MustKnow English Business Words and Phrases Learn English Vocabulary
we’re live Greg it’s okay hi everybody
my name is Alicia welcome back to our
weekly live stream this week we are
going to talk about giving progress
reports and sharing goals so today I’m
going to talk a bit about some business
English related phrases and maybe some
things that you can use in like
university to talk about your studies or
your research so today I hope that you
find some things that you can use at
work right away in emails or in
presentations so today as always I have
broken the lesson into three parts we
are going to look first at basic
reporting expressions and here I’m going
to talk about some differences between a
simple past tense and perfect tense like
present perfect tense expressions for
giving your reports then I’m going to
talk about some useful vocabulary words
I’ll introduce some verbs and some nouns
just a few that I thought would be good
for this topic second I’m going to talk
about explaining steps so this will be
review maybe for some of you some
sequence words then I’m going to talk a
bit about passive voice and active voice
this is actually something that’s kind
of important for business and for any
kind of reporting in general and finally
just a couple expressions to review how
to express your goals so as you arrive
please don’t forget to send a message
into the chat I see lots of you there on
YouTube and on Facebook hi everybody
today’s topic is giving progress reports
and sharing goals junior from Paraguay
hi um Gabriel hello Rodolfo and my cold
no cuz I have a turtleneck okay like
very exciting question on Facebook hi
everybody Pushpa and Leandra and Sagwa
and demos deans Ron hi and la Bala hi
okay good lots of people from all over
the world from China Heather Wow
add Gabriel from
hello awesome so thanks for joining us
as I said today we’re talking about
progress reports and goals while we wait
we’ll give another minute for other
people to join one announcement about
new things you can find on the English
class 101 YouTube channel if you have
not seen it yet our monthly review is
out and a new one is coming so thank you
so much to everyone who sent in audio
files and video files we chose a few of
those and I got to listen to them
yesterday so again we had people from
all over the world yesterday was like
Thailand
I think Sudan Syria Indonesia I can’t
remember all them Ukraine as well I
think so that was really really exciting
if you missed it this time and you want
to join next time please check the
monthly review video on the channel so
you can send an audio or a video file of
yourself speaking English so that’s
super exciting super cool okay we are
about three minutes and three or four
minutes in so I want to begin it looks
like everything is up cool I - I’m going
to share the video and then I will start
the lesson ok beast share good ok so
let’s get started then as I said I want
to begin with basic report expressions
so I want to start with time period
expressions and then some grammatical
differences between these so first I
want to look at a small point that
relates to using articles so if you
don’t know an article is up or an or the
or just no article so here I want to
compare when we have an expression a
time expression with an article and
without an article so here we have last
week or last month or last quarter
quarter by the way porter means a three
month period so we divide one
into four quarters so a quarter of the
year is three months out of the year so
we use these and I’ll explain more in a
minute we use these with simple past
tense more I’ll share some examples of
this then when we see an expression like
this in the last week in the last month
or in the last quarter it means in that
time period so to kind of imagine this
visually we can think of it like this so
here if I say if this is my timeline
here my star is now and I say the
expression last month like last month
sales increased for example it means at
this point right here last month sales
increased it started and it finished
last month if however I use in the last
month
it means during this time period so not
just one point in time but over a period
of time so this is a pattern we use more
with perfect tense so today I’m going to
use this with present perfect tense of
course you can use this with past
perfect tense as well so in the plus
your time period sounds like it happened
over that period so if you don’t use
that article it sounds like a simple
past tense statement so with this in
mind I’ll introduce some vocabulary
words and then a couple of example
sentences that use these points okay so
for now let’s move on to to this part so
I want to talk about a couple vocabulary
words these vocabulary words are all
past tense verbs we’ll zoom in here in
just a second I can see you for ferry so
these are all past tense verbs except
for this one which you’ll see in just a
second sorry no worries so this one
right here this is began and started
began and started are the
some pears here when you’re making a
report you can use either of these to
talk about like beginning something or
starting something they share a meaning
just I’ve put here in parentheses begun
begun this is the past participle form
of the verb so this is the only verb
here actually in this list that has a
