12 Useful Phrasal Verbs for Business Meetings
When you participate in English meetings, do you sometimes feel that your vocabulary could be more advanced or native-like?
Maybe you feel that the way you speak English is not quite at the level you want to achieve.
An effective and quick way to make your English sound more advanced is to increase your phrasal verb repertoire.
Phrasal verbs are used by native speakers all the time. So if your goal is to speak more authentic English and avoid asking natives to repeat themselves because you don’t understand them, then learning more phrasal verbs will help you reach this.
In this article, I teach you 12 phrasal verbs which are often used in business meetings. I give you a short definition and a typical, real-life example to help you understand how to use them in context.
I also show you a 5 step process to increase phrasal verbs focused on your English needs.
Let’s go…
12 Phrasal Verbs for Meetings to Make Your English Sound More Advanced
1. Bring forward
To change the date or time of an event so that it happens earlier than planned.
Example: “The meeting has been brought forward to this Thursday instead of next week.”
2. Call off
To decide that a planned event will not happen.
Example: “Today’s meeting has been called off, and it will probably be rescheduled for next week.”
3. Draw up
To prepare something official, for example, a contract, in writing.
Example: “Now that we have agreed on the details, I’ll draw up the contract and send it to you tomorrow.”
4. Wind up
To end something.
Example: “I’d like to wind up the meeting by 12 o’clock.”
*Be careful of the pronunciation of “wind”. The “i” sound has the same pronunciation as the words, ”sign”, “time” and “line.”
5. Look forward to (+ing)
To feel excited about something that is going to happen.
Example: “I look forward to seeing you all again next month for our follow-up meeting.”
6. Jot down
To write something quickly on a piece of paper so that you remember it.
Example: “I jotted down most of the details from the meeting to help me relate it to the team.”
7. Run out of
To say that there is not much time left or something has finished.
Example: “Unfortunately we have run out of time, so we’ll have to leave steps 4 and 5 for the next meeting.”
8. Deal with
To take action with something or a person.
Example: “Mike, do you mind dealing with this particular issue? And if you could get back to me by next week with the outcome, that’ll be great.”
9. To figure out
To be able to understand something or to solve a problem
Example: “Our objective for today is to figure out a solution for this supplier crisis we’re going through.”
10. To go over (something)
To repeat a series of things, or to think about them again in order to understand them completely.
Example: “Let’s just go over this process again to make sure that we’re all on the same page.”
11. To hand out
To give something to a group of people.
Example: “Now I’m going to hand out the folders with all the information included.”
12. Look into
To try to discover the facts about something.
Example: “Sandra, I’d like you to look into this a bit further because I’m missing the whole story.”
Check out these other related posts for English improvement:
12 Phrasal Verbs with ‘Take’ for Work Situations
15 Phrasal Verbs with ‘Get’ for Work & Business
10 Business Idioms to Help You Speak English Like a Native
Take Action by Increasing Your Knowledge of Phrasal Verbs through Context
There are hundreds of phrasal verbs floating around the English language.
Although students know that it’s important to increase their knowledge of phrasal verbs, they often don’t know where to begin.
A great way to learn new phrasal verbs is to start making lists that are separated by topics relevant to when you use English – just like I have done in this article for phrasal verbs related to meetings. Then use the phrasal verbs when you get the opportunity.
Here’s a simple 5 step process to do this:
Step 1: Choose a topic that is relevant to when you use English, for example, in a negotiation, networking, describing trends, at the airport, etc.
Step 2: Research phrasal verbs through reading articles and podcasts related to the topic. You can also Google search “phrasal verbs” for “topic.”
Step 3: List the phrasal verbs under your chosen topics in your notebook or flashcard app.
Step 4: Write down expressions that you could potentially use with the phrasal verbs. Then practice these expressions orally until you feel confident saying them.
Step 5: Use these expressions in a real-life situation when you get the opportunity, like in a work meeting or business trip. The best way to fix new vocabulary is to use it in real-life situations.
Extra tip: Go to Google News search engine and type in a phrasal to see it used in different contexts. Here’s an example with “bring forward.”
A word about phrasal verbs with multiple meanings…
What often confuses students who are trying to increase their knowledge of phrasal verbs, are the different meanings for phrasal verbs depending on the context. You can see an example of how phrasal verbs can have several meanings here for the phrasal verb “wind up”.
Students sometimes attempt to learn all the different meanings for a phrasal verb. But I recommend avoiding doing this, and instead just focus on the phrasal verbs’ context which is relevant to your topic of interest and needs.
Conclusion
Learning phrasal verbs is essential if you wish to take your English to a more advanced level.
They really do add another dimension to your English when you are able to use them naturally. Furthermore, you will be able to understand natives easier too.
I advise against going ‘all in’ and attempting to learn lots of phrasal verbs at once. Alternatively, learn 2 or 3 a week, and make sure you really understand how to use them.
Then try to include them in emails and conversations in English. After a few months, you’ll have increased your knowledge of phrasal verbs, as well as using them naturally in your day-to-day.
