Business language: 5 types of words you need in business

In this article, you will

• learn about five important groups of words to improve your English
• practice phrasal verbs.

Newsmart Level 4 (B2, TOEIC 551–668, TOEFL iBT 53–64, IELTS 5–6)

Language is composed of words and it makes sense for students of business English to ask, ‘Which are the key words that I need to learn?’

This question implies that vocabulary is as important as grammar, if not more so, when communicating in a professional context. When a word is missing in your vocabulary it can cause hesitation, discomfort and communication breakdown.

However, when we investigate further, we find that there are many kinds of business English: English for lawyers, for engineers, for doctors, for sales professionals, for project managers.

It’s now widely understood that words tend to occur in context with other words (‘collocation’), or are used within phrases. Learning the word ‘take’ doesn’t mean you can use it in contexts such as ‘take it easy’, ‘take over’ or ‘take to something like a duck to water’.

It’s important for students of business English to dedicate time to learning specific words, terms, phrases and word partnerships.

But it‘s the themed learning of words which is really essential. Grouping words under core categories within business communication gives students a platform to identify, learn and grow their vocabulary rapidly.

I would recommend 10 key categories of words to build up your business English.

In this post, I discuss the first five.

1. Work words

Business professionals need to be able to describe their job, the scope of their role and the function they work within. These can occur in introductory meetings with questions such as:

• ‘What do you do exactly?’
• ‘Does your team deal with customers directly?’

In this category, the following word list emerges:

• Jobs: HR manager / lawyer / engineer / underwriter / key account manager
• Roles and responsibilities: I’m in charge of / I am responsible for / I deal with
• Reporting lines: My manager is / My boss is / I report to
• Wider organization: I work in Human Resources / I work in Sales/ I work in Legal

2. Reporting words

Business professionals sit in meetings or have informal conversations during which they report on what they have been doing, what they will do and their levels of success.

Verbs are essential when reporting on completed tasks:

• I managed to / I finished / I completed

If tasks are still open, other verbs and the key words ‘still’ , ‘yet’ and ‘so’ are used:

• I’m still waiting for / I still need /I haven’t heard from Paul yet, so I can’t

For future tasks, planning verbs are necessary:

• I am planning to / We will decide this at the next

Building command of reporting language is both straightforward and very useful at the same time.

3. Change words

One of the most important areas of business vocabulary is language that describes changes or trends. Key terms include

• Increase / Go up / Rise / Raise / Soar
• Decrease / Go down / Fall /Reduce / Slump
• Improve / Recover
• Worsen / Deteriorate
• Remain stable / Fluctuate

In addition, there are four ‘S’ words — adjectives and adverbs — which are essential: slight(ly), steady(ily), sharp(ly) and significant(ly).

Students can describe most changes with these 4:

• Numbers went up slightly / steadily / sharply / significantly.
• There is a slight / steady / sharp / significant rise in numbers.

4. Opinion words

Business is a collaborative activity in which people exchange opinions. It is vital for students to possess a broad range of words and phrases for expressing their opinion.

These include phrases connected to certainty and possibility:

• I think / believe / hope / tend to think that
• I must say that it is highly likely / unlikely that
• I’m convinced / sure / worried / uncertain that

Two words really matter here: because and if. The use of because is important as it surfaces the logic and rationale of an idea or opinion. If is useful as it explains the consequences of an opinion — positive or negative.

These words are underused and often result in unnecessary disagreement in meetings. Sometimes people argue with each other even though they agree!

5. Time words

Time is important in business for many reasons: we use it to structure and describe our activities. In many business cultures, defining and meeting schedules is synonymous with efficiency.

We need to be able to express three basics: on schedule, ahead of schedule and behind schedule.

In addition to the when of business life, there is also the how often.

• How often has the customer had problems?
• How often has the machine broken down?
• How often has something been late?

This question creates a need for some important words and phrases in response, such as:

• regularly
• occasionally
• once or twice
• from time to time
• twice a quarter
• five times a year

We also need to be able to answer important questions such as, “How soon will it be ready?”. Replies to this vary and often require strings of words, for example:

• As soon as possible
• Immediately
• Yesterday
• It’s difficult to estimate.
• We’re working as fast as we can.
• I’ll give you an update next week.

In Part 2 we will examine 5 more categories: question words, everyday words, quality words, same words and positive words.

Photo credit: kumeda for iStock

Originally published at www.getnewsmart.com.