25 Essential Business Idioms for Fluent English

let's learn some very common English Expressions that native speakers use at the workplace almost all of my students are professionals and they're quite fluent in English their grammar is excellent and their overall English vocabulary is quite good but one of their main concerns is they wish that they could use the Expressions that native speakers use and sometimes they don't understand native speakers because they're using various idiomatic expressions the world of business is filled with idiomatic expressions for example a non-native speaker might say tell me approximately how much this will cost but a native speaker would

say give me a ballpark figure so do you have any idea like a ballpark figure of what someone could expect to pay or a non-native speaker might say we need to get started on this project but a native speaker is likely to say we need to get the ball rolling and that is because you want to get the ball rolling and our goal is to at least get the ball rolling and a non-native speaker might say we can't start until the boss approves it but a native speaker might say we can't start until the boss

gives us the green light and a green light is another idiomatic expression you will learn a lot of idioms in this course and it might seem that there are too many to remember so this is what I suggest you do I suggest that you pause after I teach you each idiom and then make your own sentences and say them out loud also when you see the sentences on the screen read them together with me that's a very good memorization technique and make sure you watch this video Until the End because there will be a fill

in the blank quiz to test your knowledge okay let's get started with the first idiom this one is very very common and I think you might already know it to think outside the box and that means to think in an original way in a creative way in a way that's not limited by rules especially in business to have new ideas instead of traditional ideas we can also say he's an outof the-box thinker do you consider yourself an outof the-box thinker let's look at some more example sentences to solve this complex problem you'll have to think

outside the box instead of following the usual approach we should think outside the box to find a solution her ability to think outside the box makes her a valuable asset to the company let's listen to how some other people use this expression and sometimes when you don't have that many resources it forces you to think outside the box the easiest way to think out outside the box is to not know where the box is the next idiom is Cutting Edge Cutting Edge means the newest and the most advanced something Innovative or leading in technology we

can say this Smartphone features a Cutting Edge design or we can say I like to stay updated on the latest Cutting Edge developments in the industry we can also say to be on The Cutting Edge Let's listen to how some people used it this way you've been on The Cutting Edge of new technology since before the dawn of Twitter and the new age of social media maybe the artist career puts you on The Cutting Edge of new forms of victorial expression and they are on The Cutting Edge of their field another very common business expression

is ballpark figure a ballpark figure is an approximate estimate we use this expression when we don't know know the exact amount or we don't need the exact amount for example we can say I don't need an exact price just give me a ballpark figure or we can say the initial estimate was just a ballpark figure can you give me a ballpark figure for the cost of renovating the office or we can say to be in the ballpark let's listen to how some native speakers used it but I've had somewhere in the ballpark of 30 and

50 jobs then we're now talking about somewhere in the ballpark of about 400,000 people per year just give me a ballpark figure the next idiom is to get the ball rolling and that means to start a process or a project to start doing something in order to get other people to do the same for example we can say let's schedule a meeting to get the ball rolling on the new project launch or once we secure the funding we can get the ball rolling on the construction project I'm glad we finally got the ball rolling what

are we waiting for let's get the ball rolling let's get started let's get going and here's another very common idiomatic expression the bottom line and that means the main point the most important thing to consider the final result or the most important aspect we can say the bottom line is he's gone and he's not coming back the bottom line is we don't have the money to pay for it let's not lose sight of the bottom line which is to increase our market share or we can say let's get to the bottom line and that means

let's get to the main point the next idiom is to put all your eggs in one basket has anyone ever told you don't put all your eggs in one basket that means don't rely on only one strategy or only one option because you risk losing everything we can say when you're planning your Investments it's unwise to put all your eggs in one basket I'm applying for several jobs because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket do you have a similar expression in your native language let me know in the comments I

