BEFORE and AFTER, how to talk about TIME at work - Business English class

Time is one of the most important things that we talk about at work, and in my coaching experience it's also one of the things that English speaking professionals around the world have the most trouble communicating in English. In this episode we're talking about events that happen before and events that happen after other events. 

In the first half, we will look at some great, professional ways to talk about things that happen before other things. We'll look at words like "precede," "predate," and the fantastic phrase "pave the way."
Then, in the second half, we will look at things that happen after. We will look at "subsequent" events and the very descriptive phrase "in the wake of."
We’re going to hear some natural and native-sounding examples, and I’ll break down exactly how to use them to make your storytelling clear and concise. 

If you speak English at work and want to sound more native and natural when talking to colleagues, customers, or clients, then I hope that the vocabulary, grammar, and communication tips in today's episode will be useful for you. 

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Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

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Transcript

Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast. My name is Chris. I am a business English and communication coach. And I have personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals, likely just like you, to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. And our topic today is... Time. But not just telling the time. Today we are talking about the order of things. What comes first, what comes second, what comes before, and what comes after. Let's start with this. If I tell you that I printed a set of emails off in chronological order. Then what do I mean? I printed them in chronological order. The word "chronological" comes from the ancient Greek word "chronos" which means I'm And logos. Which means logic or reason.
So, to be chronological, is to apply logic to time. It means arranging events in a straight line. Exactly in the order that they happened.
So, if I print out a set of emails in chronological order, then I print them in the order that I received them. At work, applying logic to time is, of course, really important. If you are reporting a problem to your boss or explaining a project delay to a client, you need to be perfectly clear. About what happened first, and what happened next. If you get the order wrong, you might confuse the cause with the consequence. Today, we are going to look at the vocabulary of this timeline. In the first half of the podcast, We'll look at some great professional ways to talk about things that happen before other things. We'll look at words like 'precede', Redate. And the fantastic phrase to pave the way. Then. In the second half, We'll look at things that happen after other things. We'll look at subsequent events and the very descriptive phrase, in the wake of. Of, in the wake of. We're going to hear some natural and native sounding examples and I'll break down exactly how to use them to make your storytelling and professional communication clear and concise.
So, with that said, Let's get started. Let's start with the things that come first. Here are three examples of how a native speaker might describe events that happen before Something else. Just to clarify, this agreement actually predates the one that she emailed me yesterday. Just to clarify, this agreement actually predates the one she emailed me yesterday. We need to finalize the budget in advance of the meeting to pave the way for a smooth approval process. We need to finalize the budget in advance of the meeting to pave the way for a smooth approval process. The lead up to the negotiation was very stressful. There's always so much work to do in the preceding couple of weeks. The lead up to the negotiation was very stressful. There's always so much work to do in the preceding couple of weeks. Let's look at that first word. We... Date. To predate. In the first example, we heard this agreement predates the one she emailed me. This agreement actually predates the one she emailed me. This is a very useful verb for contracts and legal documents. It combines the prefects 'pre' which comes from the Latin for before and date. As in the 8th of January 2029, the date. Tom. If I tell you. That Document A predates Document B. It means that document A is... Older. It was written at an earlier time. You can use this for technology. Or maybe history. It's definitely common in historical conversations. You could say this software predates the cloud computing era. This software predates the cloud computing era. It is a very professional way of establishing which version of something is the original one. Next. Let's look at the phrase, pave the way. To pave the way. In the example, we heard we need to finalize the budget to pave the way for a smooth approval process. To pave the way for a smooth approval process. I love this phrase because it's a great image that you can really picture in your mind.
So imagine that you are building a road and you have to put down the stones or the concrete or the tarmac, whatever your road is made of. You have to pave the road. Maybe you've heard the word pavement as well, a sidewalk, a path or a pavement.
So you pave the road so that the cars can drive smoothly later. In a business context. When we do small tasks now to make a big task easier in the future, we are paving the way. You might say these early meetings paved the way for the final deal. These early meetings, these meetings early in the process, paved the way for the final deal.
Like building the road in front of those cars, you're putting down a pavement or a sidewalk so that you can walk easily to the event, the occasion that you're aiming for. In that example, the final deal. Next, let's look at in the lead up to. In the lead up to. And the adjective "preceding". Proceeding. We heard the lead up to the negotiation was very stressful. The lead up to the negotiation was very stressful. The lead up is the period of time immediately before a big event. It suggests a building. Of energy and activity. The lead up to a product launch or maybe the lead up to a deadline is usually very busy. Think of it like a countdown, maybe. Another common phrase here is run up. As in, everyone had to work overtime in the run-up to the end of the quarter. Everyone had to work overtime in the run-up to the end of the quarter.
So. The run up to something and the lead up to something, these mean the same thing. Then we heard, there's always so much work to do in the preceding couple of weeks. There's always so much work to do in the preceding couple of weeks. Proceeding is the adjective form of the verb to proceed. To proceed. This comes from the Latin word, cadera. Which means to go.
So it literally means the weeks that go before, the time that goes before. So at work, Using 'preceding' sounds much more precise. And formal than just saying the previous weeks. It specifically links the time Do the event you are talking about. For instance, I didn't see the email. Because I was out of the office during the preceding week. I was out of the office during the preceding week. Now, before we move on to what happens after, let's talk about your future timeline. If you want to pave the way for a promotion or a new job, then improving your English is one of the best investments you can make. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.
