Phrasal verbs are most English learners’ worst nightmare. Unfortunately, they are so commonly used in English by fluent speakers that you’ll hear them several times in a conversation. And that’s the same for communication with proficient English speakers in a business setting. You can’t escape them!
51...1 – What are phrasal verbs?
Phrasal verbs are verbs used with another word (an adverb or preposition) to create a commonly used phrase.
Phrasal verbs are idiomatic — you can’t guess the meaning of a phrasal verb by interpreting each of the words it contains literally. For example, if you say, “I’ll look into the mirror,” you are going to direct your sight to a mirror. In this case, look into is not a phrasal verb; it’s simply a verb followed by a preposition. On the other hand, if you say, “I don’t know what phrasal verbs are, but I’ll look into it,” you are not directing your sight into phrasal verbs—you are going to find out more about them.
51...2 – Small talk
Let’s imagine our clients are having a meeting over coffee. Here are 15 phrasal verbs they might hear:
- I was called in (= asked to do something) by my boss.
- I need to catch up (=do something that should be done) with my emails.
- We are putting in (give) hours and hours.
- They won’t give up (=abandon) their demands.
- We shouldn’t give in (=surrender) to bully tactics.
- Do you think they picked up (=receive) the message?
- I will need to get back to you (=reply) on that.
- Can we work something out (=agree) here?
- I agreed to step in (=take their place)for my boss.
- You need to run this by (=tell) the client.
- Who set this up (=arranged)?
- My colleague said they would put in a good word (=say something positive) for me.
- That team always stick up for (=support) each other.
- I don’t know who to turn to (=get help from).
- You can always count on (=depend on) me.
51...3 – Common phrasal verbs for formal business meetings
Imagine your clients have been asked to attend a meeting either in person or via a conference call…
The date and time are set and they put it (= schedule it) in your diary. Occasionally, they need to bring forward (=make it earlier) the time of the meeting to suit everyone.
They then get a call from a colleague to say that something has come up (=happened) and they decide the meeting has to be put back (=postponed) to another day. No problem. In a way, they’re quite relieved because they have a mountain of things to do and they were worried that they might have had to call off (=cancel) the meeting anyway.
During the meeting, they have a number of issues they need to raise and deal with (=manage). They may have outlined the items in an agenda that they’ve circulated to everyone beforehand. With some issues, they may have to weigh up (=think carefully about) their advantages and disadvantages before taking action. This could take a while and they might encourage their colleagues to join in (=participate) the discussion.
Sometimes they need to look into (=to investigate/research) a matter before taking a final decision. If that’s the case, they might note down (=write) all the points raised during the meeting to help themselves.
Some people don’t like to be interrupted when they’re talking, while others don’t mind if someone steps in (=interrupt) with their point of view. I have had times when I’ve had to cut in (=interrupt) especially when I thought that a colleague was going on (=continuing without stopping) about something truly unimportant.
There is always someone in a meeting who just keeps rabbiting on (=talking too much about something that’s uninteresting) about some subject that no one else is interested in. So, I often tell my colleagues that we need to press on (=continue) with the other items on the agenda. After all, there’s nothing worse than having a meeting that drags on (=continues for far too long), is there?!