think it's so interesting to learn the Expressions that people use in different languages to express the same concept okay let's go on to the next expression to be on the same page and that means to be in agreement or to think in a similar way if a group of people are on the same page they are working well together and they have the same goals we can say let's schedule a meeting to make sure that everyone is on the same page or we can say are we all on the same page or I don't think

we're on the same page regarding this topic let's listen to how some other people used it I had literally gotten my crew on the same page this is the thing I'm talking about are you on the same page as me it is me versus you we're not on the same page let's go on to the next expression to go the extra mile and that means to put in extra effort to do more than what is required or expected or to try a little harder after you've already put a lot of effort into something for example

we can say she always goes the extra mile to provide exceptional customer service he's always going the extra mile for his friends this project was successful because the team was willing to go the extra mile the next expression is to cross the te's and to dot the eyes when you're writing and you write the letter T you need to cross it you need to draw the little line you cross the T and when you write the letter i you need to put a dot on top so to cross the te's and to dot the eyes

means to pay careful attention to every small detail when you're doing something when you're finishing something for example we can say before submitting the contract the legal team crossed the te's and dotted the eyes to ensure there were no errors we can say she's known for her attention to detail and always takes the time to cross the teas and Dot the eyes in her reports the project manager emphasized the importance of crossing the tees and dotting the eyes to avoid any misunderstandings the next expression is a funny one this one is also really common the

elephant in the room what do you think that means that means an obvious problem or issue that is being ignored there's an obvious problem but nobody wants to talk about it let's look at this picture there's an elephant in the room but nobody is talking about it maybe they don't want to talk about it because it's an uncomfortable topic or they worry that people will get angry they're avoiding the topic but it's an important topic it's an important issue that they are avoiding for example we can say during the meeting no one addressed the elephant

in the room the CEO's involvement in the Scandal or we can say why isn't anyone talking about the elephant in the room he's incompetent and he needs to step down or we can say in the corporate meeting the financial crisis was the elephant in the room that no one wanted to discuss or we can say it's time to talk about the elephant in the room let's look at the next idiom to hit the nail on the head and that means to do something that is exactly right to identify or to address something accurately we can

say your analysis of the market trends really hit the nail on the head or we can say you hit the nail on the head about him he is dishonest and manipulative the doctor's diagnosis hit the nail on the head let's learn the next idiom to cover all the bases and that means to do everything necessary to be sure that something is successful to make sure that every aspect is considered we can say our procedures cover all the bases to ensure the safety of our employees the legal team reviewed the contract thoroughly to make sure it

was covering all the bases or you can ask are we covering all the bases let's learn the meaning of the idiomatic expression to play it by ear to play it by ear means to make decisions as you go along without a specific plan to decide on your actions as you go depending on the situation we can say we don't have specific travel plans we're just playing it by ear Since the situation is constantly changing we'll have to play it by ear and adjust our strategy accordingly I'm not sure what I'll say at the meeting I'll

just play it by ear what do you want to do tomorrow we don't have to decide now let's play it by ear let's look at the meaning of the idiomatic expression to play catchup to play catchup means to try to catch up with competitors or with deadlines to make an effort to keep up with the demands of a job for example we can say after falling behind schedule the team is now playing catchup to meet the deadline our company is playing ketchup with competitors who have already adopted new technology I'm always so busy I always

feel like I'm playing ketchup let's listen to how some other people used it and again microsof is playing ketchup to that is the United States finally playing ketchup frankly the competition is still playing ketchup to our chips I've actually been playing ketchup for a number of years do you know the meaning of the medium to put out fires that means to deal with urgent problems or crises to put out is a phrasal verb that means to extinguish and to put out is a phrasal verb that I teach in my new course phrasal verbs for fluent

