Speak Business English Like an American

For better or worse, the American workplace is full of idioms. People don’t begin a project. They get a project off the ground. They don’t call each other to discuss progress. They touch base. Later, if the project is not going well, they don’t end it. They pull the plug.

Speak Business English Like An American covers over 350 idioms and expressions you’re likely to encounter in today’s business world. Familiarize yourself with all of them. When they come up in conversation, you’ll be prepared to respond confidently instead of becoming silent while thinking to yourself, “What’s he talking about? Sales went through the roof? What roof?” As you’re asking yourself these questions, the conversation is continuing without you. Suddenly you’re left behind. Before you know it, you’re out of the loop.

After getting to know the idioms, listen for them in everyday conversations and look for them in newspapers. Idioms are everywhere. Newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and business sections of daily newspapers are full of these idioms. Once you get a good feel for them, try them out on your colleagues and friends. Idioms will add color and excitement to your language. Using idioms will make you sound more like a native speaker.

Let’s take just one example. Let’s say you’re losing a lot of business to your competition. You could say, “We’re losing business to our competition.” Or, you could say, “Our competition is eating our lunch!” The second sentence sounds a little more lively, doesn’t it?

Don’t feel the need to load every sentence with idioms. A well-placed idiom here and there will do the trick.

You don’t have to add every idiom in this book to your active vocabulary. You’ll naturally find some more useful than others. A few of the idioms in this book — such as think outside the box and on the same page — have become so common, they’re now overused. But even if you don’t want to use them, you should understand them since you’re likely to hear them.

American English idioms come from many different sources. The business-focused idioms often originate from military speak (example: rally the troops) and from the world of sports (example: step up to the plate). This provides some insight into the way Americans think about business: like war, it’s a bitter competition with winners and losers. Like sports, it’s a game, with the prizes going to those teams (companies) with superior strategy and execution.

For your convenience, all of the idioms in this book are shown in bold and listed in the Index. In the Glossary of Terms, we’ve included definitions for many other words and phrases that you may not understand. These terms are in italics in the dialogues. Whenever you see an italicized word you don’t know, just turn to the back of the book to look it up.

Good luck adding idioms to your everyday speech. It’s fun and it’ll help you succeed in the working world!