100 essential business verbs

Here are 100 commonly-used verbs that you should know and be able use if you work in an
English-speaking business environment.
Do you know them all? Do you know them all? Tick them off
page as a record.
accept

as you learn and keep this

complain

extend

order

reduce

add

complete

fall

organize

refuse

admit

confirm

fix

owe

reject

advertise

consider

fund

own

remind

advise

convince

get worse

pack

remove

afford

count

improve

participate

reply

approve

decide

increase

resign
pay

authorize

decrease

inform

respond
plan

avoid

deliver

install

return
present

borrow

develop

invest

rise
prevent

break

dismiss

invoice

sell
process

build

dispatch

join

send
produce

buy

distribute

lend

separate

calculate

divide

lengthen

promise

shorten

call

drop

lower

promote

split

cancel

employ

maintain

provide

structure

change

encourage

manage

purchase

succeed

charge for

establish

measure

raise

suggest

check

estimate

mention

reach

write

choose

exchange

obtain

receive

vary

recruit

100 essential business nouns

100 commonly-used nouns you should know and be able to use if you work in an Englishspeaking business environment. Do you know them all? Tick them off
as you learn and keep
this page as a record.
advantage
advertisement

debtor

fall

objective

repairs

decision

feedback

offer

report

decrease

goal

opinion

responsibility

deficit

goods

option

advice
agenda

result
delivery

apology

growth

order
retailer

authorizatio

department

guarantee

output

rise

improvemen

payment

risk

penalty

salary

permission

sales

possibility

schedule

preparatio

share

n
description
bill

t
difference

brand

increase
disadvantag

budget

industry

change

distribution

instructions

commission

employee

interest

n
signature

comparison

employer

inventory

price

competition

enquiry

invoice

product

competitor

environmen

knowledge

production

stock
success
t

suggestio

confirmatio
n

limit

profit

loss

promotion

supply

margin

purchase

support

market

reduction

target

message

refund

transport

mistake

reminder

equipment
costs

estimate

creditor

experience

customer

explanation

deadline

facilities
turnover

debt

factory

Qualifiers: how to sound more polite in a

business meeting
August 1, 2012 By Stuart Cook 3 Comments

If you often attend meetings and negotiations as part of your job, you will know how important it
is to avoid direct disagreement.
A disagreement can occur if we make a very direct and simple statement to express what were
thinking. Statements which are too direct can sound confrontational and as a result the person
youre negotiating with may be offended or get upset.
Look at these very direct statements:

The price is high.

Its a problem.
Ill be late.
There might be delays with the delivery.
We have to make changes.
Its difficult to do.

All of the above statements are too direct for a polite negotiation. They may say what you are
thinking, but they can sound impolite or aggressive and may lead to a direct disagreement.

Qualifiers will soften a direct statement

In order to sound more diplomatic we should soften our direct statements. One way of doing this
is by using qualifiers words which we put before another word to make it sound less direct.
Here are some common softening qualifiers in English:

a little
a bit
a little bit
slight
slightly
short
small
one or two.

Now lets use these qualifiers in sentences:

The price is a little high.

Its a slight problem.
Ill be a little bit late.
There might be one or two short delays with the delivery.
We have to make one or two small changes.
Its a bit difficult to do.

See how the direct statements are now softer and less direct. We now sound more diplomatic and
a direct disagreement is less likely.
This is how qualifiers work. There are, of course, other ways of sounding polite and less direct
during a negotiation. Ill look at these in a future post.
If you found this article helpful, please click the Like and G+ buttons below and share it with
friends and colleagues. Thanks!

Business letter writing phrases

Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely; Dear Sir or Dear Mr
On this page we look at important phrases for writing letters and emails, such as when to use
Yours faithfully and Yours sincerely, Dear Sir, Dear Madam, and so forth.
You know how important it is to speak good English in an international working environment. If
you work for a company which does business abroad, you probably read and write a lot of
English, too. Writing, like speaking, is communication. When writing letters and emails we need
the skills to be able to express ourselves well and with the correct level of formality.
Do you have that skill? Ask yourself these questions:

Do you present yourself in a professional manner when you write?

What image do you give to the people who read your letters and emails?

In short, you want to give a professional image when you write to your customers and business
partners. To get you started, weve prepared some lists of standard phrases:

10 good opening lines

We need an opening line in a business letter or professional email:
to make reference to previous correspondence; to say how we found the recipients
name/address; to say why we are writing to the recipient.