English it's in video number 18 let's listen to the way Drake and I explain it in the course welcome to lesson number 18 this is part three of phrasal verbs with put let's learn 10 additional phrasal verbs with the verb to put now let's learn the different meanings of to put out let's listen to Drake explain the first meaning you can use put out as a way to say that you're extinguishing something uh like a you know a cigarette a cigar or a fire um if there's a big fire going on and you get the

extinguisher and you put the white foam all over it you're putting it out uh you're getting rid of the fire you know you have a cigarette and you and you do this in the astray you try to turn the cigarette off you're putting out the cigarette to put out means to extinguish or to stop the burning of something for example a fire a flame or a light we can say please put out the candles before you go to bed the firefighters worked hard to put out the fire he put out his cigarette let's look at

the next meaning of to put out the course contains 21 video lessons and each lesson contains many phrasal verbs plus downloadable PDFs of the definitions and of the sample sentences and there are almost 1,000 sample sentences so that you can practice them in various contexts and there are quizzes to test your progress plus pronunciation and accent lessons and most importantly the whole course is also on audio which is downloadable you can listen at any time and any place you can't be fluent in English unless you're using phrasal verbs the phrasal verbs for fluent English course

will definitely take your English to a much higher level of fluency go to Accurate english.com let's go back to the idiom to put out fires to put out fires is a very common idiomatic expression commonly used at the workplace we can say I can't get any work done I spend most of my time putting out fires the IT department was busy putting out fires when the server crashed do you have to put out fires at your job let's go on to the next idiomatic expression to get the green light this expression is commonly used in

the business world and it means to get approval or permission to start something for example example we can say the marketing campaign received the green light from the client and now we can launch it the pharmaceutical company finally got the green light to sell their new drug we can say have you started the project yet no we're waiting for the green light from the CEO we're waiting for him to give us the green light let's listen to the way some other people used it finally got the green light uh to go ahead and make the

book look I just found out I got the green light we're going on a baking line Tour they um sort of gave the green light for this particular policy let's look at the idiomatic expression up in the air when a situation is not yet decided it's up in the air it's not certain that it will occur it's not yet determined it's very common to say our plans are up in the air our vacation plans are still up in the air because we can't decide where to go many details are still up in the air are

you going on the training course next week I don't know everything is up in the air at this point let's listen to how some other people used it maybe perhaps I don't know kind of sort of it's up in the air who knows and it's up in the air about whether or not uh Republicans will follow through on their threat we'll see it's up in the air we'll just see what this is and how it is and we'll go from there do you know the meaning of the idiomatic expression to go down the rabbit hole

it means to get lost in details or distractions for example while researching a topic online I often find myself going down a rabbit hole of related articles and videos during the meeting we went down the rabbit hole of discussing minor issues instead of focusing on the main agenda be careful when you're searching the Internet it's easy to go down the rabbit hole and to lose track of time do you know the meaning of the idiomatic expression lwh hanging fruit or to pick lwh hanging fruit low hanging fruit is something that is easy to get and

to pick lwh hanging fruit is to do the obvious or the easy things in order to achieve success or to make progress so it's work in which Maximum success can be achieved with minimal effort to pursue easy business opportunities to get success in an easy way we can say to increase sales let's focus on picking the lwh hanging fruit by targeting existing customers before working on the more challenging aspects of the project the team decided to pick the lwh hanging fruit to make progress let's listen to how some other people used it it's easier to

make money with lwh hanging fruit that made it pretty easy to go after the lwh hanging fruit but now a lot of that lwh hanging fruit is gone a lot of the infrastructure which China needs already has been built do you know the meaning of the idiomatic expression to get the axe this is an axe so what do you think it means if we say he got the axe it means he got fired he lost his job in American English Axe can be spelled in two different ways it can be ax or axe we can

use it this way several employees got the axe due to budget cuts he was shocked when he got the axe if you keep showing up late you're going to get the axe if I say to you you dropped the ball what does that mean to drop the ball is an idiomatic expression that means to make a mistake or to miss an opportunity at a very important moment especially because you don't take action and you don't do something that you should have done for example we can say he dropped the ball on the project by missing

