Work English: 12 PHRASAL VERBS for meetings

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Yeah, I've been looking into the data that you sent me, and it doesn't look good.

No, it's not great.

Well, we should probably meet up to discuss it.

Yeah, let's set up a meeting for sometime this week.

Yeah, Thursday.

Yeah, I'm open Thursday morning.

Okay, just send me a calendar invite, okay?

Okay, see you then, bye.

It's not looking good, guys.

We gotta talk about this.

Hey everyone, I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on phrasal verbs for work meetings.

In this lesson, we will look at twelve phrasal verbs that are commonly used in the context

of work meetings.

Now, I cannot provide you with an exhaustive list of every single phrasal verb that might

come up in a work meeting, but the ones I've chosen are some of the more common phrasal

verbs that I use when, you know, I am trying to set up a work meeting, or I am in the middle

of a work meeting.

So, if you work in an office environment or another type of work environment, where you

are meeting with a boss or something, I think these will be useful for you.

So, you may have heard in my phone conversation, I told my colleague that we need to set up

a meeting to discuss, you know, this problem that we're having.

So, to set up means to organize.

For example: I'd like to set up a conference call with the client.

So, I would like to organize.

This means set the time, set the date, set the location for the meeting.

So, let's set up a meeting.

Send me an invitation.

Send me an email.

Let me know which days work for you.

Set up - organize the meeting.

Start off basically means start or begin.

So, oftentimes, the person who is at the head of the meeting, who is starting the meeting,

might say something like, "Okay, I will start off by introducing Tina to the team."

So, you're in the middle of the meeting now, and your boss or the person who is, you know,

chairing the meeting might say, "I'll start off", "I'd like to start off", "Let's start

off", "Let's begin by talking about this".

So, let's start off by reviewing what we know so far.

Let's start off by reviewing what we discussed last time.

I'd like to start off by introducing Tina to the team.

So, some of you might know Tina.

Some of you might not know Tina, alright?

Next, sometimes this happens.

You have to call off, which basically means to cancel a meeting because the timing doesn't

work and you just can't make it happen.

So, not only meetings, but you can also talk about things like, "Our holiday party has

been called off this year."

So, if you're giving some news and notes about what's happening in your company these days,

you might have to give bad news sometimes and say, "I'm sorry, but the company Christmas

party, the company holiday party has been called off this year.

We don't have the money to have it."

You can also call off the meeting, right?

So, I'm sorry, we have to call off the meeting.

It doesn't work for me or one of the key people is sick, or, you know, I just don't have the

time to, you know, make this meeting happen.

So, set up, start off, call off, deal with.

Now, when you are in the work meeting itself, you're often talking about things that you

plan to do or things that are happening in the company now, and you have to talk about

how you will handle or manage something.

So, the s/t, it's st, that stands for "something" in the context of my board work.

So, to deal with something means that you are managing or handling something or experiencing it.

So, "We've been dealing with several ongoing problems."

An ongoing problem is something that keeps happening again and again and again.

So, we have been dealing with several ongoing problems.

How are we going to deal with losing this person from the company, right?

So, if someone leaves a company, you have to deal with that problem.

Deal with that situation.

Hey, how are we dealing with the new renovations project?

Okay, so how are we handling the communication for it, or something like that.

Imagine you - you have the problem in your hand and you're kind of manipulating it and

dealing with it, okay?

Ah, I'm sorry, I rubbed a little bit off there, but I think you can, you know, read the word

To bring up something is to introduce it into the conversation.

So, many issues, many topics are brought up in the context of work meetings.

So, I think you've brought up a good point.

I think you have introduced this topic into the conversation.

I think you have introduced a good point, you know, in the course of this meeting, or

something that is relevant to the things we are discussing here, alright?

So, "Hey Caroline, you brought up that we don't have enough coffee in the kitchen right now.

Can someone buy more coffee for the kitchen?"

So, she brought up a topic into the conversation.

Imagine these are topics in your hands, what you want to discuss in a meeting.

You bring them up.

I'd like to bring up this topic.

I'd like to bring up the topic of vacation time in the company, okay?

Or, oh - Steve over here, he's bringing up the topic that - I don't know - he would like

more time off as well.

That there's a conflict in his schedule, or something.

Now, you are - if you are in a meeting and it's a long one, one hour, two hours, I can't

speak for your company.

I don't know how long your meetings are, but you probably bring a notebook with you so

that you can take notes, or maybe you bring a tablet or a laptop.

And to jot down simply means to write notes.

So, "Please bring a notepad to jot down notes."

To take down, you can also say.

