Business English: 300 Words and Phrases, with Register
Knowing a phrase is not enough. Using a chat phrase in a client email is its own mistake.
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| 表 | 裏 |
|---|---|
| to interrupt | Meaning: To stop someone in the middle of speaking. Register: Neutral. The verb itself is neutral, though interrupting may not be. Example: Sorry to interrupt, but the figures on that slide are out of date. |
| I take your point | Meaning: I accept what you are saying. Register: Neutral to formal. Spoken, often before a disagreement. Example: I take your point, though the cost is still a concern. |
| to sum up | Meaning: To state the main points briefly at the end. Register: Neutral. Spoken and written. Example: To sum up, we will proceed with option two. |
| an action point | Meaning: A specific task assigned during a meeting. Register: Neutral. Standard in minutes. Example: There are four action points from today's meeting. |
| to follow up | Meaning: To check on progress or take a further step. Register: Neutral. Spoken and written. Example: I will follow up with the supplier this afternoon. |
| Could you please | Meaning: A polite way to introduce a request. Register: Neutral to formal. Email and speech. Example: Could you please send the signed copy by Friday? |
| Please find attached | Meaning: A phrase introducing an attached file. Register: Formal. Email only. Example: Please find attached the signed agreement. |
| to forward | Meaning: To send a received message on to someone else. Register: Neutral. Email. Example: I am forwarding this so you have the full history. |
| a gentle reminder | Meaning: A polite prompt about something outstanding. Register: Neutral. Email. It is often not gentle in effect. Example: This is a gentle reminder that the survey closes tomorrow. |
| I apologise for the delay | Meaning: A formal apology for a late response. Register: Formal. Email. Example: I apologise for the delay in replying. |
| a milestone | Meaning: A significant point marking progress in a project. Register: Formal. Written and spoken. Example: We have hit every milestone so far. |
| a dependency | Meaning: A task that cannot start until another finishes. Register: Formal. Written. Example: The build has a dependency on the design sign-off. |
| to escalate | Meaning: To raise a matter to a more senior level. Register: Formal. Written and spoken. Example: If it is not resolved by Friday, I will escalate it. |
| a stakeholder | Meaning: Anyone affected by or able to influence a project. Register: Formal. Written and spoken. Example: We need to map the stakeholders before the workshop. |
| a handover | Meaning: The transfer of work or responsibility to another person or team. Register: Neutral. Written and spoken. Example: The handover to the support team is scheduled for Monday. |
| a post-mortem | Meaning: A review after a project or incident to learn from it. Register: Informal to neutral. Also called a retrospective. Example: The post-mortem identified three process gaps. |
| resourcing | Meaning: The assignment of people and budget to work. Register: Formal. Written and spoken. Example: Resourcing is the constraint, not the technology. |
| a budget | Meaning: A plan for income and spending over a period. Register: Neutral to formal. Universal. Example: The marketing budget is set each October. |
| a forecast | Meaning: A prediction of future financial performance. Register: Formal. Reporting and planning. Example: The forecast assumes no change in exchange rates. |
| margin | Meaning: The difference between revenue and cost, usually as a percentage. Register: Formal. Finance and sales. Example: Margin fell as discounting increased. |
| an invoice | Meaning: A document requesting payment for goods or services. Register: Formal. Universal in commerce. Example: The invoice was issued at the end of the month. |
| a purchase order | Meaning: A document authorising a purchase, issued before the invoice. Register: Formal. Procurement, often abbreviated. Example: We cannot process the invoice without a purchase order number. |
| the financial year | Meaning: The twelve-month period used for accounting. Register: Formal. Reporting. It rarely matches the calendar year. Example: Our financial year ends in September. |
| deadlock | Meaning: A situation in which neither side will move. Register: Formal. Written and spoken. Example: Talks reached deadlock over the exclusivity clause. |
| a complaint | Meaning: A formal expression of dissatisfaction. Register: Neutral to formal. Universal. Example: The complaint was logged and passed to the service team. |
| a service level agreement | Meaning: A contract specifying the standard of service to be provided. Register: Formal. Contracts, often abbreviated. Example: The service level agreement guarantees a four-hour response. |
| onboarding | Meaning: The process of settling a new employee into a role. Register: Neutral to formal. Human resources. Example: Onboarding includes a week of systems training. |
| constructive feedback | Meaning: Comments intended to help someone improve. Register: Neutral to formal. Management. Example: The session is designed for constructive feedback. |
| training and development | Meaning: Activities that build employees' skills. Register: Formal. Human resources. Example: Training and development has its own budget line. |
| to resign | Meaning: To voluntarily leave a job. Register: Formal. Employment. Example: She resigned with three months' notice. |
このデッキについて
Ping me when it is ready works in a message to a colleague and reads badly in a letter to a client. Please do not hesitate to contact me is the reverse: correct in formal writing and stilted in a team chat. Learners who study business vocabulary as a flat list end up fluent and tonally wrong, which is a harder problem to notice than a missing word. This deck is 300 cards, one word or fixed expression per card, with the back cut into three fixed lines. "Meaning" gives the sense in plain English. "Register" says how formal it is and where it is used, whether that is email, a meeting, a report or speech only. "Example" is one natural sentence from a workplace situation. The sections cover meetings and discussion, email and correspondence, projects and processes, finance and reporting, negotiation and clients, and people and organisation. General idioms with no workplace use are left out, and where a term is mainly British or mainly American the register line says so. Once the deck is on a spaced-repetition schedule, the expressions you use confidently stop coming back and the ones whose register you keep misjudging return until you stop misjudging them.
よくある質問
- What is in each section of the deck?
- Meetings and discussion has 50 cards, email and correspondence 55, projects and processes 50, finance and reporting 50, negotiation and clients 45, and people and organisation 50, for 300 in total. Every card carries section and subtopic tags, so you can drill only email phrases or only finance terms.
- What level of English does it assume?
- Roughly upper-intermediate. The definitions are in plain English and the examples are short, but the deck assumes you can already hold a conversation and are now working on the vocabulary a workplace uses. It is not a beginner course and does not teach general grammar.
- Is it British or American English?
- Both, with the difference marked. Where a term is used mainly on one side, such as the words for a bidding process or for redundancy, the register line names which variety it belongs to and gives the other one. Spelling follows British convention throughout.
- Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?
- Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and spends no AI credits, so the free plan imports all 300 cards. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.
- Will importing it twice create duplicates?
- No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.
- Can I use it on the web and in the mobile app?
- Yes. The deck is added to your account rather than to a device, so the same cards and the same progress are there on the web, on iOS and on Android.
- Can I edit the cards after importing?
- Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.
No official exam questions are reproduced. Every card was written for this deck.Editorial reference date 2026-08-31.