Business Builder: Phrasal Verbs for Business 3

Upgrade your Business English skills today with these phrasal verbs frequently used in English-speaking companies:

• Bring forward (reschedule closer to now) – We need to bring the accounting meeting forward because of the Christmas holiday.

• Draw up (draft or create) – Susan is drawing up some plans for the second-floor renovations.

• Run out of (to not have enough of a supply) – We have run out of appropriate candidates for promotion during this fiscal year.

• Wind up (to end or result in – wind pronounced similar to bind) – Let’s wind this meeting up here.

• Figure out (conclude, investigate, understand) – The security staff will have to figure out where the breach is coming from.

• Go over (look at in detail / discuss in detail) – We are going over the report in our team meeting this afternoon.

• Catch up (get to the same part of a process as another team/colleague/entity) – We really need to catch up with our competitors when it comes to marketing to students.

• Count on (rely on/trust) – We can’t count on an outsourced department to put our companies interests above all their other clients.

Try to use these phrasal verbs in your everyday interactions at work. Listen for these phrases when speaking to your native-English colleagues, do you see how often they are used? What phrasal verbs would you add to this list?