Crown Academy of English

English lessons and resources




  • Home
  • Online English lessons
  • IELTS online course
  • Articles & lessons
    • Grammar & vocabulary lessons
    • IELTS preparation
    • British culture
    • List of all articles & lessons
  • About
  • Contact
Home > Articles > English lessons > Business English phrases and expressions

Business English phrases and expressions

21st December 2016 by Andrew 2 Comments

In this lesson, you will learn 10 common business English expressions.

The tutorial gives example sentences for these phrases and idioms in the form of dialogues. They are particularly common in spoken business English, phone conversations and meetings in the office.

I will give you the definition, followed by an explanation and some examples.

to give someone a heads up

= to inform someone about something important.
We say “heads up” because we want the people to stop their work, raise their heads and listen to us! We say this when we want people to interrupt what they are doing and pay attention.


Examples:

CEO: “I just want to give you a heads up that I will be absent tomorrow.”
Manager: “Just a heads up about tomorrow. The sales conference will start at 9 am. Don’t be late!”

to give someone the lowdown

= to give someone the most important information about something.
The form is: give someone the lowdown ON something.

Notice that we use the preposition “on” + something

We use this expression when we are busy and we don’t have a lot of time. We really don’t want to listen to lots of information and details. We only want a summary of the important information.

Examples:

Manager: “I don’t have time to listen to all the details. Just quickly give me the lowdown!”
Manager: “Give me the lowdown on the new supplier. Should we keep him or not?”

to fill someone in

= to inform someone about something.
If someone is absent and they miss some information, then we can fill the person in later when we see them. It means simply that we will tell them what they missed.

Jane: “Mark, were you at the accounts meeting yesterday?”
Mark: “No.”
Jane: “Ok, I’ll fill you in with what was discussed.”

Private online English lessons

English lessons Skype
  • All teachers are native English speakers (British or American)
  • Several years teaching experience.
  • Thousands of hours of online teaching experience
  • Prices start from only $10 an hour

Private online English lessons - Click for prices

to drop someone a line

= to write a letter to someone.
This is a very useful business English idiom. Of course we are not dropping anything. It is not a literal expression! It means to write a letter to someone, usually an informal letter, a short note or email perhaps.

Examples:

At the end of a business call with a potential client:

Supplier: “I’ll drop you a line to confirm the details.”

During a business exhibition, speaking with a potential new supplier:

Customer: “Here is my business card with my address. Please drop me a line with the prices.”

to stay in touch OR to keep in touch

= to continue to communicate with someone.

This is a very useful phrase in spoken English when we are saying goodbye to someone and we want to continue the communication and relationship with them.

Examples:

“Goodbye! It was nice to see you again. Stay in touch!”
“Keep in touch! Call me if you have any questions.”

to keep someone posted OR to keep someone updated

= to regularly tell someone what is happening in an important situation.
Manager: “Jane, has the candidate sent us his application form?”
Jane: “No, not yet.”
Manager: “Ok, please keep me posted.”

to keep someone in the loop

= to regularly inform someone about something.

This is a very similar expression to “keep someone posted / updated”
Example:
Manager: “You are in charge of the project but please keep me in the loop.”

to give someone a call OR to give someone a ring

= to call someone (by telephone)

English phone call

Examples:
“I gave you a ring but you didn’t answer!”
“I’ll give you a call when I arrive at the airport.”

to get back to someone

= to reply to someone.

Example:

Mark: “Could I speak to Mrs Smith please?”
Secretary: “I’m sorry but Mrs Smith is in a meeting.”
Mark: “Ok, please ask her to get back to me.”

to let someone know

= to inform someone about something.

Example:

Mark: “Are you working next week?”
Jane: “I’m not sure. My manager will let me know tomorrow.”

Video lesson

Online English lessons and conversation

Comments

  1. Khalid says

    18th January 2017 at 6:19 am

    Thank you Mr Andrew.

    Reply
  2. alpa says

    22nd June 2017 at 9:56 am

    While Pranya were doing cooking , Pratik just asked to gave her a heads up so he can show her how to get direction in map.

    Investigation officer asked Jim to give full details instead of just lowdown as there may be chance to miss any important link which helps in the investigation.

    As Stefan was absent on last Lesson in class,so now , Andrea is filling him with what was covered in previous lesion.

    I has already asked travel agent to drop me a line with the available time and price of flight

    Please keep in touch, your teaching skills really impressive and I am really looking forward to get regular feedback from you on my English written skill.

    Please keep us posted with a new articles and video session online , it’s really helpful.

    I think you should go through following changes in your place but if you have any second though in your mind then give me a call

    Andrew can you please get back to me on my posted comments as I think it’s really.

    If I have used Grammar incorrectly in above sentences, Andrew can you please let me know.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

English grammar ebook

English grammar ebook

Online English lessons

English lessons with a native English teacher
IELTS online course

Recent articles & lessons

doctor

The difference between practice and practise

4th June 2019

peas on spoon

“a little” and “a few ” to describe quantity

30th May 2019

graduation

Difference between “finally”, “at last”, “lastly” and “in the end”

22nd May 2019

maths symbols

Maths symbols and operations – English vocabulary

8th May 2019

people meeting

BACK as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb

29th April 2019

Online English lessons

English lessons with a native English teacher

IELTS tips

IELTS complete guide

IELTS complete guide (WITH EXAMPLE QUESTIONS)

1st September 2017

Bar Chart

Advice for IELTS writing task 1

19th July 2017

Smiling girl

IELTS speaking advice

18th July 2017

IELTS student Tatjana

How to pass the IELTS with a band 8

9th May 2017

IELTS student Andreea

How to get a band 8 in the IELTS

9th May 2017

Ad





Affiliate disclosure

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Additionally, CrownAcademyEnglish.com participates in other affiliate programs, and we sometimes get a commission from purchases made through our links.

Follow us on social media

Crown Academy of English on YouTube Crown Academy of English on Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Crown Academy of English · Privacy Policy