different past participle form from its
past tense form okay so a couple of
other good words you can use when you’re
making a report are updated that’s one
updated and changed some of you have
asked what the difference is between
updated and upgraded this one so updated
upgraded means like you’re getting the
newest version of something or like
you’re buying something better than it
was before to update something means you
made like a small change but it’s not
like you’re getting something new it’s
not a whole new level of something okay
so these are kind of good ones for from
basic reports as well as these to
increased and decreased increased and
decreased we can use these as nouns as
well an increase or a decrease but to
increase means to go up to decrease
means to go down and then for more for
those of you that are kind of more
advanced or intermediate or advanced
learners these two I’ve included two
more kind of more difficult vocabulary
words the first one is skyrocketed yeah
someone on the YouTube chat has it woozi
wrote in the last month our profits
skyrocketed so to skyrocket means to
increase very quickly this is a verb to
skyrocket this is the past tense
skyrocketed it means to go up very
quickly skyrocketed second here I have
next to decreased so to decrease means
to go down to go down when you want to
express the opposite of
rocketed you can use the verb plummeted
plummeted so present tense is plummet
plu mm ET plummet is the present tense
form so to plummet means to go down very
very quickly to skyrocket is to go up
very quickly so these are verbs these
are verbs to skyrocket and to plummet
okay so verbs that’s this um I want to
introduce these three nouns then so
these three nouns I also mentioned using
increase and decrease as nouns you can
do that too but here excuse me here I
have three more and I’ve got a small
visual it might be oh yeah we can see
that better thank you
so these three words are up swing up
swing and spike and drop up swing spike
and drop so again
nouns these are nouns so an upswing you
can kind of see I made this like kind of
tiny diagram here and upswing so to
swing it means like to gradually move
like from side to side if you know like
the swing a playground a piece of
playground equipment it makes this
motion to swing so an up swing means
like a gradual smooth increase in
something so an upswing in profits would
look like this sorry it’s hard to see
here the second one is a spike a spike
so you can kind of see here a spike is a
really big sudden increase in something
so I mentioned the verb to skyrocket
that’s a verb we can use spike as a noun
so for example there was a spike in
profits last month or we saw a spike in
users on our live stream for example I
hope okay so a spike third on this list
is drop a drop so I mentioned plummet as
kind of an advanced verb to mean a quick
decrease this is a noun you can use
a drop a drop in profits or a drop in
users yes
so upswing spike and drop are some great
words you can use at work when you’re
reporting data these are great words to
use to report data um I saw a question
where to go alley on YouTube can I use
decrease and increase with the speed of
a car yes
totally totally you can of course um I’d
see I don’t see other questions yet if
you have other questions please feel
free to send them into the chat I will
try to get to them then I wanted to
share um a couple of examples so to
finish this part I mentioned these two
things this simple past tense and this
perfect tense example so I want to kind
of compare with a simple sentence first
I want to look at a simple past tense
expression so for example can I see this
can we zoom in sorry this red pen is
kind of dying sorry maybe I’m sorry I’ll
use black pen this pen is kind of dying
so this sentence profits increase last
month this is a simple past tense
sentence profits profits increased last
month profits increased less months I’m
using simple past tense here and I’m
using this last month with no article as
I talked about it’s off screen now but
there’s no in that here that’s okay
that’s okay so there’s no in the here so
this is a simple past tense statement so
today it depending on where you are it’s
November 14th or it’s November 15th that
means last month was October so this
sentence means in October
just October profits increased that’s
what it means
compare this then to I’m out of space
here can I write it down here alrighty
here okay
compare this to profits
have increased in the last month profits
have increased in the last month let’s
compare this
so again profits have increased in the
last month here I’m using a present
perfect grammar point profits have
increased and as I talked about I’m
using this in the in the so this refers
to a time period so profits have
increased in the last month means from
about this time last month maybe like
October 14th or October 15th until now
profits have continuously gone up
profits have increased so this excuse me
this refers to a time period so here
your present perfect a sentence
structure time period your simple past
tense sentence structure a specific
point in the past this is a great
example of a way that you can use these
two grammar points to be very specific
okay um great some nice example
sentences Joseph says as you can see