With reference to your letter of 8 June, I .

I am writing to enquire about .

After having seen your advertisement in , I would like .

After having received your address from , I .
I received your address from and would like .
We/I recently wrote to you about .
Thank you for your letter of 8 May.
Thank you for your letter regarding .
Thank you for your letter/e-mail about .
In reply to your letter of 8 May, .

10 good closing lines

We need a closing line in a business letter or email:
to make a reference to a future event; to repeat an apology; to offer help

If you require any further information, feel free to contact me.

I look forward to your reply.
I look forward to hearing from you.
I look forward to seeing you.
Please advise as necessary.
We look forward to a successful working relationship in the future.
Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact
me.
Once again, I apologise for any inconvenience.
We hope that we may continue to rely on your valued custom.
I would appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.

More useful phrases for business emails and

letters
Here are some more business email and letter phrases. In this list we look at how to make
requests, complain, apologise and give bad news.
The examples in the left column are more formal. The right-hand column shows the less formal
equivalent.

When we make a request:

[more formal]
I would be grateful if you could .
I would appreciate (it) if you could .

[less formal]
Could you possibly ?
Could you please ?

When we agree to a request someone has made:

[more formal]
I would be delighted to .
(delighted means very happy)

[less formal]
I will be happy to .

When apologising:
[more formal]
I apologise for the delay in replying.
I/We apologise for the inconvenience.
I/We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Please accept our/my sincere apologies.

[less formal]
Sorry for the delay in replying.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Sorry for any trouble caused.
I/We are very sorry .

When giving bad news:

[more formal]
I/We regret that .
I/We regret to inform you that .
I am afraid that I must inform you of/that .

[less formal]
Unfortunately .
I am sorry to have to tell you that
I am sorry to have to tell you that

When complaining:
(The following phrases may be used as the opening line of the letter or email.)
[more formal]
I/We wish to draw your attention to .
I am writing to complain about .
I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with

[less formal]
I wanted to inform you about
I would like to complain about
. [none]

(The following phrase may be used as the closing line of the letter or email.)
[more formal]
[less formal]
I would appreciate your immediate attention
I would appreciate if you could sort it out as
to the matter.
soon as possible.

Making requests in emails and letters

We often have to make requests and ask for things in our letters and emails. To do this, we use
phrases like could you and would you.
Here we can see some examples of requests with could you and would you. Note the different
levels of politeness:

Here are some other examples of requests:

I
would
request

(+
noun)
I would request your immediate attention
to the matter.

[very
This is used
dissatisfaction.

Could you possibly send me ?

[tentative]

to

formal]
express

Adverbs such as also and therefore can be inserted into a request as follows:

I would also be grateful if you could send me .

I would therefore be grateful if you could send me .
Could you therefore please send me ?
Could you therefore send me ?
Could you also send me ?

Making more than one request in a letter or email

If you make two requests in a letter or email, the second request should include the word also, as
we can see here:
Dear Mr Smith
I recently saw an advertisement for your new range of kitchen equipment.
I own a small retail shop selling household goods and am interested in buying some of your new
products. Could you therefore please send me your price list? [first request]
I would also be grateful if you could include details of delivery and postage. [second request]

Thank you in advance.

Best regards

Modal verbs
Modal verbs, sometimes called modals, are auxiliary verbs (helping verbs). They express such
things as possibility, probability, permission and obligation.

Can, could, might, may, must, should, will, would and shall are modal verbs.
We use a modal verb before a second verb.
Modal verbs are not followed by to.
Modal verbs can have more than one meaning and usage.

Modal verbs to express ability

Can, could, was able to modal verbs to express ability

Modal verbs to express permission

Can, cant, could, may: modal verbs for permission

Modal verbs to express probability and certainty (modal

verbs of deduction)

Present tense modal verbs of deduction: must, cant, may, might, could
Past tense modal verbs of deduction: must have, cant have, couldnt have

Modal verbs to express obligation

Should to express weak obligation, advice

Should have to express unfulfilled obligation in the past

Modal verbs past tense forms and negatives

Modal verbs past tense forms

Modal verbs negative forms
Had to vs. must have

Modal verbs to express ability

We use the modal verbs can, could and be able to + verb infinitive to talk about ability.
Heres an overview, with examples:
Modal verbs to express ability
present

past

can

could

We use can when we speak about general

ability in the present:

We use could when we speak about general

ability in the past:

Tommy can swim.

