Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and
welcome to this lesson on 25 Essential Business
English Phrases. So, in this lesson, we are going
to learn 25 phrases that you can use in emails,
in everyday communications, whether you are talking to your boss, a client, a customer,
your colleagues. You will hear this in offices
all around the world. So, let's begin with
reach out. So, if you reach out to someone, you
send them a communication, you send them an email
or a message in an attempt to contact them, to make contact with them. So, for example,
your boss might ask you, "Did you reach out to
the client?" Right? "Did you make an attempt
to contact the client? Did you send them an
email?" Now, this is slightly different from the
next two, which are get in touch with someone or
get in contact with someone. If you get in touch,
you get in contact. This means you actually contact the person. Reach out has more of a
meaning of you attempted. You reach. So, I'm
reaching my arm. You reach out. You attempt
to contact them and say, "Hi, I need to talk
to you about something." So, to get in touch,
to get in contact means to contact someone.
So, "I will get in touch with you by Friday."
So, maybe you send someone, you leave a message
on their machine or you send them a message over
a chat program, a messenger service, or an email
and say, "I will get in touch with you by Friday."
Or, "I will get in contact with you by Friday." So, you can reach out to clients,
reach out to customers. You can get in touch
or you can get in contact with them as well.
Next, to check in with someone. Now, when you
check in with someone, it means that you contact
them for an update on something because you just
want to see the status of the project, the status
of the relationship that you are trying to develop
with a particular client or customer. So, when you
check in with someone, you are just tapping them
on the shoulder and saying, "Hey, how is it going?"
Okay? So, for example, maybe you have checked
in with Rob and Rob contacts you in return. He
returns your email and, or sorry, you are Rob,
and someone contacts you and they contact you in
return and they say, "Hi, Rob. Thanks for checking
in." Right? Like, "Thanks for sending me a message.
Thanks for tapping me on the shoulder." Okay?
It's possible if you work in an office that you
check in with your boss once a week, maybe, or
you check in with your team on a daily basis.
This means every day or maybe once a week. So, if you do, if you do work right now,
how often do you check in with your department?
How often do you check in with your boss to just
get the newest information, to get the latest
updates? Next, to follow up with someone.
So, this is similar to check in, but the
difference is when you follow up with someone,
it doesn't mean that they have caught, that the
communication has been two ways necessarily.
So, for example, if you are someone who is selling
your services to clients or potential clients,
potential customers, and you contact them and
you get no response. Okay? You get zero response.
Probably they saw your email. Maybe they deleted it. Maybe they haven't opened it.
Maybe they opened it and said, "I'm not interested." Or, "Oh, maybe later." Your
boss might ask you to, hey, follow up with them. This means contact them again. So,
when you follow up with someone, you send a subsequent communication, another message,
another email, because did you receive my
email? Did you receive my message? Do you have
any questions? These are the types of questions
you ask when you follow up with someone to get
more information, ask if they got your information
in the first place. So, for example, make sure you
follow up with them tomorrow. Now, I mentioned
that, you know, with follow up, sometimes the
other person hasn't even contacted you about
anything. It's possible that you already have
been communicating with this person for a while
as well. And maybe you're working on something
and the person hasn't responded to you in five
days about something. And your boss says, "Five
days? That's a long time." You should follow up
with them. Make sure you follow up with them.
In that case, they could also say, make sure
you check in with them. Ask them for an update.
What's the newest information? All right, next.
Now, these are some everyday common words,
but I want to show you which prepositions they
often work with and which of them don't need a
preposition. So, some people don't use these
correctly. And that's why I want to make sure
you have the basics so that you master them and
you use them effectively and correctly in your
English communications. So, ask about and inquire
about. So, you can ask about something. You can
ask someone about something. Inquire is a more
formal way to say ask. You can inquire with someone
about something or just inquire about something.
So, for example, "Hello, I'm writing to inquire
about your prices." Or, "Hello, I'm writing to ask
about your prices." So, both of these are possible.
Inquire is a nice formal word that you can use if you want to sound more professional.
Let's go. Next, we have reply, respond, answer,
get back to. All of these are in the same family
of words. You can use all of them in an email or
when talking with a customer, client, or colleague.
So, you reply to someone. Okay? You reply to a
message. So, don't say, "Thank you for replying me."
Say, "Thank you for replying to me." Don't say, "Thank you for replying my message."
"Thank you for replying to my message." So, you always reply to someone. You respond
to someone. Answer is different. You answer someone or you answer a message. If you use
answer to, this means, like, you are in a
subordinate position to someone. So, if someone
asks you, "Whom do you answer to?" This means,
like, "Who is your boss? Who is your superior?"
"Oh, I answer to David. David is my boss. I
answer to him." But you can answer a question,
answer a message, answer a person. So, to get
back to someone, this is a more informal way
to say, reply to, respond to, answer someone.
So, for example, very common sentence,
"I'll get back to you as soon as I can." Or, "As soon as possible." Or, "ASAP." So,
"I will respond to you. I will reply to you. I will answer you as soon as I can."
Did you respond to her? Did you reply to her?
Did you answer her? Did you get back to her?
So, all of these, as you can see, they talk about returning a message to someone. Okay,
how is it going so far? Are you listening to this
and saying, "Yeah, this is great stuff. Okay,
I got more great stuff. So, let's keep going."
Okay, next, we are talking about updates or
receiving the latest, the newest information
about something. So, you can provide an update
on something to someone. You can give an update.