profits increased last month nice can we
use increase and decrease for
temperature says sigh yes you absolutely
can so temperatures will increase our
temperatures will decrease yes that’s
very natural to use hi from Egypt hi um
other things yes I am speaking with an
American accent some of you asked that
Facebook I don’t see anything up
let’s see Facebook oh I got Facebook
okay um I don’t ask someone
Amir says could you please give an
example of upswing again upswing so yeah
upswing means like this gradual increase
in something you could replace excuse me
you could replace upswing with increase
just using it as a noun so for example
there was an upswing in profits last
month or we are expecting an upswing in
users next quarter okay so
I think I’m going to move on to the next
part for today so if you have questions
please do send them I will try to catch
them
Hugo we don’t use in the when we want to
talk about a specific point in the past
so in that refers to a time period okay
great let’s move along I’ll take a quick
break if you missed this please don’t
worry this video is being recorded so
you can review these points and if you
have any questions please do send a
message and I will check this later and
try to make something to answer your
questions okay but we’ll take a quick
break I picked I introduced this last
week but I think it’s best for this week
today’s topic is very focused on
business English and maybe on academic
English so our free thing which I will
show you over here is this PDF this is
the business English PDF I know many of
you are using English or studying
English to work on improving your career
goals or like working toward career
goals so this is some vocabulary for the
office but I think the most useful part
of this PDF is right here it’s hard to
see sorry these are things you can use
for business meetings expressions you
can use for business meetings so these
are I’m going to talk a little bit about
expressions you can use to make reports
but if you want to pick up a couple of
other phrases um you can check out this
PDF this is part of like our PDF package
you can find this for free on the
website so check the link below the
video on YouTube or above the video on
Facebook and you can download this for
free you do need an account but the
account is free so check this out I
thought this would be a nice thing to
use for today okie dokie good excuse me
let’s move along I still don’t see any
questions there
ah but if you have questions please let
me know okay for now let’s continue if
you are just joining us today’s lesson
is about giving progress reports and
sharing goals so I talked about some
grammar and some vocabulary words you
can use to do like reporting activities
I’m now going to move to some sequence
words this is maybe some review for a
lot of you but as you join please don’t
forget to send your questions and like
and share the video so other learners
can find it we really appreciate it
ok let’s move on so this part as I said
explaining steps explaining steps so I
want to review sequence words for this
part so sequence words are for example
like first and then after that and so on
when you’re giving a presentation though
you can use patterns like these so let’s
imagine from the beginning like the
beginning of the lesson let’s say you
share a point like like I said profits
increased last month or maybe you said
profits have increased in the last month
better but let’s say you want to go to
your next point and you want to describe
your plans so your next steps for
something you can use next I’m going to
so Y going to here if you use going to
it’s like you have a plan for that thing
so using will doesn’t communicate as
strongly at your plan so next I’m going
to or next I’m gonna you could use gonna
but for me I would say in like a formal
business presentation I would try not to
reduce that sound next I’m going to
sounds good for your your following
steps next I’m going to if you are
working in a team the next thing we have
to do is so last week’s live stream is
about this hash to point the next thing
we have to do is
make new products so the next thing we
have to do is improve our marketing
efforts so you’ll notice I’m ending this
with some kind of verb so next I’m going
to find a new client or the next thing
we have to do is improve our marketing
whatever that might be so here I’m using
a simple present tense verb so no change
to your verb does the regular verb is
perfect okay I don’t see questions okay
so I mentioned these sorts of sequence
words so I call these sequence words you
can also think of them as like
transition words as well transition so
to transition to transition means like
to go between a couple different points
so this is really important for your
writing actually took to go naturally
between your ideas transition and
sequence words are super important so
some common examples are first then
after that and then before your last
point you can say finally or lastly so I
use these at the beginning of every
lesson actually like if you want an
example of how to use this you can go
back to like the beginning of this
lesson I use similar words when I start
these I say first we’re going to talk
about a grammar point next I’m going to
talk about explaining steps after that
I’ll talk about passive voice finally