So, if you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then it would be great to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com, and find out more. Starting on our very first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills and the mistakes that you make most often or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now you can use the code PODCAST30. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-3-0, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45, or 60 minutes, whichever is best for you.
Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, then you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs in marketing and the law and everything in between, and even government leaders from some governments that you've probably heard of. And I've helped all of them to reach their language and communication goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Okay, so the event has happened and now we need to talk about the consequences and the next steps. Here are three ways. Talk about what comes after. We need to be very careful with our PR strategy in the wake of this scandal. We need to be very careful with our PR strategy in the wake. Of this scandal. The first meeting will be held in my office, then all subsequent meetings will be held in the conference room. The first meeting will be held in my office, then all subsequent meetings will be held in the conference room. There is a drinks reception to follow the conference and we'll have a post-event call on Monday. There is a drinks reception to follow the conference and we'll have a post-event call on Monday. Okay, let's start with a very descriptive phrase, and that is in the wake of. In the example, we heard in the wake of this scandal, in the wake of this scandal.
So this is a nautical metaphor. A nautical metaphor. By which I mean it comes from sailing and ships and the ocean. Or at least the water. When a ship or boat. Moves through the water, It leaves a trail of white bubbling water behind it. This usually forms a V shape. That gets wider as it gets farther from the boat. In fact, Even swimmers leave this if they are swimming quickly enough. This trail is called the Wake. The wake of a boat or the wake of a swimmer. If you are a small boat, behind a big ship. The wake can make the water very difficult to... Nav and to continue sailing in a straight line. At work, in professional contexts, we use this to describe the period of time after a major, usually negative, event. You might say, in the wake of budget cuts, morale was very low. In the wake of budget cuts, morale was very low. No one in the office was having a good time. Everyone was a little bit sad. It implies that the event was big enough to leave waves behind it that people are still feeling. CEOs sometimes end up losing their jobs in the wake of poor earnings calls and engineers often end up working lots of over time. In the wake of an imperfect product launch.
So if your boss starts talking about the wake, of an event, you can assume that they're not very happy with the way things went. Let's talk now about the adjective 'subsequent'. Subsequent. In the second example, we heard, all subsequent meetings will be held in the conference room. All subsequent meetings will be held in the conference room. More Latin now. It's a very Latin-heavy episode today. And this word comes from the Latin sequi, S-E-Q-U-I, which I guarantee I am mispronouncing, and which means... To follow. Fortunately, this is an English podcast, not a Latin podcast, so you'll have to forgive me if I mispronounce the Latin from time to time. You might recognize this word In other words, like sequel. Sequel. Which we use for things like the second movie in a series. Or the book that was released to tell readers how the story continued after the first book. Or sequence, meaning the order of things, the sequence. If you do these steps in sequence, then it should fix the problem. Whatever you do, don't do them out of sequence.
So, subsequent just means Coming after. To come after. It is useful for setting rules. You might say the first month is a trial. But. All subsequent months must be paid in full. All subsequent months must be paid in full. It's a much more professional way to say the next ones, the ones after this. Or, for instance, I might tell you, that my first job was a two-hour drive from my house. However, I learned my lesson. And all of my subsequent jobs have been a lot closer. All of my subsequent jobs have been a lot closer. Actually, I work from home now, so...
Yeah. A lot closer indeed about, an eight second walk from my bedroom. And let's look the prefix post. Host. And the verb. To follow. We heard. We'll have a post-event call on Monday. We'll have a post-event call on Monday. Just like pre means before, Post means after.
So pre, before, Host. Esker. You can attach this to a large number of different nouns in English in a professional context. For instance, a post event means after the event.
Like post-event drinks that your colleagues invited you to. Hey, why don't you come back to the office? We're having some post-event drinks. You could use it with meeting, for instance. You could talk about the post-meeting conversation that you had with your boss about how great your performance has been recently. Or maybe we could use this to talk about a post-mortem. Post-mortem literally means after death. And in business, it's sometimes used to describe the process of analyzing why a project failed. Why a project failed. We heard, there is a drinks reception to follow. There is a drinks reception to follow. In this context, to follow simply means to happen next. You will often hear this on formal agendas. Lunch to follow means lunch will happen immediately after. The current session finishes.
So we have traveled through our chronological timeline today. We have looked at what happens in the lead up to an event or maybe even in the run up to an event. And the work that happens in the preceding weeks. We looked at what happens in the wake of an event and how to handle subsequent steps. Using these specific words helps you tell a clear story. It ensures your colleagues know exactly where they are on the timeline. And what needs to happen next. Don't forget that if you would like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode or work on your ability to talk about time and to communicate ideas of time, then you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills by going to www.english.com. Breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's breakoutbusinessenglish.com or clicking the link in the show notes. And use the code PODCAST30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native international English speakers from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their goals and it would be great to meet you and help you to achieve yours. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or comment on one of my YouTube videos and I look forward to hearing from you. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. If you found this podcast useful, and you think that there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words, and I thank you in advance. That's a great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you so much for listening and as always for your time. And I really do appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of your time with this podcast. Hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you again next time. On the breakout business English podcast.