Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Encounters
fluentu.com/blog/business-english/english-for-office/
In the office, we’re constantly meeting new people, working on projects, sending emails and
even just hanging out in the break room. All of these things have their own expected
dialogues.
We’ll give you the script you can use to master all of these office encounters. Below, you’ll
find common office English expressions for greetings, telephone conversations, small talk
and more.
Throughout this post, we’ll be using brackets—which look like this: [ ]—to indicate parts of a
sentence you should fill in with your own information.
Contents
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Meeting People at the Office
Meeting people can be a stressful experience if you’re not sure what you should say.
Thankfully, there are many key phrases and office English conversation starters you
can memorize to make meeting new people a pleasant and easy activity.
Saying “Hello”
When you’re approaching someone new, it’s nice to start the conversation with a polite
greeting. Some common phrases you might use are:
Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Good evening.
Introducing Yourself
It’s generally polite to introduce yourself to new people and learn their names as well. Here
are some phrases you can use to tell someone your name and to learn his or hers:
After you’ve learned a new person’s name, it’s nice to indicate that you’re happy to have
made introductions. For example:
To keep the conversation going with someone new, it’s a good idea to ask some broad
questions about his or her background. Some common questions (and ways to respond) are:
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Saying “Goodbye”
When it’s time to end an office English conversation with someone you just met, it can be
nice to reiterate that you’re glad to have met them:
You can also say “goodbye” to your new friend in a few different ways, such as:
Take care.
Back to the drawing board / Back to square one (Both of these idioms mean you have to
start your goal/project over from the beginning.)
Some other terms you’ll need to be familiar with are used to shorten words or expressions.
For example, “24/7” means “all the time” and “ASAP” is an acronym that stands for “As Soon
As Possible.”
It’s important to become familiar with these sayings so you aren’t left confused when you
hear them in the office.
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The first impression you make with someone might be over the phone. It’s a good idea to
use a professional greeting if you’re not sure of your audience beforehand:
Hello, you’ve reached [your company’s name], this is [your name] speaking.
These are some useful phrases to memorize so that you’re prepared to tackle phone calls with
professionalism.
Appropriate Language
The funny thing about email is that sometimes it needs to be perfectly formal and other times
it may need to be more casual. It’s very important to know the purpose and audience of your
email as you’re writing it to make sure that you present yourself properly.
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If you’re sending an email to a potential employer you would want to use a formal format.
However, to send a quick note to a coworker about a project, a more casual approach is likely
best.
Email greetings:
Closings:
You can also simply leave your name at the end of an email, which is considered a more
informal closing.
Common Errors
The biggest email mistake you might make is, as I mentioned above, using either an overly
formal or overly casual tone for your intended audience.
Some other problems you may run into involve spelling errors and word usage that even
native speakers struggle with. A common issue when writing in English is confusing similar
words, such as:
It’s or Its
Another common mistake when writing in English is to confuse the words “effect” and
“affect.” Generally, “effect” should be used as a noun while “affect” is used as a verb.
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“The advertising campaign had a positive effect on sales.”
Lastly, be sure to avoid “texting” language, such as TTYL (talk to you later) or slang terms,
such as gonna (going to).
Hey.
How’s it going?
What’s up?
Long time, no see. (It’s been a long time since we saw each other.)
If you don’t know exactly what you should talk about, these are some easy conversation
starters for a casual chat:
And when you’re parting ways, keeping that conversational flow going is a breeze with
phrases like these memorized:
Bye.
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Sometimes a simple “bye” isn’t enough when speaking with your boss or coworkers. Perhaps
you need to indicate that you’ll follow up on your discussion or that you value the
time they’ve spent speaking with you.
If you need to take further action on your own or look into something, you can end the
conversation by saying:
Being unsure of what to say in new situations can feel intimidating. However, with a strong
idea of what English office phrases and words to use you can feel confident in your
interactions at work every day.
It also helps to see examples from native speakers in office settings, such as movies and
YouTube videos.
On the FluentU program, English-language videos like movie trailers and news clips come
with interactive subtitles. These captions show definitions and images to help you
understand business English phrases in context.
Happy learning!
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