Business English

Professional English for the corporate world.

Email essentials

Opening

Formality	Opening
Formal	Dear Mr./Ms. [Last name],
Standard	Hi [First name],
Informal	Hey [Name],

Common phrases

Purpose	Phrase
Reason	"I'm writing to inquire about..."
Follow-up	"Following up on our conversation..."
Attachment	"Please find attached..."
Request	"I would appreciate it if you could..."
Clarification	"Could you please clarify...?"

Closing

Formality	Closing
Formal	"Sincerely," / "Best regards,"
Standard	"Best," / "Thanks,"
Informal	"Cheers,"

Meetings

Starting

• "Let's get started."
• "The purpose of this meeting is to..."
• "I'd like to begin by..."

Participating

• "I'd like to add that..."
• "Could you elaborate on that?"
• "If I understand correctly..."
• "Going back to what [Name] said..."

Ending

• "To summarize the key points..."
• "The next steps are..."
• "Let's schedule a follow-up for..."

Presentations

Opening

• "Today I'm going to talk about..."
• "I'll be covering three main points."
• "Feel free to ask questions at the end."

Transitions

• "Moving on to..."
• "Now let's look at..."
• "This brings me to my next point."

Closing

• "To wrap up..."
• "In conclusion..."
• "Are there any questions?"

Polite language

English uses indirect language for politeness:

Direct	Polite
Give me the report.	Could you send me the report?
I want a meeting.	I was hoping we could schedule a meeting.
You're wrong.	I see it differently.
Do this by Friday.	It would be great if this could be done by Friday.

Phrasal verbs in business

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example
follow up	check on progress	"I'll follow up next week."
bring up	mention	"I'd like to bring up an issue."
go over	review	"Let's go over the numbers."
put off	postpone	"We need to put off the launch."
turn down	reject	"They turned down our proposal."
come up with	create/invent	"We need to come up with a solution."

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