12 Phrasal Verbs with ‘Take’ for Work Situations
Similar to ‘get’, phrasal verbs with ‘take’ are very common in the English language. And more specifically, you can use many of them in Business situations, such as in meetings, presentations, and a range of diverse business areas and topics like HR, Marketing, Merchandising, and business development.
In this article, I present to you 12 phrasal verbs with ‘take’ which are frequently used in business and work situations. I provide you with the contexts you can use the phrasal verb for, a simple definition, and two real-life examples to give you a better idea of how to use them.
Phrasal Verbs with ‘Take’
1. Take Aside
Context: Meetings, teamwork.
Meaning: Talk to someone privately.
Example 1: After the team meeting, my manager took me aside to check whether I had understood everything.
Example 2: I decided to take her aside because she looked upset after my remarks.
2. Take away
Context: Human Resources, training & development, feedback, meetings.
Meaning: Leave a strong impression or memory from a meeting or discussion.
Example 1: What I took away most from the training was the explanation of how we can incorporate AI technology into our service.
Example 2: Did you take much away from the presentation about upcoming trends this morning?
3. Take back (1)
Context: Meetings, resolving a conflict.
Meaning: Withdraw or renounce a comment.
Example1: After listening to your explanation, I take back what I said earlier about the reasons for the drop in sales.
Example 2: I misunderstood the numbers so I take back what I said about your performance.
4. Take back (2)
Context: Meetings, business development, marketing, sales, meetings, presentations.
Meaning: Recover or reclaim control or possession of something.
Example 1: Our main goal this year is to take back the market share we have lost to our competitors.
Example 2: Although we decided to cut costs on advertising last year, I feel we need to take back the billboard space that we used to have.
5. Take down
Context: Advertising, merchandising, marketing, refurbishing, meetings, presentations.
Meaning: Remove something from a wall or shelf.
Example 1: We need to take down the old promotional banners and replace them with new ones by next week.
Example 2: On Thursday you need to take down the products with the old packaging and fill the shelves up with the newly packaged products.
6. Take in
Context: Meetings, training, presentations.
Meaning: Understand or mentally consume something.
Example 1: I was able to take in a lot from the training because of her engaging teaching style.
Example 2: Tell me what you took in from that discussion with the board this morning.
Check out more posts about phrasal verbs and business English:
15 Phrasal Verbs with ‘Get’ for Work & Business
12 Useful Phrasal Verbs for Business Meetings
10 Business Idioms to Help You Speak English Like a Native
7. Take off
Context: Business development, describing trends, marketing, sales, meetings, presentations.
Meaning: To boom, succeed or expand.
Example 1: The launch of our new product line has really taken off and we are seeing better than expected sales.
Example 2: Since early last year, venture capital investments in Blockchain technology have really taken off.
8. Take on
Context: HR, recruitment, meetings, presentations.
Meaning: Accept or begin a new or extra responsibility.
Example 1: Paul has been chosen to take on the coordinator role temporarily while we look to hire someone for the position for the long term.
Example 2: We are looking to take on another Risk Analyst next month.
9. Take over
Context: Business Development, meetings, presentations.
Meaning: Acquire or take control of another business.
Example 1: Since the beginning, Facebook has taken over 79 companies including Instagram.
Example 2: We have identified two competitors which we aim to take over in the coming years.
10. Take to
Context: HR, feedback, meetings.
Meaning: Learn or adapt to a new activity.
Example 1: Sarah has really taken to her new position as sales manager.
Example 2: How have you taken to your new role as the Training and Development coordinator?
11. Take up on
Context: Negotiations, Meetings.
Meaning: Accept or approve a proposal or an offer.
Example 1: After intense negotiations, they finally took us up on our offer of $2 Million.
Example 2: I’ll take you up on that. I think that’s a fair proposal.
12. Take through
Context: Presentations, meetings.
Meaning: Describe, explain or demonstrate something.
Example 1: For the first part of my talk, I’m going to take you through last years’ achievements.
Example 2: Let me take you through the new recruitment process. First, …
Conclusion
Learning phrasal verbs which can be applied to business situations will improve your business English communication skills and help you to understand native speakers better.
I recommend building your phrasal verb repertoire by learning just one of these phrasal verbs with ‘take’ per day for the next 12 days.
Then review and test yourself using a digital flashcard app, such as Quizlet. Finally, put your learning into practice by looking for opportunities to use these newly learned phrasal verbs with ‘take’ in your day-to-day activities.
