Business English for meetings and emails

Work · 2 min read · updated 2026-08-22

Work English is a narrow dialect. Most people who "need to improve their English for work" need about two hundred phrases and three habits, not a general course. That is why lessons built on your own meetings and emails work so much faster than a textbook.

Meetings: the four moments that go wrong

Interrupting. The most useful thing you can learn. "Sorry, can I jump in there?" / "Before we move on — one thing about that." Say the person's name first and you will never be resented for it.

Being asked something unexpectedly. Buy the second you need: "Let me think about that for a second." / "I'd want to check the numbers before I answer properly, but my instinct is..." Silence reads as not knowing; a phrase reads as thinking.

Not having understood. Never "sorry, I don't understand." Say what you did get: "So the deadline moves to the 14th — is that for the whole release, or just our part?" It shows attention and gets you a precise answer.

Disagreeing. "I see it slightly differently." / "That works, with one caveat." / "I'm not sure that follows — if X, then wouldn't Y?" Softening is not weakness in English; it is the register.

Emails: fewer drafts, less time

• Say what you want in the first line. English business email is front-loaded:
• One request per email. Two requests get one answer.
• Use the standard openings and closings and stop thinking about them. "Thanks for the
• Politeness lives in the verbs: *could*, *would*, *might*, *I was wondering if*.
• Read it once for length. Long emails signal uncertainty. Cut the paragraph

Presentations and calls

Three things carry more than vocabulary:

1. Signposting. "I'll cover three things: where we are, what changed, what I need from you." People forgive a lot of grammar in a talk they can follow. 2. Pausing. Speed comes from nerves and costs comprehension. A pause where a comma would be is worth more than any phrase. 3. Handling questions. Rehearse the two questions you are dreading, out loud, with someone who will actually ask them.

How to use a tutor for this

Bring the real thing. The presentation you give on Thursday, the email thread you keep rewriting, the call you are dreading. A good business English lesson is a rehearsal:

• role-play the meeting, with the tutor playing the difficult participant;
• rewrite one of your own emails together, and keep the rewritten version as a template;
• record the presentation and watch two minutes of it back;
• build a phrase bank from your own work, not a textbook.

Ten lessons of that changes how work feels. Business English tutors list it as a specialty; if the immediate need is a job interview, the interview practice page is the right one, and tutors there run mock interviews from the job description you were sent.