Here is a selection of advanced Business phrasal verbs and general phrases that you can use in any Business English situation. All of these phrases have very simple translations as well, so they are fairly easy to get into your active spoken English immediately!
carry out
This phrasal verb simply means to ‘do’ something. We use it with more complex tasks, which means that it is perfect for business.
We can use it with any of the following classic business tasks:
carry out research / carry out an analysis / carry out an assessment / carry out tests / carry out an experiment
carry out a survey / carry out a task / carry out a role / carry out a project
“We need to carry out a market analysis before we begin work on the new product”
“I have carried out an assessment of all the risks”
feasible
If a task or a project is feasible, it means that it is possible to achieve. It is a more sophisticated way of saying that something is possible or doable:
“It is not feasible to complete this project within such a short deadline, because we simply don’t have the resources”
“With our strong, motivated team I believe that these challenging targets are feasible”
as far as I am concerned
This is simply a more sophisticated way of saying ‘I think’. It is easy to get into any business discussion, and due to the fact that it is such a long phrase, it gives you time to think about what your opinion is!
“As far as I am concerned, it is essential that we change our strategy or risk missing the deadline”
“As far as I am concerned, it would be better to meet them in person to discuss the potential deal further”
to weigh up
This is possibly my favourite business English phrasal verb. It means to consider all of the possible options, as well as all of the positive or negative aspects of an issue before making a decision. It is useful because the purpose of nearly every meeting is to discuss and to weigh up options before coming to a decision. There are several useful structures with ‘weigh up’:
to weigh up our options
“We need to weigh up all of our options before deciding on a suitable venue for the event”
to weigh up between
“The HR department is currently weighing up between Spain and France for the next team-building trip”
to weigh up the pros and cons of something
“We need to weigh up the pros and cons of each strategy before coming to a decision”
to weigh up whether to do something
“I am currently weighing up whether to change career direction”
to weigh up + (question word: which / how / what / who)
“The HR department are weighing up who has been the most promising candidate throughout the interview process”
“We are still weighing up what to do next”
to strive to do something
This phrase is simply a more sophisticated version of ‘try to’. When you use this phrase, it sounds like you will do everything in your power to make something happen. In my opinion, it gives the listener a feeling that you are going to be successful in what you are trying to achieve:
“At our company, we strive to provide the best service for our customers”
“We will strive to complete the task by the end of this week”
to pinpoint something
The meaning of this phrase is to find out the exact facts about something. It is one of my favourite business English words because nearly every business meeting has the purpose of finding the exact cause of a problem, the exact solution to a problem or the most effective strategy moving forward:
“We need to pinpoint the exact cause of our downturn in profits so that we can come up with an effective solution”
“We have pinpointed the target audience for our new service”
stem from the fact that
This phrase sounds excellent when expressing the cause of something.
It is often used to talk about the cause of something negative:
“The problems in the project stem from the fact that our budget has been reduced”
It can also be used to talk about something positive:
“Our success stems from the fact that we have built a solid team”
If you would like me to give a more detailed explanation of these words, or if you would like to see some more examples, feel free send me an email at [email protected], or message me on Skype at live:fluencyspace! Click here for more advanced Business vocabulary!
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