English Business Vocabulary - Professional English

Business Communication Skills

Email Writing

Professional Email Structure

Subject: Clear, specific, actionable

• Good: "Q4 Budget Review - Action Required by Friday"
• Poor: "Important" or "Meeting"

Opening:

• Formal: "Dear Mr. Smith," / "Dear Dr. Johnson,"
• Semi-formal: "Hello Sarah," / "Hi Team,"

Body:

• State purpose in first sentence
• Use paragraphs for organization
• Bullet points for lists or action items
• Be concise but complete

Closing:

• "Please let me know if you need any additional information"
• "I look forward to your response"
• "Thank you for your time and consideration"

Sign-off:

• Formal: "Sincerely," / "Respectfully,"
• Standard: "Best regards," / "Kind regards,"
• Less formal: "Best," / "Thanks,"

Meeting Language

Starting a Meeting

• "Let's get started / begin"
• "Thank you all for joining"
• "Today's agenda includes..."
• "Our main objective today is..."

Expressing Opinions

• "In my opinion/view..."
• "From my perspective..."
• "I believe/think that..."
• "It seems to me that..."

Agreeing

• "I agree with [name]'s point about..."
• "That's a good point"
• "Exactly" / "Absolutely"
• "I'm on board with that"

Disagreeing Politely

• "I see your point, however..."
• "That's an interesting perspective, but..."
• "I'd like to offer an alternative view"
• "I respectfully disagree because..."

Asking for Clarification

• "Could you elaborate on...?"
• "What exactly do you mean by...?"
• "Just to clarify..."
• "Could you give an example?"

Interrupting Politely

• "Sorry to interrupt, but..."
• "If I may just add..."
• "Can I jump in here?"
• "Before we move on..."

Concluding

• "To summarize..."
• "Let's recap our key decisions"
• "Our action items are..."
• "We'll reconvene on [date]"

Presentation Skills

Opening

• "Thank you for the opportunity to present"
• "Today I'll be discussing..."
• "My presentation is divided into three parts"
• "By the end of this presentation, you'll understand..."

Transitioning

• "Moving on to..."
• "Now let's turn our attention to..."
• "This brings us to..."
• "The next point I'd like to address is..."

Referencing Data

• "As you can see in this chart..."
• "The data shows that..."
• "According to our research..."
• "The figures indicate..."

Concluding

• "In conclusion..."
• "To sum up..."
• "The key takeaways are..."
• "Thank you. I'm happy to take questions"

Negotiation Language

Making Proposals

• "We propose that..."
• "Our offer is..."
• "We're prepared to..."
• "Would you consider...?"

Expressing Flexibility

• "We're open to discussion on..."
• "There's room for negotiation on..."
• "We could be flexible regarding..."

Standing Firm

• "This is a deal-breaker for us"
• "We can't compromise on..."
• "This is non-negotiable"
• "Our position is firm on this point"

Reaching Agreement

• "I think we've reached an agreement"
• "Are we in agreement on...?"
• "Let's confirm the terms"
• "We have a deal"

Business Vocabulary by Function

Finance and Accounting

• Revenue / Turnover: Total income
• Profit / Earnings: Revenue minus costs
• Margin: Profit as percentage of revenue
• Overhead: Fixed operational costs
• Cash flow: Money moving in/out of business
• Assets: What the company owns
• Liabilities: What the company owes
• Equity: Owner's stake in company
• Fiscal year: Company's financial year

Human Resources

• Recruit / Hire: Bring in new employees
• Onboarding: Integrating new hires
• Performance review: Evaluation of employee work
• Promotion: Advancement to higher position
• Severance: Payment upon termination
• Benefits package: Compensation beyond salary
• Retention: Keeping employees
• Succession planning: Preparing for leadership transitions

Marketing and Sales

• Target market / Audience: Intended customers
• Lead: Potential customer
• Conversion: Turning leads into customers
• Pipeline: Potential sales in process
• ROI: Return on investment
• Brand awareness: Consumer recognition
• Market share: Percentage of market captured
• Customer acquisition cost: Cost to gain customer

Strategy and Management

• Stakeholder: Anyone with interest in company
• Milestone: Significant project checkpoint
• Deliverable: Required output/result
• Bandwidth: Capacity to take on work
• Bottleneck: Process slowdown point
• Scalable: Able to grow efficiently
• Synergy: Combined value exceeding individual parts
• Leverage: Using resources for maximum advantage

Project Management

• Scope: Project boundaries and deliverables
• Timeline: Project schedule
• Deadline: Final completion date
• Budget: Allocated funds
• Resources: People, money, materials available
• Risk: Potential problems
• Stakeholder: Person affected by project
• Deliverables: Required outputs

Common Business Idioms

• Think outside the box: Be creative
• Touch base: Check in / communicate
• Get the ball rolling: Start something
• On the same page: In agreement
• Win-win situation: Benefits all parties
• Raise the bar: Increase standards
• Hit the ground running: Start productively
• Back to the drawing board: Start over
• Low-hanging fruit: Easy opportunities
• Move the needle: Make significant progress

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