Learn 10 phrasal verbs for business
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
| Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha and today we're going to talk about 10 phrasal verbs for business. So let's go! |
| 1. step up |
| The first phrasal verb is "step up." Step up means to move up or to level up usually to some kind of new challenging position or to a challenging project. So I want to step up and do more for my company or I want to step up and take on this project. There is a nuance of a challenge, a move upward, a promotion perhaps and new challenges, new responsibilities. |
| So in a sentence - The new CEO really stepped up on this project. |
| Great! |
| 2. step down |
| The next word is the opposite, "step down." To step down often means to resign or to quit one's job especially at the higher levels of business. So a CEO might step down from his position or her position if they've made a big mistake or if the company has had problems. So sometimes this can mean resign, sometimes this means just moving to a lower position in the company. You'll have to look into the specifics of the situation to figure out exactly the meaning, but step down means to go to a position of lower responsibility. |
| So in a sentence - Following multiple serious mistakes, the government official stepped down. |
| 3. measure up |
| The next expression is "measure up." Measure up is a word or a phrasal verb that we use to mean compare. We say, how does something measure up or does this measure up to…? Meaning, is item A equal to item B? Is item A better than item B? This is a question or a word that we use to ask how one thing compares to another thing. So like how does candidate A measure up to candidate B? It's a question of comparison between these two items or does this project measure up to our past work? In other words, is this project equal to or is it comparable to our past works? So measure up is used when comparing two things. |
| So in a sentence - How does the new plan measure up to our past ideas? |
| 4. step aside |
| The next expression, we've talked about step up, step down, now we'll talk about "step aside." So step aside means to move out of the way. It doesn't mean necessarily to move up in position or to move down in position, but step aside means just temporarily to remove someone or to remove yourself from a situation. So you can use this not just in business, but maybe in a very crowded space like let's step aside and have this discussion. You can use that in a business meeting as well. To step aside is to remove yourself from a main group or from one situation, go away from that situation temporarily. That's how we use step aside. |
| So in a sentence - The company feels you should step aside. |
| Like please move away from this project. |
| 5. swoop in |
| The next expression is "swoop in." So we use swoop for example with birds. We can say the birds swoop in, but in a business situation, it's somebody, usually someone, a person or maybe a team that suddenly joins the company or suddenly joins a project and maybe makes a lot of changes. So for example, a consulting firm might swoop in to a situation or might swoop in to a project or maybe the boss swooped in to the meeting and made a lot of changes. So these sentences, these are situations where something suddenly happens by one person or by a group of people. |
| In another sentence - The consultant swooped in and changed around our entire organization. |
| 6. shake up |
| The next phrasal verb is "shake up." Shake up means to make a lot of changes at one time or to maybe change an atmosphere or to change a company feeling. This can also be applied to situations outside of work like maybe an art for example, other Industries, manufacturing industry. It means to make changes so one person or one group makes changes. So you could say, for example, Apple shook up the smartphone industry when it introduced the iPhone. So it means to make changes or to bring about a new change. |
| In a sentence - She really shook up our department with her innovative ideas. |
| 7. come online |
| The next expression is "come online." So this is interesting. Of course you're watching this video presumably, probably on the internet online right now, but the expression come online means become able to use something usually publicly or at least within your company. So when a new project comes online, it means it's now available. It can be used or it can be purchased. We typically use this expression for some kind of service. So for example, a web platform or an application or something that other people can use. So come online means become available, come online means become available. |
| In a sentence then - Our new service is going to come online at the end of the month. |
| 8. expand into |
| The next expression is "expand into." So we can use expand into to mean moving more or moving to another place or to another industry with your business operations. So we can use perhaps a country or a region after this expression or we can use an industry name after this expression. So you can say, we want to expand into China. We want to expand into Japan with our business or you can say we want to expand into the electronics industry. We want to expand into the service industry. Expanding into something talks about the direction you want your company to move in, expand into. |
| So in a sentence - We'd like to expand into some other markets. |
| 9. to bring about |
| The next expression is "to bring about." To bring about means to make something happen, to cause something to happen. We often use this to talk about change. It can be positive or it can be negative. I feel I tend to use this more in a positive situation, but that might just be me. So to bring about means to cause something or to make something happen. |
| In a sentence - Don't you think we should try to bring about change in our company? |
| 10. take on |
| The next expression is "take on." So take on, if you can kind of make a visual with this phrasal verb, you can take something and attach it to yourself, to take on something, but this thing you're taking is responsibility. So to take on something has the nuance of a challenge or a new responsibility. It's something that is generally seen as positive, but perhaps could be maybe a lot of new work or a big new project for example. So I might say, I want to take on some new projects this year or you could use it outside of business like in a kind of aggressive situation like, I tried to take on a really big guy at the club, but he punched me. So you could use this too, but it has the nuance of challenge every time you use it. |
| So in a different sentence - I was asked to take on more responsibilities at the office. |
| Oh, that's the end! So those are 10 phrasal verbs for business I hope that those are useful for you. If they are, please let us know in the comments. If you have any questions, also please let us know their too. Thank you very much for watching this episode of Top Words and we will see you again soon. Bye! |
Comments
Hide