Interview English: 19 really useful phrasal verbs for work & business!

19 USEFUL PHRASAL VERBS WORK & BUSINESS!

Native English speakers use phrasal verbs all the time. So, you need to understand their meaning if you want to follow conversations. In this lesson, you’ll learn 19 really useful phrasal verbs to use in business and at work. This is the second part of a new series. Learn these phrasal verbs, then use them whenever you can.

1 Talk over If you “talk over” a problem or issue, you discuss it and try to find a solution to it: “They talked over the problem in the meeting.” 2 Aim for If you “aim for” something, you try to have or get that thing: “We’re aiming for a 10% increase in sales this month.” 3 Back up If you “back up” data or computer files, you make a copy of them: “You must back up all your work at the end of the day.” 4 Team up If you “team up” with another person or group, you work together to complete a project or task: “The pharmaceutical companies teamed up so they could develop the new drug.” 5 Turn down If you “turn down” an offer or request, you say that you don’t want it, or won’t do it: “She turned down the job offer because she had a better one from another company.”

6 Bail out of (a deal) If you “bail out of ” a deal, you stop forming part of it or negotiating with the other party: “They bailed out of the deal because they didn’t think it was a good idea.” 7 Bank on If you “bank on” something happening, you need it to happen, and you hope it will happen, but it isn’t certain: “We’re banking on their support in the elections because we need their votes.” 8 Snowed under If you’re “snowed under”, you have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it: “I’m snowed under all this week. Can we meet up sometime next week?” [We mostly use this verb in the passive sense: to be snowed under.] 9 Take over If you “take over” something, you take control of it, or you take responsibility for something that another person had before: “She’s taken over a few of the marketing manager’s duties as he’s on paternity leave.” 10 Switch over to If you “switch over to” a different system, etc., you stop using the old one, and start using the new one: “We decided to switch over to the new system because it was easier to use.”

11 Weigh up If you “weigh up” the benefits of something, you think about the advantages or disadvantages of it so you can decide what to do: “I think we need to weigh up the cost of switching over to the accounting software.”

14 Trade in If you “trade in” your car (for example), you give your old car to a car dealership in return for a payment. This payment is often used to reduce the price of a new car you want: “You get $1,000 off the new car if you trade in your old one, provided that it’s in good working condition.”

17 To pay off 1 If you “pay off” a debt, you return all the money you owed: “The company wants to pay off the debt as soon as possible.” 2 If your work starts to “pay off”, it starts to be profitable, or produce good results: “All our hard work has finally paid off as the new product is selling really well.” 12 Carve up If you “carve up” something, you divide it into smaller pieces: “After buying the company, they carved it up and sold off the parts they didn’t want.” Literally, if you “carve” meat, you cut it into small, thin pieces.

15 Trade off If you “trade off” A for B, you give someone A (which is something you like or appreciate) so you can have B (which is something you want even more): “She agreed to trade off her work from home flexibility (A) for less work and a lighter workload (B).”

18 Stand out 1 If something “stands out”, you can notice it easily: “The yellow letters really stand out against the black background.” 2 If someone “stands out”, they’re much better than others in the group: “We had lots of good applicants for the post, but Paula really stands out from the rest.”

1 If you try to “work out” what’s happening, you try to discover what people are doing: “We need to work out what they’re planning to do, so we can make our own plans.” 2 If you “work out” the cost of something, you do a calculation so you can know the cost: “I need you to work out the total cost of each airconditioning unit, please.” 3 If something “works out”, it’s good and successful in the end: “The business deal worked out well in the end.”

16 To pay out

1 If you “pay out” money, you use the money to buy something, or to make a payment: “We’ve paid out over $40,000 to shareholders this year.” 2 If an investment starts “paying out”, you start receiving money from this investment: “It will be at least 8 years before this investment starts paying out and we begin receiving regular payments.”

19 Take off 1 If a product “takes off”, it becomes very popular quickly: “The clothes website really took off among teenagers.” 2 If you “take off” time from work, you ask for permission to have some holiday so you can deal with personal matters: “She took some time off work because she was moving house.” UNDERSTANDING PHRASAL VERBS

A phrasal verb consists of a verb and a particle (usually a preposition). In some cases, the verb can help you understand the meaning of the phrasal verb (the preposition doesn’t really change much): • They’re working away =

They’re working. • They sold off many of their assets = They sold many of their assets.

Very often, the preposition only changes the meaning a little. For example: • I finished the work. • I finished up the work. [I finished all of it.]

Here are some other verbs and phrasal verbs with very little difference in meaning: print-print out, call-call up, close-close down, meet-meet up…

However, in other cases, the particle can help you understand the phrasal verb. For example, up has the idea of “going to a higher level”: • Prices have been going up. (increasing) • We went up the stairs. (to a higher floor)

GUESS!

Of course, there are some phrasal verbs that are quite hard to understand. So, if the verb or preposition can’t help, you should try to guess the meaning of the phrasal verb from the context. For example: “They’ve put off the meeting until next week because the president is sick.” In this case, you could probably imagine that “put off” means to delay.

GLOSSARY

paternity leave = if you are on “paternity leave”, you have permission to be at home for a few weeks-months because you have a newborn baby

advantages = the “advantages” of something are the good things about it