Being LATE and ON TIME - Business English class

Are you ever late for meetings? Or maybe you're always on time? How can you tell people that you're going to be late or promise then you'll be on time in the most natural and native sounding spoken English possible. Today you'll learn the vocabulary and the grammar to communicate about punctuality with your colleagues, clients, and customers like a native English speaker. We'll learn from formal and professional English, some informal idioms and phrasal verbs, and you might even sound a little more like James Bond by the end of this English class!

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, ICAO 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'm a business English and communication coach and I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals, likely just like you, to improve the way that they communicate and at work, in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time as always. And our topic today is being late and being on time. Now, I could say that our topic today is punctuality. Punctuality. But I don't think as many people are going to be searching for ideas on how to talk about punctuality simply because it's a less well-known word.
So you get the more natural and informal podcast title of being late. I work with a lot of people these days on job interview preparation. We talk about their experience and how they can package and present that experience in the form of job interview answers that will convince and persuade a hiring manager to give them a job. Today, I was thinking a little about the first job I got hired for. I was 16 years old and this was back in the days when you could just walk down the high street with a stack of CVs and hand them out to stores. I think that nowadays, everyone would tell you to apply online.
Well, at 16 years old, you have no experience. Well, actually, that's maybe a lie. At 16 years old, I had two years of delivering newspapers on my CV, so I was probably ahead of most people. But one thing that I'm pretty sure I had on my CV back then was punctuality. Punctuality is the noun that describes being on I'm If you're punctual, then you are not late. That's the adjective form, punctual. P-U-N-C-T-U-A-L. And as an extra tip, if you're over 30 years old and your CV still says that you're a punctual person, then maybe I can help you rewrite your CV too. Let's start, as always, with the positive things. We're going to hear some natural and native sounding examples of people talking about being on time for events. My morning is completely open.
So I'll be there in good time. My morning is completely open.
So I'll be there in good time. Barring any unforeseen delays, I should be on time. Barring any unforeseen delays, I should be on time. We're cutting it close, but I think we'll be there for the start of the meeting. We're cutting it close. But I think we'll be there for the start of the meeting. I really like the phrase in good. I'm In fact, if you're listening to this and you already work with me in one-to-one coaching sessions, then you might have heard me use this from... I'm time. In the first example, we heard: My morning is completely open.
So I'll be there in good time. My morning is completely open, so I'll be there in good time. If you arrive in good time, then you likely arrive early. The feeling here is that you arrive with enough time available to do other things. Maybe you want to get a coffee and shake some hands and meet some people before a meeting starts.
Well, You'll need to arrive in good time if you want to do things like that. This phrase always sounds a little formal to me, but Not too much. It sounds formal in a polite and professional way. I imagine it's the kind of thing that James Bond would say if you asked him to attend a meeting. And let's be honest, It's cool to sound a little like James Bond in our day-to-day lives. Okay, let's talk about arriving on time and arriving in time. A few people have asked me about the difference between these two recently, And the first thing that I want to say is that if you use one when you should have used the other, don't worry about it. On time and in time are very similar. And it's definitely not going to cause confusion or miscommunication. In fact, I'm very sure that a lot of native speakers couldn't actually explain the difference for you, even though they would probably use them in specific circumstances. Since we're talking about being late in a professional context, we should probably start with on time. We mostly use "on time". Talk about schedules. Things that happen on time. Happen at the date and time that was previously scheduled. That was previously agreed and written down.
So, if you're on time for a meeting, this means that you are there. Either before or exactly at the time that the meeting is scheduled to begin. Or perhaps you're taking a flight somewhere. If there are no delays, then your flight will depart on time. Even if you are running late and would really prefer it to be a little delayed. The phrase "in time" is usually used to talk about arriving or completing a task soon enough. This is often used to talk about allowing time for other things, especially when we're in a rush and we're worried about being late. Let's go back to our airport example. If my flight leaves at 11am and I get to the gate at 10.55, then I'm on time for my flight. However, If I arrive a little earlier, then I might be in time to do some shopping before I leave. I might talk about the shop at the end of my street. I know that they close at 10pm every night, In fact, I know that they always close on time. They're never open any later than that. In fact, they always open on time in the mornings too. If they say they will be open at 9 a.m., then they open at 9 a.m. They're never late for opening. They never get busy equally and forget to lock the door at 10pm when they're supposed to close. Trust me, I know, they're always on time for that closing because I often decide that I want to buy a snack in the evening. And I'll try to visit before they close.
