Vocabulary related to jobs and employment Here’s a list of must-know business English vocabulary related to work and employment. You can test yourself on these words in a short exercise at the bottom of the page. job-hunting to look for a job; seek employment I’ve been job-hunting for three months, without success. It’s important to remain optimistic and positive when job-hunting. field of w... »
Keen on, keen, and keen to are all used to express a strong desire or interest in something. However, they are slightly different in terms of their usage and nuance. Be keen on something Be keen on is used to express a strong interest in someone or something, or to say we like something (such as an activity or type of food): I’m really keen on learning Spanish. = I’m very interested in... »
What is a phrasal verb? A phrasal verb is a verb that is made up of a base verb and one or two particles, such as off, up, or on. These particles change the meaning of the base verb in various ways. Phrasal verbs are an important part of the English language and are commonly used by native speakers. Phrasal verbs with ”put” There are many phrasal verbs with put. Let’s look at fiv... »
Adding -ish to the end of a word makes it more vague, less exact. When we add -ish, we are being informal. Here are some of the ways we use –ish. Using -ish with a time Using –ish with a time makes that time more approximate. So, ‘4ish’ means ‘about four o’clock’. I’ll come to your place at 4ish. I’ll be there at 2ish. Adding -ish to numbers We... »
Phrasal verbs are tough to learn. There are so many of them! And phrasal verbs can also be confusing – from just one verb we often have several phrasal verbs, all with different meanings. Take put as an example – there’s put up, put off, put out . . . and many, many more. I’ve chosen phrasal verbs with look for this post. But instead of giving you a long list, I’ll ex... »
Here’s a short but informative video explaining which verbs we can use in sales and marketing presentations to describe degrees of change in graphs. The video was posted on Youtube by Roxana Pascariu, an English teacher from Romania. Roxana avoids the usual—and, frankly, rather dull—verbs go up and go down. Instead she uses verbs such as rise, fall and plummet. She also explains how we can follow ... »
The word thing is ubiquitous, i.e. it’s everywhere. A good thing, a bad thing, many things, something, anything, everything; we use the word a lot. And the reason thing is such a common word? Well, it’s a short and quick substitute that we can easily insert into a sentence when we’re unable to think of—or don’t know—the word we need. So how can we better express ourselves by replacing thing ... »
In most cases Americans and Britons have the same words for speaking about food. A steak is a steak, apples are apples, and potatoes are potatoes. Most of the time it doesn’t matter which side of the Atlantic you’re on – you’ll be understood when you order your food and buy your groceries. But watch out – sometimes there are differences. Let’s look at the most c... »
The contraction I’d can mean either ‘I would’ or ‘I had’. If you’re unable to understand the meaning of I’d (or he’d, she’d, we’d, etc.) from the context of a sentence, try looking at the verb form that follows it: would is followed by the bare infinitive (infinitive without to) would can also be followed by the perfect infinitive (have + past participle) had is follo... »
If we want to say that a number, quantity, time or price is ‘quite accurate but not exact’, we have several options in English. The most formal way of expressing ‘not exactly’ is approximately; the most common in spoken English is about. Here’s a list of eight words and phrases that we can use, with example sentences: A coffee costs about $3. How much will it cost, ... »