Vocabulary for EMAIL at work | Business English communication class

Writing emails in English as a non native English speaker is challenging, as is talking about them. If your colleague asks you to BCC them in on at email, and don't include your email signature, do you know what they mean?  Today you'll learn the vocabulary and the grammar to communicate about email 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 we'll have a couple of quiz questions for you along the way.

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. 

🔗 Book a one-to-one coaching session with me at breakoutbusinessenglish.com
🎁 Use code PODCAST30 for 30% off your first coaching session

Do you want to see what I do? Click here:
https://youtu.be/CpkSqdI1JAU?si=YNzbpTQy899L5D9G

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. 

👉 Don’t forget to leave a review, and request future topics!
📅 New episodes released every Wednesday
📺 Watch English speaking analysis on the Breakout Business English YouTube channel

#businessenglish #englishtips #englishclass #ielts

Transcript

Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast. My name is Chris. I am a business English and communication coach and I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals, almost certainly just like you, to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is. And I hope that this podcast finds you well. Because our topic today is email. It always surprises me how email is still at the core of all of our communication. No matter which industry you work in or which social media you use, everyone still needs email. I'm old enough to remember fax machines, but not quite old enough to remember pagers. Email feels different though. We've built so much of our online lives around email addresses that it seems like they'll never go away. This means, however, that some people are stuck with terrible, embarrassing email addresses that they created when they were teenagers. I remember reading some CVs from job applicants a few years ago and discovering some truly awful email addresses. I'm quite lucky. I managed to just get my name as my email address.
And then of course I have my professional email address, but I'm sure there are lots of people who'd like to change their email. Personal email addresses. I'm interested to know what your workplace is like. Do you rely heavily on email? Or do you mainly use something like WeChat, Slack, or maybe Microsoft Teams. For workplace communication. Today, we're going to hear some great vocabulary that you can use to sound more natural and native when talking about and sending emails in English. And in a few moments, I'll tell you how you can book some of my time to work with me to improve your English communication.
So, let's get started with our first three examples and here they are. Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. "Thanks for getting back to me so promptly." further to our conversation earlier. Please find attached PDF. Further to our conversation earlier, please find attached PDF. I hope this email finds you well. I hope this email finds you well. I'm suddenly realizing as I'm recording this that some of these examples sound quite strange to say because I've only ever seen them written down. These are things we write in email, so... We rarely speak this way, I guess. In the second example, we heard the phrase further as in further to our conversation earlier Please find attached PDF. Further to our conversation earlier. If you are replying to an email that requested a document, for instance, then you might say further to your email I've attached the document that you requested. Or maybe you had a conversation where you agreed to have a meeting. You might send an email like, "Further to our conversation, I've reserved a meeting room for us at 11am on Tuesday. Further to our conversation. I've reserved a meeting room for us. That's further F-U-R-T-H-E-R.
So, 'further to' is considered a formal phrase and it's a little more common in British English than American English. Another way to say this, which is again quite formal and professional, is as As in, as per your email, I've forwarded the invoice to accounting. As per your email, I've forwarded the invoice to accounting. I should mention that when we use "earlier" in this way, we almost always mean that the conversation was earlier in the day. In the same day that we are currently in. If the conversation was earlier in the month or earlier in the week, then we wouldn't usually use earlier. On its own at least, we'd usually add that extra detail earlier in the week, earlier in the month, or even earlier in the year. There was a phrasal verb in the first example that you might already know. And that was to get back to someone. As in, thanks for getting back to me so promptly. To get back to someone simply means to reply to them. To send a response to that email or request. We often see it in emails in this phrase, thanks for getting back to me. And remember that 'get' is an irregular verb which becomes 'got' in the past tense and past participle forms.
So, for instance, you might ask, have they got back to you yet? In American English, you'll often hear, have they gotten back to you yet? And if you're really kind, you might say something like, I know you have annual leave coming up.
