REAL Business English

You’re in the car. The conference starts at 10:00, and the hotel is still five minutes away.

Which answer sounds natural in this situation?

Check your answer and hear the sentence in context in the latest article: realbusinessenglish.com

When work gets messy and you need to explain what’s going on, these phrases help you sound natural.

Listen to the audio:
realbusinessenglish.com/phrasebook

Need more time at work? Here are 4 more natural ways to say it in English.

Instead of sounding too direct, you can say:

I don’t think the current timeline is realistic.
We may need to push this back a few days.
We’re close, but we still need to finalize a few details.
We hit a snag. We may need to adjust the timeline.

These are useful when you need to talk about deadlines, delays, or project timelines in a professional way.

Save this for your next meeting or email.

More Business English phrases: realbusinessenglish.com

Business English quiz: deadlines

Getting the whole thing done in two months would be a _____.

What’s the best answer?

A) reach
B) shortcut
C) stretch
D) break

This phrase is common in American workplace English when a deadline is possible, but very difficult.

Save this quiz and try using the phrase in your own sentence.

Deadlines get messy fast.

A client adds one more thing…
Someone says it should only take a minute, but it doesn’t…

In this lesson, you’ll practice 10 natural Business English phrases for tight deadlines and delays, with workplace scenarios and a quiz.

I’ll put the link in my Stories today.

Save this for work English practice.

Business English phrase: What’s the trade-off?

Use this when a choice sounds good, but you want to understand the downside.

For example, if your team can finish faster, what changes?
Does it cost more?
Does the quality drop?
Does someone have to work late?

That’s the trade-off.

Listen to this phrase in context:
www.realbusinessenglish.com/phrasebook

Business English Quiz

A lot has changed since the original plan.

Which answer sounds most natural at work?

Write your answer in the comments.

Save this quiz if you’re learning English for meetings and project planning.

She’s out today is a simple phrase people use at work when someone isn’t in the office.

She’s out today, but I can ask her to call you tomorrow.

Learn this phrase in context at
realbusinessenglish.com/phrasebook

If you’ve ever thought, I know this word, but I’m not sure I’d actually use it in a meeting, this worksheet is for you.

It focuses on expressions like initially, gradually, at this point, at first, and in the long run through short workplace dialogues.

You can download the PDF here: www.realbusinessenglish.com/pdf

IN THE LONG RUN, that’s going to hurt us

A common business English phrase you can use when something may not seem like a big problem now, but will cause trouble later.

Learn more at realbusinessenglish.com/phrasebook

Useful Business English for talking about delays at work.

This worksheet covers natural phrases like stretched thin, backlog, fall behind, behind schedule, catch up, delayed, and turnaround time.

Read the full article here:
https://www.realbusinessenglish.com/pdf