Sometimes I'm there. In time to grab some food. To snack on during late night podcast writing sessions. But sometimes I'm not in time, and they're already closed by the time I arrive. Maybe I should have left more time for that visit to the shop. The next phrase we're going to look at today is to cut something close. That's C-U-T, like cutting vegetables. To cut something close. In the cutting vegetables, is that a good example? That's the first thing I think about cutting. What else do we cut? We... I don't know, you could cut sticky tape, cut sellotape if you're wrapping a parcel. My mind went straight to vegetables. Can you tell I'm hungry? In the third example, we heard "We're cutting it close. We're cutting it close. But I think we'll be there for the start of the meeting. We're cutting it close, but I think we'll be there for the start of the meeting. To cut it close. Is a very common idiom. That we use when we talk about time and deadlines. If you are cutting it close, it means that you are doing something with very little time before a deadline or a scheduled event. Imagine you have a meeting At nine o'clock. And you arrive at the office at exactly 8.59. In that situation, you are definitely cutting it close. It suggests that while you aren't late, indeed you are on time. You are very near to being late. There is almost no room for any delays or mistakes. In a professional environment, you might hear this when discussing a project or a task. For example, if a report is due on Friday afternoon and you only finish it five minutes before you leave, your colleague might say, "You're really cutting it close with that report." You're really cutting it close with that report. It's a great phrase to use because it sounds very natural and native. It shows that you understand the pressure of a tight schedule. Just remember, when you are cutting it close, you are succeeding. But only just Barely. It's often a bit stressful. Because if one thing goes wrong, you will probably end up being late. And of course, with idioms, remember, they are generally informal, but very often still professional. And they are the last pieces of vocabulary that international English speakers learn.
So, if you're speaking to someone for whom English is a second or maybe a third or fourth language, then they're less likely to understand the idiom. Putting it close. And if you want to improve your English in time for your next meeting, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. Ciao. If you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then I would love 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. 30, 45 or 60 minutes.
Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for 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 over 1,000 non-native English speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their goals and I look forward to meeting you. Okay, let's move on to the negative stuff now. The phone call or the text message that everyone hates to send. Or the phone call that you hate to make. Let's listen now to some natural and native sounding examples. Of people explaining. That they're going. To be late. We're running late. We'll be there in ten minutes. We're running late. We'll be there in ten minutes. We're sorry to keep you waiting, but we're running a bit behind schedule. We're sorry to keep you waiting, but we're running a bit behind schedule. We'll be late by around 15 minutes. We'll be late by around 15 minutes. Okay, a quick grammar point here, or more specifically a word choice point. In the third example: We heard, we'll be late by around 15 minutes. We'll be late by around 15 minutes. We use by, that's B-Y, to show a change or difference. For example: When you get to the airport, your bags might be too heavy I 3 kilograms. You have to reduce the weight Bye. At least 3 kilograms, otherwise the airline will ask you to Hey. Or, for instance: You might order your lunch and be told that the sandwich shop you're at only accepts cash. That's not a problem. Except you don't have that much cash with you. And you are short. I2 Euros. You're short by two euros. Or maybe if you're trying to catch a train. But it takes you longer than you thought to get to the train station. You might say, we were so close, we only missed it by a couple of minutes. We were so close. We only missed it by a couple of minutes. A common mistake here is that people say they're going to be late for an amount of time. For instance, I'll be late for 15 minutes. This is incorrect, however, you will likely still be understood. We use for in this context to talk about the event that we are trying to be on time for. For example, we might say, "I'm hoping to be on time for the meeting." But there's a chance I'll be late by a couple of minutes. The most common way to communicate this idea, however, is to rearrange the sentence a little. And to put the time Burst. This would be I'll be 15 minutes late. Or maybe we're running 15 minutes late. And to go back to our sandwich example from a couple of minutes ago, I might say, I'm two euros short. I need to go and get some more cash because I'm two euros short. Now, let's talk about the verb 'to run'. To run late is a collocation. That's R-U-N, to run late. A collocation is Two words that are often used together. For instance, we could have a meeting. But we could hold a meeting. Equally, I could have a sandwich for lunch. But I could eat a sandwich for lunch. I could. Have a phone call, perhaps. But I could make a phone call or take a phone call. To take a phone call means that you received the call.
Someone else was calling you. And to make means the opposite.
So, you can see that there are certain verbs that really like to be used with certain nouns. In the case of late, It's an adjective which is often used with the verb to run. We often use this verb to talk about changes in time.
So. If it's exactly 1 p.m., but your watch says it's three minutes past one, Then, your watch is running three minutes fast. Equally. If you know what time the post is delivered to your house, but then one morning the mail delivery person arrives a couple of hours early, they might tell you, "I'm running early today." I hope that's okay. I'm running early today. I hope that's okay. In terms of punctuality, we often use running late to describe the situation where we're still traveling and we're still moving. If it's already happened, then we would use the verb to be, as in, Sorry, I am late.
So, I'm running late, and then when I arrive, well, now I just am late. We use the verb to be. In that situation. Don't forget that if you would like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar in today's episode, or just work on your ability to apologize for being late, then you can book a session to work with me on your English communication skills by going to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's breakoutbusinessenglish.com. Or you can click the link in the show notes. I wonder if I can just help you to sound more like James Bond. Maybe that's a class type that I should offer, sounding more like James Bond. And of course, you can 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 English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. 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 a 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.
So if you found this podcast useful and you think that there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to click that button. Three or four or five stars, whatever you think the podcast is worth. And I thank you for that in advance. That is a great place to request a topic for a future podcast if you do choose to write something there. Although, you don't have to write anything. Just click however many stars you think this podcast is worth. That is everything for today. Thank you so much for listening today. And as always for your time, I know how valuable it is. And I really appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of it with this podcast. I hope you have a great week, a great end to your week, the rest of your week. And I'll talk to you again next time. On the breakout, Business. English Podcasts. Thanks a lot, everyone. Talk to you soon.