So. You don't need to get back to me for a few days. Or maybe, don't worry about getting back to me until you return from annual leave. Here's a quick quiz for you. Which of these words is not a verb? Is it reply-based? ...response. Or respond.
So, there are three words: Reply, Response, Respond. And I want you to tell me which of these is not a verb. This might actually be more challenging than it sounds at first. Here are those words again. They are Reply, Response, Respond. Which of these is not a verb. Okay, so starting with reply. This can be a noun or a verb, depending on the sentence structure.
So, in a sentence like 'thanks for your reply', It is a noun. Thanks for your reply. However, in a sentence like "I'll reply to you tomorrow", It's a verb. I'll reply to you tomorrow. How about respond? Is that a verb? Yes, respond is... Always a verb. The reason I wanted to include this question in our podcast today is that response is a noun. It's always a noun to the best of my knowledge. I don't think there's a way to use it as a verb, but you may surprise me. A common mistake that I hear international English speakers make is to say, I need to response an email. I need to response an email. But that's wrong. You could say, I need to reply to an email. Or I need to respond to an email. Those would be fine. But if you use response, then you would need to build a sentence like, I need to send a response. To that email. In that sentence, we've added the verb send. I need to send a response to that email. Send is a verb that is commonly used with the noun response. I hope this email finds you well was the third example that we heard today. And indeed, I started the podcast with, I hope this podcast finds you well. This is a formal and polite phrase that we sometimes hear at the beginning of letters and emails. This means the same thing as I hope you are doing well. I hope you're doing well, or maybe I hope you're okay. If you want to sound a little more additional and formal in the way that you start your emails, then this might be a good choice. Especially if you don't have a close relationship. With the person you are contacting. Or maybe you're contacting them. For the first time.
I hope you're doing well. Or maybe, I hope you're having a good week. Personally, I really like that last one. I hope you're having a good week. I use that quite a lot. If you've ever sent me an email or sent me a message, then I may have responded with I hope you're having a good week as part of my response. And if you've never emailed me or sent me a message, then, well, feel free to do so. Get in touch and let's start a conversation. And if you want to excel at communicating and conversations with your colleagues, then maybe we can work together. 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 I would really like to meet you.
That's the title of the podcast, www.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. Every session that I give is completely custom made around the person I'm talking to and coaching.
So you'll get a session that is unlike anything I've ever offered anyone else. And right now, you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45, or 60 minutes.
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 C-suite executives and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Okay, let's move on now and talk about some of the more technical parts of email. Take a listen. These and see if there's any new vocabulary here for you. I've cc'd a couple of colleagues on this email. If you could make sure that you copy someone from accounting in on this email thread, please, that would be great. I've CC'd a couple of colleagues on this email. If you could make sure that you copy someone from a counting in on this email thread, please, that would be great. I like to put my annual leave dates in my signature so that there's no ambiguity about when I'm going to be away. I like to put my annual leave dates in my signature.
So that there's no ambiguity about when I'm going to be away. At the beginning of that first example, we heard "see sea". That's the letter C, as in car or cat, twice in a row. Maybe you've seen this when you've been writing an email. You usually have the recipient at the very top. That's the name we give to the person who will receive the email.
So the recipient receives the email. This is where you write the email address that you want to send your message to. Now, usually near the end of that line, there is a button for CC And B.C.C.
So I have two questions for you. First, what do these letters stand for, CC and BCC? And second, what do they actually do in your email? What is the function? I think these days more people know what these buttons do than what the letters on the buttons stand for.
So maybe that's you. These buttons, CC and BCC, actually represent an old technology in the real world. In the UK. We often see this technology used in garages if you're from the south of England garages up in the north where I am and garages in the south This is where you might go and get your car repaired.
So. Picture this. You drive your car to the mechanic. You hand them the keys and they hand you a document to sign.
Likely with the price of what you're paying for. Importantly, The paper that you're handed is very thin. It's not very thick. You sign the document and hand it back to the assistant at the garage. Then. They peel off the back of the document A sheet of yellow paper? And? A sheet of pink paper. There are three pieces of paper now, a sheet of white paper that you originally wrote on, a thin sheet of yellow paper, and a thin sheet of pink paper. I think sometimes there's another one, like a blue sheet of paper.