the deadline we dropped the ball when we failed to follow up with the client and we lost the contract when the earthquake hit it was clear that the government agency had dropped the ball on disaster preparedness or you can say you really dropped the ball on this one we can't afford to drop the ball a second time what does it mean if I say I have a lot on my plate it means I have a lot of work to do or I have a lot of problems or I have too many responsibilities I have a

lot of important work to deal with we can say as a small business owner he constantly has a lot on his plate from managing employees to dealing with customers she has children a full-time job and she's studying for a test she she has a lot on her plate I'm sorry I didn't return your call I've had a lot on my plate recently let's look at the next idiom do you know the meaning of the idiomatic expression to cut Corners that means to do something the cheapest way or the easiest way to take shortcuts or to

compromise the quality in order to save time or money we can say the quality isn't as good as it used to be be they're cutting Corners to try to save money cutting corners on your workout routine won't help you achieve your fitness goals they were criticized for cutting Corners when building the house they cut corners and it shows don't hurry you can't cut Corners if you want to do a perfect job take your time and do it well don't cut Corners the next idiom is the big picture or to get the big picture and that

means to understand the overall situation to see the entire perspective we can say he understood the details but he missed the big picture or we can say stand back and take a look at the big picture the next idiom is going forward and that means in the future looking ahead from this point onward and this is often used to indicate a change of approach or a new plan or to emphasize a commitment to change for example we can say going forward let's make an effort to improve our communication we need to figure out what we're

going to do going forward we expect sales to increase going forward due to our new marketing strategy let's listen to how some other people used it and how much they could continue to teach us going forward or S what are the key elements that we didn't have that we should have going forward and let's look at the final idiomatic expression to pull the trigger this is a gun and this is a trigger and what happens when you pull the trigger you make a decision or you take action to make a final decision or to commit

to a certain course of action for example we can say you've been wasting your time trying to make a decision I wish you would just pull the trigger she had been considering a career change for a while and finally pulled the trigger by quitting her current job it's time to pull the trigger on launching the new product the market is ready for it you've been talking about this for years what are you waiting for it's time to pull the trigger you learned a lot of idiomatic expressions that you can use at the workplace and now

it's time to take the fill in the blank quiz to see how many of these you remember let's look at the first question which idiom means to think in an original way in a creative way what do we say to think outside the what box to think outside the box instead of saying let's not make advanced plans let's decide as we go or while it's happening what can we say let's play it to two words let's play it by ear let's play it by ear let's look at the next question instead of saying tell me

approximately how much this will cost we can say give me a blank figure what's the correct answer ballpark give me a ballpark figure which idiomatic expression means an important topic that everyone is avoiding an obvious reality that no one wants to talk about that's called a blank in the room what's the correct answer elephant the elephant in the room don't ignore the elephant in the room we need to talk about it let's look at the next question instead of saying you said the correct thing you got it right you were accurate we can say you

hit the blank on the blank what's the correct answer you hit the nail on the head you hit the nail on the head if we want to say we got permission or we got approval to do something we can use the idiomatic expression we got the blank blank what is it we got the green light we got the green light the boss gave us the green light he said yes he said go ahead and do it which idiomatic expression means the situation is not certain it's not yet decided we can say it's up in the

what air it's up in the air we don't know what's going to happen things are up in the air it's still up in the air if we want to say he got fired he lost his job which idiomatic expression can we use he got the what axe he got the axe did you hear that he got the axe if you keep coming to work late you're going to get the axe how did you do on the quiz if you made two or more mistakes I suggest you watch the video again and then pause the video

and make your own sentences try to use them in many different contexts and if you keep practicing them you will be able to use them naturally and spontaneously when you're speaking English and you will sound like a native speaker thanks for watching and keep practicing this is the perfect time to work on your English fluency and save $200 when you get the super bundle of all three of my courses the American accent course 400 Advanced words you must know for fluent English and phrasal verbs for fluent English go to Accurate english.com