Essential Business English Idioms and Report Writing

Essential Business Idioms

• To put in a nutshell: To explain clearly and concisely.
• To get straight to the point: To talk about the most important issues.
• To hear it on the grapevine: To receive information from a third party or rumor.
• To put someone in the picture/loop: To provide the latest information.
• To get the wrong end of the stick: To misunderstand something.
• To be on the same wavelength: To share the same opinions or ideas.
• Can’t make head nor tail of it: To not understand anything.
• To talk at cross-purposes: To misunderstand someone.
• To beat about the bush: To delay talking about the main point.

Business Vocabulary

Marketing and Strategy

Marketing: Mix, strategy, plan, campaign. Market: Adaptation, penetration, segmentation, leader, survey, sector. Product: Placement, portfolio, feature, range, launch. Customer: Profile, retention, base. Brand: Positioning, identity, extension. Advertising: Campaign, agency, slogan. Brand: Awareness, loyalty, image. Sales: Figures, forecast, targets. Price: Promotion, rise, range.

Word Formation and Prefixes

• Under: Perform, rate, charge.
• Co: Producer, worker, author.
• Re: Launch, engineer, locate.
• Over: Spend, estimate, supply.
• Mis: Manage, judge, calculate.
• Out: Produce, bid, class.
• Ultra: Efficient, cautious, modern.
• Ex: Boss, director, employee.
• De: Merge, nationalize, regulate.

Word Families

• Satisfy: Satisfied, dissatisfied, satisfaction.
• Motivate: Motivating, demotivated, motivation.
• Frustrate: Frustration, frustrating, frustrated.
• Recognize: Recognition, recognize, recognized.

Communication Phrases

• I can’t see what the problem is.
• Do you have strong feelings about this?
• How do you feel about this?
• I think I agree with you there.
• I couldn’t agree with you more.
• I’ll just sum up what we’ve agreed.
• Sorry, I can’t agree with you.
• I do think this is really important.

Professional Report Structure

Title

Executive Summary: Main points and conclusions. The aim of this report is to...

Introduction: This report will look at: 1, 2, 3.

Findings: The facts discovered. Use connectors like: although, firstly, thanks to, moreover, and eventually.

Conclusion: Interpretation of the facts. Use phrases like: To conclude, in my opinion, to sum up, I interpret these facts as.

Recommendations: 1. It would be advisable... 2. If I were you, I would... 3. Therefore, I would recommend...