Business English

Business English is the language people use to get work done, and this page brings together four parts of it. Business vocabulary covers the everyday terms of the workplace, while formal and informal email phrases help writers match their tone to the reader. Meeting phrases cover how people open a discussion, agree, disagree and close, and business idioms explain the figurative expressions colleagues often use without a second thought. Learners from A1 to C1 can revise what they have studied and practise recognising the right phrase for the situation. The topics suit learners who use English at work every day and those who are just starting out.

Because this is a workplace subject, trainers come first. A corporate trainer can use a round as a warm-up before a communication workshop, a refresher for new starters who work in English, or a light team session that gets people talking about the phrases they hear most. Teachers of business English or vocational courses can use the same games as a starter, a recap after a unit on emails or meetings, or a homework task. Hosting live lets a group compare answers and share examples from their own work. The format keeps sessions short, so it fits around a busy working day.

The vocabulary quiz and the idioms quiz are multiple-choice quizzes, which suit recognising a term or working out what an expression means. The email phrases game asks players to sort phrases into formal and informal, a useful way to build a sense of register. The meeting phrases game is a matching pairs task, so learners connect each phrase to its purpose. Anyone can try a game with Play now and no sign-up, and a host can run it live for a class or a team. Hosts can pick the game that matches the skill their group needs most.