I can play the guitar. Can you play?

Picasso could paint when he was two.

I could swim before I could walk.

The negative of can is can't (cannot):

The negative of could is couldn't (could

not):

I can't ski and I can't skate.

I couldn't swim until I was ten.

Specific situations - can

Specific situations - was able to / could

We also use can to speak about specific

situations in the present:

We often use was able to when speaking

about a specific situation:
We fixed the car and then we were able to
drive home.

I can hear you but I can't see you.

Can you hear me? - Yes, I can.

Questions about ability - present

How many languages can you speak?
Can you name all the capitals of Europe?

However, we prefer could to speak about a

specific situation in the past when we use
these verbs: see, hear, feel, smell, taste,
remember, believe, understand, decide.
They could smell smoke.
I could understand him perfectly.
Questions about ability - past
Could you write before you started school?
Could you ride a bike when you were
small?

Can I or May I? Which should we use?

Modal verbs for expressing permission
Modal verbs to express asking for, giving, and refusing permission
present or future

past tense

Giving permission: can

Permission in the past: could, was allowed

We use can when we give someone

permission to do something:
You can bring a friend to the party if you
want.
You can borrow my phone if your battery is
dead.

to
We use could to say that something was
permitted in the past:
Many years ago you could smoke in
cinemas, but now it's banned.

We can also use was/were allowed to:

We also use may for permission. May is
We had to wear a tie at school but we were
more formal and is used less often than can:
allowed to take it off in hot weather.
Passengers may take one small bag on
board the plane.
Saying "no" - refusing permission
We use can't to say that something isn't
permitted:
You can't park here - it's private property.
He can't drive my car; he doesn't have
insurance.

We use couldn't / wasn't allowed to to say

that something was not permitted in the
past:
We couldn't cross the border without our
passports.

Must not / mustn't is also used, but is more

formal and is often used on signs and in
announcements:
Passengers must not speak to the driver
while the bus is in motion.
Asking for permission
can, could, may

Questions about permission in the past

was allowed to? / could?

We use can I? / could I / may I? to ask for

permission:
Can I speak to John Wilson, please?

Were you allowed to stay up late when you

were a child?
Could you stay up late when you were a
child?
Could people travel between East and West
Berlin during the Cold War?

Could is more formal and polite than can:

Could I speak to John Wilson, please?
May is the most formal:
May I speak to John Wilson, please?

When we ask for, give, and refuse permission, the words we most often use are can and cant:

Can I speak to Dave Williams, please?

You can help yourselves to tea and coffee.

Im sorry, you cant smoke here.

Youve probably also heard may used in requests and when giving/refusing permission:

May I take a message?

Passengers may not leave the airport while waiting for a connecting flight.

So whats the difference between can and may in requests?

1. May is more formal than can when asking for and giving permission:

May I speak to Mr Jones, please?

2. We use may when we want to sound more polite:

May I offer you another drink, sir?

3. We see or hear may, not can, in official announcements, and on signs:

Hotel guests may use the gym from 6 a.m.

May vs. can formal vs. informal. Look at the difference between these two signs:

Watch out! Although we very often shorten cannot to cant, the contraction maynt (may not) is
rarely used nowadays. Stick with cant in spoken English when you refuse permission or say that
something isnt allowed.
For more examples, see Grammar rules: modal verbs for expressing permission, or take a look at
this British Council page, which has some example sentences.
Feel free to ask questions in the comments below!

Modal verbs for expressing present

probability (deduction)
Some modal verbs can be used to express probability in the present and past.
Must / can't - to express probability in the present
Structure: modal + infinitive without to
must be, must have, can't go, etc.
We use must to express that we feel sure
that something is true.

They are really good, they must win.

They must be very rich. Look at the house.

We use can't to say we are sure that

something is impossible.

She can't be ill. I've just seen her in the

shop and she looked fine.
It can't be true. I don't believe it.

May / might / could - to express probability in the present

Structure: modal + infinitive without to
may be, might do, could go, etc.
They may be arriving tomorrow.
We use may or could or might to say that it
He might be away on holiday.
is possible that something will happen or is
He could be away on holiday.
happening.
He might be offered the job.
The negative of may is may not.
The negative of might is might not.
They both mean that it is possible that
something will not happen or is not
happening.
We DO NOT use could not to express
probability.

He might not be offered the job.

I may not pass the exam.
I might not go to the match tomorrow.
I could not go to the match tomorrow.