Provide is a more formal word. Give is a more
neutral word. Give an update on something, and
again, to someone. You can get an update. This
to receive. Receive an update on something from
someone, and you can update someone. You can use
update as a verb as well. So, you can update
someone on something. So, let's look at the
example sentences. "Feel free to use these in
your emails. Could you please send me an update
on your availability?" So, your availability
means when you are free, when you are available
in your calendar. What's your schedule like?
Maybe I'm scheduling a meeting with you.
"I'll update you tomorrow." Right? You can also
say, "I will send you an update tomorrow. I will
provide you with an update tomorrow." And next,
"Did you get an update on the status of the
payment?" So, maybe your accounting department is
asking you this, or you are asking your department,
your accounting department this. "Did you get an update from the customer
on the status of the payment? Have they paid us
yet?" So, again, you can provide or give an update.
You can get an update to receive one, and you
can just update someone, give them the latest
information. Next, another common word, "send".
So, you can send something to someone, or you can
just send something. I put parentheses, which
means it's optional. This is absolutely necessary.
So, you send something. You can't just send,
you have to send something. Send something,
or send something to someone. Or you can send
someone something. So, you can send me the details,
send me your availability. Here we go. "Thanks
for sending me the file. I'll send the attachment
this afternoon." And here you could say, like,
"I'll send you the attachment this afternoon.
I'll send the attachment to you this afternoon."
It's also possible. And finally, "to forward
something to someone" or "to forward someone
something". So, when you forward something,
it can be a synonym for the word "send", but
typically, if you have an email, you know there
is a forward button, which means someone sent
you an email, and you want to send that email
to someone else. So, you just want to forward
that email to a different person. But you can
also just forward someone, meaning send someone
something. So, for example, "Could you forward me
the details?" Like, send the details to me. I
know you have them. Send them forward to me.
Okay, so we have "send", "forward", "update", a
lot of useful language. And it's funny how we have,
like, the word "update", but you can give an
update. You can get an update. You can provide
an update. You can just update someone. So, as
you can see, they're simple words, but they have
so many different uses. And I hope by watching
this video, you are getting that sense,
and you're feeling more informed and more
empowered with your language. So, we're almost
done. We have a few more phrases. These are great.
They're very essential. Let's take a look at them.
So, next we have "according to". So, this means
based on the information we have, or as stated in,
or as stated by someone, or in some documents.
So, "According to our records, the delivery date
is September 7th." So, based on our records,
our records say this, as stated in our records,
according to our records. According to your
previous email, you are not available to do this
until September 7th, for example. Why are you saying that you can do it earlier now,
like we weren't ready for you until September
7th? So, next, "in regard to". This is like with
attention to, when you are trying to focus the
topic of conversation. So, with attention to
something. So, I am writing in regard to your
late payments. I am writing to you about your late
payments with attention to, with focus on this
conversation piece, this topic that we are
discussing. So, I'm writing in regard to your late
payments. Some people write with "in regards to".
The correct form is "in regard to", but "in regards
to" is being used so much that it's probably just
going to become an accepted part of English
speech. My old boss used to write "in regards to"
all the time, but they say that some bosses don't
have actually really good grammar because they
don't need to. They're the boss. Bosses. Okay.
"Apologize for" and "my apologies for". So, if
you'd like to be a little more formal, you can
send your apologies for something. So, here,
"apologies" is being used as a noun. Here, it's a
verb. I apologize. Now, I'm in Canada, so we spell
it with a Z, and the U.S. also spells it with a Z.
If you are in England, and depending on, actually,
Z or Zed, however you want to say it. In England, you will see this with an S,
"apologize". So, we apologize for the delay.
My apologies for the delay. Our apologies
for the inconvenience, for example. So, this one
sounds a little more formal, a little more polite
if your company made an error, if you made a
mistake and you upset your clients. You can say,
"my apologies for the confusion", "my apologies for the delay", "my apologies for
my previous email". Maybe you send incorrect information or something.
Okay, next, "let me". This is a cheat. "Let me"
is not technically a phrase. It is a sentence,
like, "let me", "let me do something". So, "let me know if you have any questions",
"let me know if you require more details", "let
me know the best time to call", "let me know",
whatever it is, right? So, "let me see what I can do", "let me see if I can help",
"let me check my records". So, this is like
saying, "allow me", "give me a chance to do this".
And finally, "look forward to", which means to anticipate something in the future,
to be excited about something that is to come.
So, "I'm looking forward to hearing from you".
Very common ending for an email. Or simply, "looking forward to your response".
In writing, this is totally fine. In English,
technically, you need a subject. We don't have,
like, implied subjects in most constructions.
However, in certain phrases, certain writing
constructions, you can just leave out the subject
and just say, "looking forward to your response".
"I'm looking forward to your comments", "to your
likes", "to your shares". "I'm looking forward to
hearing from you", and to see if you enjoyed this
video. If you did, let me know in the comments.
What could I have done better? Could I have done
something better? What am I missing? What are some
other useful phrases? Tell me. Or, if you just
want to review everything we have learned here,
go to www.engvid.com. Check out the link in the
description of the video. Maybe here, maybe here,
here, here. Who knows how YouTube or mmmTube -
could be a different name when you see this - is
going to make videos in the future. So, yeah,
check out the quiz on www.engvid.com to test
your understanding of this material. I hope you
found it useful. Until next time, thanks for
clicking, and good luck with your work, with
school, with everything. Use this stuff because