final of and we simply say, “I’d like to bounce some ideas off you. Both of these are equally acceptable, and it’s just a personal preference. [Business Phrases English Expressions]
4. First thing in the morning
This is a good fixed phrase to remember and you can add it when you’re talking about something that you do right away.
Meaning: to do something as soon as the day begins
Notice that there is no the, in this phrase. Take a look at a sentence, “
Examples:
- First thing in the morning, I make a pot of coffee.
- If I don’t hear from her today, I’ll call her first thing in the morning.
- Sorry, I don’t have time to finish the report today, but I will do it first thing in the morning.
5. Pick your brains
Meaning: to talk to someone’s input or advice when they have more experience than you.
Examples:
- I know you’ve worked at this company for five years, so I’d love to pick your brains about what it’s like to work here.
- Could we hop on a call and I can pick your brains about what you’re thinking about the next quarter?
6. Hop on a call
Meaning: to take a quick, unplanned phone call or Zoom meeting (This could be a phone call or it could be a Zoom call).
Examples:
- Do you have a minute to hop on a call? Our client has some questions and I don’t know exactly how to answer them.
- I was going to send you an email, but it might be easier to talk. Can we hop on a call?
7. Shoot off an email/ To fire off an email.
Both of these verbs to shoot and to fire have the sense of it’s quick, it’s fast, it’s organized, it’s not long and drawn out. So this means that you are quickly sending an email. You could also shoot off a text on your phone, but it has this idea of something fast. [Business Phrases English Expressions]
Meaning: to send an email or text quickly
Examples:
- I’m going to fire off an email with these questions before we meet with the client.
- Shoot me an email and I’ll get to it first thing in the morning.
8. Keep (someone) in the loop
Meaning: to keep someone informed (no one is left out, everyone is included).
Examples:
- Hey, I missed the meeting yesterday, so could you keep me in the loop and still send me the emails? (This means I don’t want to be not included. Please send me the information I need to know).
- The boss wants you to keep her in the loop (That means you are going to need to tell her everything that’s going on).
Note: We can change that pronoun in the middle. You could say, me/her/him/them etc.
9. Brainstorm
Meaning: used to talk about generating new ideas
Examples:
- Tomorrow during our meeting, we are going to brainstorm our new marketing ideas for the next quarter (Everyone’s going to throw out ideas. Maybe some of them will be great, maybe some of them won’t be great, but we’re going to put all ideas on the table and just see what works).
- Our team got together to brainstorm better ways to help our customers.
10. Debrief
Meaning: a discussion following an event. (This is when you’re kind of summarizing or giving information after an event)
Examples:
- After the project is complete, let’s have a meeting to debrief. (means you’re getting together and you’re talking about what went well, what didn’t go well, how can we do it better the next time. After the project is finished, we’ll have a meeting to debrief).
- We had a debrief and decided to make some changes the next time we do this project (You can use this as a noun).
Also Read: 101 Business English Conversation: Questions and Answers
11. Slacker
Meaning: someone who is lazy and does not do their part of the work.
Examples:
- He’s such a slacker. He’s always late with his projects and he expects me to work harder to keep up.
- In every group project, there’s always a slacker who expects other people to do the work for him. [Business Phrases English Expressions]
12. Workhdvkdslorse
Meaning: This is someone who works really hard and diligently.
Examples:
- He is a real workhorse. Whether it’s in the office or at home, he always gets projects done.
- She really deserves a promotion. She’s a workhorse.
13. All hands on deck/ All-hands
This used to come from boating and sailing. The main part of a boat where you walk is called the deck, but here we’re using this more figuratively to talk about a project that is really all consuming, so we need everyone to be active. We need all hands on deck.
Meaning: All members of a team are required
Examples:
- We need all hands on deck if we’re going to finish this project on time.
- The boss called for an all-hands meeting on Thursday. (That means everyone needs to be there).
14. Micromanage
Meaning: to control every part of something
This is somebody, usually a boss or a manager, who tries to control every little detail that their employees do.
Examples:
- He tries to micromanage his team by telling everyone how to do their job.
- No one likes to be micromanaged.
15. Align
Meaning: to be in agreement with or to support something
Examples:
- That project does not align with the company’s goals, so we’re not going to do it.
- The company aligns itself with other organizations that have similar goals (We can also use this to talk about supporting someone else or another company).
Also Read: 10 Great Everyday English Idioms for Speaking
16. Streamline
Meaning: to make something more effective and efficient
Examples:
- If we take time to streamline this process, we will lower costs and be more efficient. (when you have a good system. You know what to do at what time. You can lower costs and be more efficient).
- The organization streamlined its company by reducing the number of managers.
17. Scalable
Meaning: to grow a business and increase profits (you are efficiently able to expand the business and grow profits at the same time)
Examples:
- This business is small, but it is scalable and has a lot of potential for growth.
- She proved that her idea was scalable and it brought increased profits to the company.
18. In the Weeds/ Lost in the Weeds
Meaning: to get lost in the details of something (This is the idea that you are too focused on unimportant details and you’re not seeing the big picture).
Examples:
- Let’s not get lost in the weeds. We need to focus on the main goal (If you’re having a meeting about an important topic and people start to go off-topic and they’re sharing ideas that maybe are too detailed or there’s something that you should focus on later down the road in the process, you can use this expression).
19. Circle back
Meaning: to come back to something
Examples:
- Can we circle back to those questions later in the meeting? I want to make sure that we can finish the main reason for our meeting first. [Business Phrases English Expressions]
- To circle back to my question earlier, when do we need to get this done?
20. To put a pin in it
Meaning: to make to come back to a question or topic at a later time
Examples:
- Let’s put a pin in it, and we will discuss it at next week’s meeting.
Also Read:
Top 50 American Idioms and Phrases With Meaning
28 Great Phrases for Small Talk | Daily English Conversation Sentences