Present Simple, needs analysis and functional language review
Business English verbs guessing game
Choose one of the verbs below but don’t say which one you have chosen. Describe present/ usual habits associated with that thing (e.g. how often, times and days, people who do it, how long, what you do it to, etc) until your partner guesses which verb you are talking about. For example, for “Apologise”, you could say “Japanese people do this a lot. They usually bow when they do this. Some American businesses don’t like their employees to do this when there is a complaint.” etc until your partner guesses. They can only guess once per hint. Then take turns doing the same.
- Agree
- Apologise
- Attach
- Attend conferences/ trade fairs/ training/ meetings
- Be late/ on time/ early
- Calculate
- Carry a wallet/ mobile phone/ business cards
- Read
- Write reports/ minutes/ agendas
- Chair meetings
- Greet
- Receive
- Correct/ Edit
- Clean
- Complain
- Copy/ Photocopy
- Deal with complaints
- Decide
- Describe your job/ company/ department/ product(s)
- Dictate
- Disagree
- Do overtime
- Exchange business cards
- Explain
- Fax
- File/ Organise/ Reorganise
- Give advice/ recommendations
- Give bad news
- Have meetings with customers/ clients/ colleagues/ suppliers
- Input data/ figures
- Install/ Download
- Invite
- Leave messages
- Make appointments/ Arrange…
- Meet new people
- Meet people again
- Negotiate
- Offer a discount/ free gifts/ food and drinks/ someone a seat
- Phone/ Telephone/ Call
- Present
- Print out
- Refuse/ Reject
- Repair
- Request
- Sign
- Socialise with colleagues/ your boss/ clients/ customers/ suppliers
- Stamp documents
- Staple
- Take dictation
- Take messages
- Take notes
- Talk about/ Discuss
- Thank
- Tidy up
- Travel abroad/ domestically/ for work
- Type up a report/ a PowerPoint presentation
- Use a computer/ calculator/ projector/ laser pen/ photocopier
- Wear a tie/ a jacket/ a waistcoat/ cuff links/ a security badge
When your teacher stops you, ask about anything above you aren’t sure about, working together to describe habits related to those things each time. Then use similar language to discuss the questions below in pairs.
Discussion and brainstorming
- Which things above do you do most often? Are there any things you often do which are missing from the list?
- Are there any things above which you very rarely or never do? Does anyone in your company do those things?
- How do the jobs of other people in your team vary from yours?
- Are there any cultural differences above, e.g. the importance of business cards? What about gender differences?
- Which things do you or will you most often have to do in English? What language can you use to do the things in italics that you often have to do?
- How does a typical business email start and end?
Discuss the last three questions as a class.
———————————
PDF for easy saving and printing:
Related pages
Why are some verbs in italic / kursiv?
As it explains in the instructions, you can get students to brainstorm suitable phrases for doing those things in English, e.g. requesting language. Have just written a bit more explanation on the worksheet, but didn’t have time to change the pdf version.