3 Business English idioms you should know

One of the secrets to reaching an advanced level of English is to get used to implementing colloquial language in your speech. Colloquial language does not necessarily mean to be informal. Once you get to read and listen to more and more English you will realize that native speakers use a lot of idiomatic expressions in their daily life, just as we do!

So, what’s an idiomatic expression? An idiomatic expression or idiom is a set of words that cannot be understood with their literal meaning, but rather have a figurative interpretation. For example, when something is very easy to do or to understand, in Spanish we say “Es pan comido” while in English we would say “It’s a piece of cake”.

But, why is it important to learn idioms? Knowing idioms will help you not only to understand native speakers, but also to comprehend part of the culture of English-speaking countries, and to sound more natural and fluent.

So, let’s get down to business and learn these useful expressions…

Wait! What? Let’s get down to business? What does it mean?

Let’s get down to business

To have the upper hand

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Let’s get down to business:

You can use this idiom when you want to convey that it is time to start to talk about what was planned. You often use this expression after talking about matters unrelated to the core topic of a meeting. For example, think about the times you have had meetings. What are the topics you normally first discuss with your associates? Maybe the weather, a soccer match, the market behavior… but that is not the focus of your meeting, right? So after that small talk you want to start discussing the main topic why the meeting was scheduled, and to invite the audience to focus on that you could say: “Alright, team, let’s get down to business and talk about our competitors because they have the upper hand in the industry right now".

To have the upper hand:

When a company has the upper hand that means it has the advantage over other companies. For instance, the telecommunications company Claro has the upper hand in Colombia because it has 48.09% of subscribed users. (1)

As you can see, idioms allow us to talk with ease and to express complex ideas in a short, simple way. Start using them in your daily speech and you’ll see how your English goes to the next level!

Let’s put them in practice right away! Tell us which company has the upper hand in your sector and why.

Let us know in the comments below how you would use these idioms in your context.

(1) Statistics taken from: https://colombiatic.mintic.gov.co/679/w3-propertyvalue-47274.html