Had to vs. must have

The modal verb must has two past tense forms: had to and
must have. Which form we use depends on whether we want

to express obligation or if we want to say how certain we are

about the probability of something happening.
This table below shows us the past tense of must and have
to and when to use them.
Must / have to
present

past

When expressing obligation:

I must go. / I have to go.

When expressing obligation, the past of

'must' and 'have to' is always 'had to':
I had to go.
They had to be there at 2 o'clock.

When expressing a personal opinion about

probability (deduction), we use 'must' to
express that we feel something is true:
He must be here.
It must be great.

When expressing a personal opinion in the

past, we use 'must have', NOT 'had to':
He must have been here.
He had to be here.
It must have been great.
It had to be great.

Modal verbs for expressing past probability

(deduction)
Must / can't / couldn't have - to express probability in the past
Structure: modal + have + past participle
must have been, can't have gone, couldn't have gone
We use must have to express that we feel
sure that something was true.

They must have left early.

He must have already gone.

We use can't have / couldn't have to say

that we believe something was impossible.

He can't have escaped through this window.

It is too small.
She can't have said that.
She couldn't have said that.

May / might / could have - to express probability in the past

Structure: modal + have + past participle

may have been, could have gone, might have lost
We use may / could / might have to say
that it was possible that something
happened in the past (but we are not 100%
sure).

He may have missed the bus.

The road might have been blocked.

He may not have left yet.

The negatives are may not have and might
The assistant might not have received his
not have.
message.

Buzzwords to avoid :
It's mission-critical to be plain-spoken, whether you're trying to be best-of-breed at outside-thebox thinking or simply incentivizing colleagues to achieve a paradigm shift in core-performance
value-adds. Leading-edge leveraging of your plain-English skill set will ensure that your
actionable items synergize future-proof assets with your global-knowledge repository.
Just kidding.
Seriously, though, it's important to write plainly. You want to sound like a person, not an
institution. But it's hard to do, especially if you work with people who are addicted to buzzwords.
It takes a lot of practice.
Back when journalists were somewhat more fastidious with the language than they are today,
newspaper editors often kept an "index expurgatorius": a roster of words and phrases that under
no circumstances (except perhaps in a damning quote) would find their way into print.
Here's such a list for the business writer. (Thanks to my Twitter followers for their contributions.)
Of course, it's just a starting point add to it as you come across other examples of bizspeak
that hinder communication by substituting clichs for actual thought.
Bizspeak Blacklist
actionable (apart from legal action)
agreeance
as per
at the end of the day
back of the envelope
bandwidth (outside electronics)
bring our A game
client-centered

come-to-Jesus
core competency
CYA
drill down
ducks in a row
forward initiative
going forward
go rogue
guesstimate
harvesting efficiencies
hit the ground running
impact, vb.
incent
incentivize
impactful
kick the can down the road
let's do lunch
let's take this offline
level the playing field
leverage, vb.
liaise
mission-critical
monetize
net-net
on the same page
operationalize
optimize
out of pocket (except in reference to expenses)
paradigm shift
parameters
per
planful
push the envelope
pursuant to
putting lipstick on a pig
recontextualize
repurpose
rightsized
sacred cow
scalable
seamless integration
seismic shift (outside earthquake references)
smartsized
strategic alliance
strategic dynamism
synergize

synergy
think outside the box
throw it against the wall and see if it sticks
throw under the bus
turnkey
under the radar
utilization, utilize
value-added
verbage (the correct term is verbiage in reference only to verbose phrasings)
where the rubber meets the road
win-win
Many of these phrases have become voguish in business abstain if you can. Sometimes people
use them to enhance their own sense of belonging or to sound "in the know." Or they've been
taught that good writing is hyperformal, so they stiffen up and pile on the clichs.
Hunt for offending phrases: Start looking for bizspeak in all kinds of documents, from memos to
marketing plans, and you'll find it everywhere. You'll eventually learn to spot it and avoid it
in your own writing. You'll omit canned language such as Attached please find and other
phrases that only clutter your message.

Writing plainly means expressing ideas as straightforwardly as you can without sacrificing
meaning or tone. Think of it as bringing your written voice into line with your spoken voice.
Bizspeak may seem like a convenient shorthand, but it suggests to readers that you're on
autopilot, thoughtlessly using boilerplate phrases that they've heard over and over. Brief,
readable documents, by contrast, show care and thought and earn people's attention.