Jot down or take down notes.

Jot down information.

Jot down details.

So just think, jot, jot, jot, jot, okay?

Usually, it refers to physical notebooks, physical paper.

But people have used it also when they bring a small laptop and they're jotting down notes.

They're taking down notes as the meeting is happening.

So, quick recap.

Set up at meeting - organize.

Start off - begin.

Call off - cancel.

Deal with - handle or manage.

Bring up - introduce into the conversation.

Jot down - to write notes.

Now, let's look at six more.

Next, we have run out of.

To run out of something means to use all of it.

Now, this doesn't only have to refer to physical things like office supplies, for example.

You can run out of pencils, run out of pens, run out of printer ink.

It can also refer to things like time or patience.

So, "I'm afraid we have run out of time."

Or maybe someone will bring up in the meeting that they are running out or the office is

running out of certain supplies.

So, the printer is running out of ink, or the printer has almost run out of ink.

Or, we are running out staples.

We have run out of paper, emergency, we need to buy more paper, okay?

So, to run out of it means to use all of it.

If you are a fan of the band Muse, you might know "Our Time is Running Out", so you can

run out of time, run out of patience and run out of office supplies as well.

Next, figure out.

So, to figure something out means to find a solution to something or to understand something.

For example, "We need to figure out some ways to save money.

That's why we're here."

Okay, let's figure out, let's try to find a solution, let's try to find a way to save

more money, okay?

Or, "I can't figure out what's going on here."

Like, I don't understand what is happening here in this particular situation.

So, if you are trying to figure something out, you're trying to find a solution or you

are trying to understand something.

Next, to go over.

So, hopefully you are going over, you know, your English knowledge on a daily basis.

It means to review or to repeat information so it is clear.

In the context of a business meeting, "Before we begin, I'd like to go over some ground rules."

And very quickly, ground rules refer to basic foundational rules.

So, the ground rules for a meeting might be no cell phones, okay?

You are not allowed to leave, you know, for the first twenty minutes, because the information

is very important.

Please raise your hand if you want to speak, if you're in a very strict company, maybe.

Or, please listen and pay attention to other people.

Defer judgement, like don't judge people critically right away.

There are many ground rules or basic foundation rules you can have in a meeting.

So, to go over.

You can go over rules.

You can go over a report.

So, the person who set up the meeting might have a report and they want everyone to look

They will say, "Okay, we are going to go over the report, step by step.

We will review the information on the report, step by step."

Next, hand out.

So, this links to what I just said.

The person who set up the meeting has a report.

They want to give a copy of the report to everyone in the meeting, a paper copy.

They hand out copies of the report.

To hand out simply means to distribute to a group.

If you have ever taken English classes in a classroom setting, you will probably know

that teachers hand out activities or hand out papers.

The meaning of the word is literally in the word - hand out, okay?

So, to hand out means to distribute or give, alright?

So, "I'm going to hand out copies of our brochure."

Right, so maybe your company just has a new brochure and you're going to review it as

a team in your work meeting.

And, you know, the person who set up the meeting hands out the brochure.

Distributes the brochure.

Next, look into.

So, to look into something means to explore or to try to discover facts.

Imagine you're peeking through things and looking into things.

You're exploring, right?

You're trying to find something.

So, Tina, Tina, she just started with the team but you trust her a lot.

"Tina, I'd like you to look into this."

Yeah, we're having a problem with people stealing food from the kitchen refrigerator, okay?

So, people just keep taking food.

I bring my lunch every day, but once a month, my lunch disappears from the refrigerator.

I'd like you to look into this.

What's happening, okay?

Can you call our, maybe, video camera, video security company and find out what's going

Find out the information that we need, alright.

So, look into - explore.

Try to find the information.

Try to discover facts, what's happening.

Finally, wrap up.

To wrap up is to finish.

So, "Let's try to wrap up in five more minutes max."

Max just means maximum.

So, if you are wrapping up, you are near the end of the meeting and you're just trying

to, you know, finish it, basically.

So, right now, I'm going to wrap up this video by telling you guys to go to www.engvid.com

where you can do a quiz to test your knowledge, test your understanding of everything that

we have looked at today.

As I said at the start of the video, you cannot predict what will happen in a meeting.

You cannot predict the type of language you will use, but I hope that these twelve phrasal

verbs will give you a good strong foundation for being able to understand things better

in work meetings with English speakers, and to give you the confidence so that you can

You can speak confidently.

You can express yourself a lot better by knowing these words, these phrasal verbs.

So, till next time, thanks for clicking and - yeah, subscribe to the channel.

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