we’ll talk about how to explain your
goals so this is a really simple example
of how just like put these words
together and also maybe you can kind of
hear like we have a kind of natural rise
and fall so first next after that
finally so we have kind of an
understanding based on the speaker’s
voice - of how much information is
coming okay so this is just a quick
review of that maybe the big point I
want to introduce here that might not be
review for some of you is right here
these two sentences
that’s a weird image okay I don’t know
I’m drawn there needs to these two are
expressions you can use to share your
results so if you are doing research or
if you’re collecting data of some kind
you can use these two to share your
findings findings findings means the
things that you discovered the things
that you found so here we found past
tense of find so for example we’ve we
researched our YouTube and Facebook
watchers and we found that many people
want to study English for their jobs so
we found that and then the data point so
follow this with your data we found that
many people want to use English for work
another expression you can use is our so
if you’re working in a team again our
results plural form our results so
meaning from all of the information we
collected our results showed many people
want to study for work so we found that
or I found that if you’re presenting
alone I found that or we found that our
results showed these are two things you
can use I would probably use our results
showed this one feels a little more like
research to me I’ve seen this more in
like research papers than in business
meetings but if you’re using a lot of
data if you’re doing some kind of test
or experiment or research at work maybe
you’d like to find out more about your
companies but I don’t know your
company’s improvements or where they
need to improve you could use um our
results showed okay good
yes this is really live this is really
high Vijay okay so let’s continue I want
to continue on to this next point active
voice versus passive voice this is a
commonly requested topic on the channel
in general but I want to talk about this
here for business English
because I think that this can sometimes
cost a little bit of confusion or
miscommunication depending on the
culture so to review passive voice we
use passive voice you can see this we
use passive voice use when the actor is
unknown so the actor here the actor
means the person or the thing doing an
action so for example right now like I
am teaching a lesson
I am the actor I am the person doing the
thing so use when the actor is unknown
or unimportant so I said in my example
sentence I am teaching a lesson if I
want to make that sentence passive I
would say the lesson is being taught so
who is the actor we don’t know in that
sentence that’s the difference between
active and passive so we tend to try to
avoid the use of passive especially in
business English because it can sound it
sounds unclear one and sometimes it
sounds suspicious actually like we’re
trying to hide something so let’s look
at a couple of examples of this and let
me know if you have any questions here
first let’s compare these these passive
and active sentences first our manager
will fix the problem I’m sorry I’ve
mislabeled ease our manager will fix the
problem this is an active sentence so
here’s my actor our manager who is the
person doing the thing the manager our
manager will fix the problem that’s an
active sentence here the problem will be
fixed who is going to fix the problem
here we don’t know so this is an example
of a sentence this one this is an
example of a sentence we might use in
like a customer service situation like
if there’s a customer problem and the
representative doesn’t know exactly
who’s going to fix the problem but
want to help the customer they could say
the problem will be fixed if however you
know the person that’s going to fix the
problem it’s better to choose the active
sentence like we want all the
information if you can give us all the
information so try not to use passive
tried to use active so all of the
information is clear yes so the problem
will be fixed if you use this sentence
if you use the problem will be fixed by
the manager fine that’s clear but if you
use something like this and the actor is
not clear it can cause a little like
uncertainty or suspicion um can I use
figure it out instead of fix like the
problem will be figured out by the
manager sure it just depends on the
situation yeah okay then second yeah
someone said can I say the problem will
be fixed by our manager yes yes you can
so if you are going to include by our
manager that’s fine that’s fine
just I would recommend where possible
not to remove your actor if you know the
actor so I want to show one more example
down here this this one is an example of
a situation where removing the actor
creates suspicion so let’s take a look
first passive sentence the secret
information was provided to us the
secret information was provided to us so
there’s no actor here second risa
provided us the secret information
Risa’s their campus visa provided us the
secret information here’s my active
sentence so here this sentence can be
very suspicious so here we’re looking at
secret information so maybe if you’re
like a journalist if you’re a reporter
