Business English

At times, Business English can seem like a different language. The individual words are clearly English and understandable on their own but when combined together can mean something quite different. If you can work this language out you`re then faced with business people`s love of a good Three Letter Acronym, or as they prefer, a TLA. I like to call Business English vocabulary `Word Groups` since they are combinations of two or more pieces of vocabulary which convey a specific business meaning. We all understand the words penetration, skim and cost but if a Marketing Manager asked you what 'pricing strategy' we should 'adopt' for a new product; `penetration pricing`, `skim pricing` or maybe `cost plus pricing`, just how would you answer? What would be your `distribution channels`, maybe you need to operate a `differentiated strategy`? Would the company`s `matrix structure` and `transnational approach` cause any `operational issues`? Not to worry we could always have a `virtual meeting` if an 'f2f' is not possible in order to `ascertain` the `USPs`. It would save on costs if we could use `VoIP`. What do you think? We would need to ensure we have the `inbound logistics` and `cost of sale` elements of the `supply chain` `tied down tightly` `in order to` reduce `overheads´ so we can ensure we see `an impact` on `the bottom line`. If these word groups and acronyms weren`t hard enough, business people just love to use very formal language. They seem to have removed many phrasal verbs from their language in order to use the more formal Latin based verbs. You can`t use a nice simple phrase like we will 'find out` about something, no you have to `ascertain its viability` or 'discover the best approach' for example. They can`t use `go into` something like everyone else does, they always have to `enter`. You don`t `fill in` a spreadsheet, you `complete` it. This is quite strange since they have invented a whole set of new word groups but removed the usual ones that everyone else uses: phrasal verbs. This rule is broken when it comes to technical terms when the whole lexicon of technical phrasal verbs comes out, `log in`, `log out`, `back up`, `print out`, `use up, `free up`, `go down`, `pop up` and so on. So is this actually dialect or just a way to sound important? Either way, today you need to understand Business English to operate effectively in the English speaking business world.