Do you need to use English for your work?

Maybe you work in an office and have to use English daily.

In this lesson I’m going to help you boost your English fluency and confidence at work with 8 common phrasal verbs used in office jobs or business situations.

This is a special, full lesson on English For Work. I will give you 8 phrasal verbs and their meanings, then you can read a dialogue using these phrases. You can then listen to the audio for this. Then there are some questions on this topic. Try to answer the questions out aloud or you can write your answers and practice using the phrasal verbs.

8 PHRASAL VERBS FOR THE OFFICE.

1. FILL ME IN (ON) something

To ‘fill someone in on something’ means to inform someone of the details about a meeting, discussion or project that the person missed. So if you are not able to attend a meeting, for example, you may ask a colleague to ‘fill you in on’ the main points of the meeting.

• “John! I missed the meeting yesterday. Can you fill me in on everything?”
• “There have been a few changes to the proposal. We’ll fill you in at lunch time”

2. GO OVER   

To ‘go over’ something means to review, revise or check. You probably need to ‘go over your notes’ before you give a speech. Your boss may need to go over your report before you email it.

• “We need to go over the budget this week before we speak to the accountants”
• “We went over everything regarding the project in yesterday’s meeting”

3. COME UP

‘Come up’ has a few different meanings. But in relation to work or business we often use ‘come up’ to mean an issue, situation or problem has presented itself, usually unexpectedly. It’s like saying the problem has ‘appeared’.

• “Sorry everyone! Something has come up and I have to leave”
• “We apologise for the delay on delivery. A technical problem has come up and we need to fix it”

4. RUN someone THROUGH

When we want to rehearse, or practice, a procedure or sequence we say ‘run me through’. This means to show someone how something works or how something is done before it needs to be executed or presented.

• “I’m not sure how this process works. Can you run me through it again?”
• “The safety inspector will run everyone through the fire escape procedure”

5. JOT DOWN

To jot down something is a very common phrasal verb used in office situations. It simply means to take a quick note. When we write down something quickly we can say we “jot it down”.

• “I just want to jot down a few extra notes before the presentation”
• “Can you jot down these phone numbers for me?”

6. SNOWED UNDER 

To be ‘snowed under’ means to be extremely busy and overwhelmed with tasks. We must use the ‘to be’ form before this, so it is like an adjective.

• I am snowed under.
• She is snowed under.
• “I can’t talk to you right now. I’m snowed under with work”.
• “I’m sorry I missed your call. I’ve been completely snowed under lately!”

7. LOOK INTO

To ‘look into something’ means to investigate or research something in more detail.

• “I’m not sure how much it will cost to install that software but I’ll look into it for you”.
• “The police are looking into any evidence that may be linked to the crime.”

8. FILL IN FOR someone 

To ‘fill in for someone’ means to temporarily replace a colleague or co-worker because he or she is absent.

• “I’m filling in for James this week while he’s on holiday”.
• “Andrea? Can you fill in for me tomorrow? I have to go to the doctor”.

So now you have 8 common phrasal verbs used in business and office work situations.

Below is a short dialogue using these phrasal verbs so you can see them more in context.

You can listen to the audio and read the transcript. I suggest using the audio in other ways such as;

• Listen while you are cooking, cleaning, exercising. 
• Use the Imitation Technique. Listen to a sentence, pause then try to copy the speech pattern as closely as possible. 
• Use the Shadowing Technique. Listen and speak at the same time. Try to follow the same speed, connected speech, sentence stress and intonation. 

 AT THE OFFICE AUDIO 

DIALOGUE TRANSCRIPT

Sally: Oh, Marcus! I thought you weren’t working today. Where’s Andrew?

Marcus: Something came up. He said he had to go to Melbourne for something so I’m filling in for him today.

Sally: Oh…ok.

Marcus: Is there something wrong?

Sally: I just…I wanted to go over the notes for the next meeting. Andrew and I were planning to present our ideas for the next project. You know, the farm project in Orange.

Marcus: Do you think you can handle it by yourself?

Sally: Well I’d love to run through it with someone.

Marcus: Sorry, Sally. I’m completely snowed under at the moment. Do you think you could ask someone else?

Sally: Well everyone else is out on the test run. They won’t be back until later today. I really need to get this organised. You sure you couldn’t just go over some of these notes with me? We could just jot down a few ideas together.

Marcus: Ahh, ok. But you’ll have to fill me in on what’s been happening. I’m really not up to speed.

Sally: No problem. Thanks so much! I was getting worried there for a minute. We don’t have a meeting centre ready in Orange so we’ll need to look into a place we can use…You have any thoughts?

Marcus: Hmm…let me have a think.

(Idiom: “to be up to speed” means to have all the latest information about a subject or activity and be able to do it well. “I’ll get you up to speed on the latest developments before we start the meeting.”)

Written by Nick Dale

(c) 2017

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Use these questions for your speaking practice. I suggest answering the questions by speaking your answers out aloud. Or, you could talk about the questions with a friend and practice together. Then write down your answers to practice your writing. 

1. What kind of office space do you work in?
2. Can you describe your colleagues?
3. What is the most challenging task you have had to do at work?
4. What do you love most about your job?
5. Have you ever had to do a presentation at a meeting? What was it about? How did you feel about it?

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT HERE