Sound POLITE, PROFESSIONAL & HELPFUL at Work | Business English Conversation

Right place to deal with them. We even talk about problems like headaches or hiccups. These are less formal ways of saying it, but they definitely help emphasize that the problem is not as bad as you think or that they are manageable problems, just annoying. I can see how these changes could create some headaches for the sales team, but we are

work

ing on a solution. There were some hiccups with the new ranking system on Friday, but things have gone much better this week. And finally, if you

work

in an office as part of a team, chances are you'll work alongside other people to get things done, right?

We work together. We work as one team. But just to be clear, we don't work in a group, okay? This is a very common mistake that many of my students make. “Teamwork” is a noun and we never use it for “do,” okay? We don't do group work. A more

professional

way to explain that you are working with another person or people is to say that you are collaborating. I look forward to collaborating on projects with you in the future. Now, if you really want to emphasize that two people or perhaps two teams with different skills or experiences come together to work together, we say they come together.

They join the forces. This is very powerful. When our development team collaborated with the product team, they created something amazing. There you have it, I really hope you found some new expressions to expand your vocabulary a little. Make sure you have these words by your side at work this week and see if you can apply them. You know, if you're writing an email, make sure you pause before you hit send, to try to update some of the language you're using to make it

sound

more

professional

and useful. Now you know I like to put a little challenge at the end of my lessons and that's because just watching my lessons isn't enough, right?

You have to apply what you've been learning and it only takes a few minutes. Press the pause button now and write a short paragraph using at least five of the professional words you've shared throughout this lesson. I'm really excited to go over there and review them to give you some feedback and make sure you're using them correctly. But in the meantime, I have this lesson here ready for you to continue practicing with me so see you there!