you work for like a newspaper or
something it’s important to protect the
people who give you information but if
you work for like a big I don’t know
corporate company or if you if you need
to be clear about who is making
decisions or who is sharing information
this sentence can seem suspicious
potentially so this may seem a little
bit suspicious because we don’t know who
provided this secret information here we
know the actor Risa provided us the
secret information this is an active
sentence so generally speaking when you
are giving presentations when you are in
business meetings it’s better to use the
active voice there is this issue one but
also just in English you sound more
confident and you sound more sure of the
things that you’re sharing and you also
sound like you can like take credit
which means you understand like your
responsibilities so use the active voice
where possible other things I don’t see
other things when I buy her manager is
it going to be passive or active it’ll
still be passive that’s still a passive
sentence if you add by our manager can I
say
oh gosh can I say the problem is the
problem will be solved by the manager
yes lots of you have explained it can I
explain gerunds and infinitives quickly
jaren’s are like the verb forms that end
in ing infinitives are 2 plus the verb I
cannot change the whole lesson to teach
the whole lesson about that right now
though ok I have to finish up so I’ll
move to our last point here for today
the last point here is just a couple of
quick expressions you can use to explain
your goals so we can use a couple of
different words that really mean the
same thing like goal target aim you can
use all of these to talk about your next
step so for teamwork our next target is
like our next target is 3 million
subscribers on the channel or something
you can use an expression like this -
this is really positive sounding the
next thing we want to accomplish is the
next thing we want to accomplish is 3
and 3 million subscribers on our YouTube
channel
the next
we want to accomplish or you could say
achieve the next thing we want to
achieve is would also be quite nice okay
another one the goal is this one is
great if you are not sure about which to
use this is an easy one to use and
change a lot the goal is and I have to
in parentheses here it’s kind of hard to
see the goal is three million
subscribers is okay a noun phrase or
include two before a verb the goal is to
increase subscribers or to increase
viewers so you can change this you can
use this with a known phrase for with
the verb okay yeah our next target is
improving our English nice one
all right final point oops we would like
to we would like to so this sounds not
quite is like strong and confident we
would like to think we would like to
make new products or we would like to
expand overseas so this is less like a
goal and more kind of like an idea
something we hope to achieve so just a
couple of quick goal points okay um I
have to finish up there for today that
was a lot of stuff and I know I moved
kind of quickly and maybe this was a
little bit advanced but I hope that you
found something you can use for business
English this is really good to remember
for reporting I feel like so please feel
free to review this of course um if you
missed anything you can watch this video
on the channel or on Facebook right away
if you missed it but I have to finish
there so I’ll show you quickly once more
if you missed it I mentioned that this
PDF this business English PDF was really
good for this week’s lesson so you’ll
see it on screen in a second but I
wanted to mention on the back of this
fifth the business English one um up
here you can see later there are like
words you can use for business me
like what are your views on this or I’d
like to introduce some points or those
kinds of things so these are a couple
things you can use for business meetings
and of course there’s other stuff too so
please check this out you can find this
from the link below the video on YouTube
and above the video on Facebook but
after one so next week next week we will
be back next week next week’s topic is
emergencies yeah next week’s topic I’m
going to talk about explaining
emergencies so we’ll cover like medical
emergencies and like other kinds of
accidents as well so please join us next
week next week November 21st this will
be is this I think it’s 9:00 Eastern
Standard Time now right I think daylight
savings time has started so I think it’s
night I think it’s 9:00 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time that’s New York City time
if you don’t know it google it or just
set a notification on Facebook or
YouTube that’s a great way to make sure
you don’t miss it so please join us next
week for explaining emergencies yes our
live streams are every Wednesday evening
New York City time or Thursday morning
if you’re in like Korea Japan maybe
Australia as well I don’t know depends
on your country so please join us then
next week all right I’m gonna finish up
there thank you so much for watching
thank you for liking and sharing the
video we really appreciate it
I hope that this was helpful for you if
you have questions please do send them
in the chat and enjoy the rest of your
week enjoy your weekend - I’ll see you
again next week bye
you