Key English Phrases for Business & Career Success

Essential English Vocabulary for Professionals

Suffix -MENT: Noun Formation

• Consume: consumption
• Produce: production
• Solve: solution
• Reduce: reduction
• Pay: payment
• Encourage: encouragement
• Invest: investment

Suffix -TION: Noun Formation

• Develop: development
• Improve: improvement
• Manage: management
• Agree: agreement (meaning 'accord')
• Define: definition
• Satisfy: satisfaction
• Explore: exploration
• Explain: explanation

Suffix -ANCE: Noun Formation

• Perform: performance
• Appear: appearance
• Guide: guidance (meaning 'direction')
• Assist: assistance
• Resist: resistance
• Disappear: disappearance (meaning 'vanishing')

Suffix -AL: Noun Formation

• Remove: removal (meaning 'elimination')
• Appraise: appraisal (meaning 'evaluation')
• Refuse: refusal (meaning 'denial')
• Deny: denial (meaning 'negation')
• Survive: survival

Mastering Professional Presentations

Beginning Your Presentation

• Today, I’m going to talk about some of our recent research.
• I’ve divided my talk into three sections.
• Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming.
• Let’s begin with...

Middle Section Transitions

• Now, let’s move on to the second point in my talk.
• My next point deals with...

Concluding Your Presentation

• Does anyone have any questions?
• So, to sum up, we’ve looked at the research and discussed possible solutions.
• That brings me to my last point today.
• Thank you for listening.
• I’d like to leave you with one last point to think about.

Effective Problem-Solving Communication

Describing Issues

• It keeps making [a noise/a problem].
• It isn't working properly.
• There is a fault or problem with...
• Something is wrong with...

Inquiring About Problems

• What happened?
• How long has it been like that?
• Have you noticed it before?
• What do you think caused it?

Discussing Potential Solutions

• It looks like a problem with...
• Have you tried...?
• Why don’t we try?
• One solution is to use the... on your...
• Why don’t we try restarting...?
• What we need to do is...

Expressing Certainty and Possibility

Possibly True

could, might, may

Definitely True

must

Definitely Not True

can’t

Common Job Interview Questions

• How long have you been out of work?
• What exactly did you do?
• How long did you work there?
• What did you do before that?
• What have you been doing since you lost your job?
• How many jobs have you applied for?
• Have you thought about working in a call centre?

Phrases for Expressing Preferences

• I prefer + ING (e.g., I prefer reading).
• I’d rather + INF (e.g., I’d rather go).
• I’d prefer to + INF (e.g., I’d prefer to stay).
• I’d like to + INF (e.g., I’d like to learn).