So all of these documents have your signature on them already. The pressure from the pen went through. And created a perfect copy of the document. One of these is yours to take home. You can keep it forever and put it on your wall in a picture frame if you like. And the other two I used for administrative purposes by the office. This is called Carbon paper. C-A-R-B-O-N. Carbon paper. And this is where we get those two letter C's. These stand for carbon copy. In fact, Cabin copy is a phrase that we use in English to say that one thing is nearly a perfect copy or maybe an absolutely perfect copy of another. I've never delivered two coaching sessions that were carbon copies of each other. Even though a lot of people make the same mistakes as other people I coach. But if you know any people who are twins, then you might say that they are carbon copies of each other. Maybe especially when they're young.
So, that explains what CC is. How about BCC?
So here's another quiz question for you. Which word, beginning with the letter B, means that someone cannot see. They have no sight. I'll give you that one more time. Which word, beginning with the letter B and ending with the letter D, means that someone is unable to see. They cannot see.
Well, if someone cannot hear, They are death. But if someone cannot see then we describe them as being blind. That's B-L-I-N-D, blind.
So BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. One more time, that's blind carbon-free. Copy. All otherwise known as BCC. Now, what do these buttons do?
Well, if you copy someone in on an email. You might. Just drop that word in and copy someone on an email. Then? You make sure that someone else receives that email. Usually because they need to be made aware of the conversation. This is commonplace to add email addresses for departments like accounting or human resources who just might need to know about an email exchange that you're having. The 'Blind Carbon Copy' button is for people who you want to send your email to without the main recipient, or believe anyone else in the email chain. Having awareness of this. Without that email recipient knowing that the email has been sent to this blind carbon copied person. This is for when you want to keep this extra recipient a secret from everyone else in the conversation. Maybe you're sending this to a very senior manager and you don't want everyone to know that they're getting that email. In the third example, we heard: I like to put my annual leave details in my signature.
So that there's no ambiguity about when I'm going away. I like to put my annual leave details in my signature so that there's no ambiguity about when I'm going away.
So what is your email signature? An email signature. Is the small section of information that appears automatically at the bottom of every email you send. It is similar to a digital business card, perhaps. "It usually contains your name, Your job title? Company phone number. And sometimes a link to your website or social media. This means that you don't need to write this information every time you send an email. You simply create it once in your email settings and it appears in all of your messages.
Some people use a very simple signature. While others add logos, images, or a favorite quote. If your email account is managed by your organization, your employer, then this is likely set by your IT team. And you might not be able to change it. I don't know about you, but I always forget if I've got my name.
Something like regards, kind regards, Chris in my email signature, and I always write it anyway. And then...
Sometimes I end up with a double. Regards Chris section at the bottom, which... I think this would only be embarrassing if I knew that nobody else did it, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who forget what is in their email signature and whether or not they need to write thanks or yours sincerely with their name at the bottom. I'm sure that's not just me. And annual leave is something that I think I mentioned in another podcast episode, but this is quite simply the formal and professional way to refer to your partner. Vacation time. Leave is time that you're allowed to not be at work, to not be in the office. And annual is a word that means every year. Therefore, we use annual leave to refer to the time that you're allowed every year to be on vacation.
So 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 English communication skills more generally, then you can book a session with me. By going to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com, or click on 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 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. 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, or just leave a review of three or four, or maybe even five stars, whatever you think this podcast is worth, and I thank you for that in advance. That is a really 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. I know how valuable it is. And I really do appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of your time with this podcast. I hope you have a great rest of your week and I'll talk to you next time. On the Breakout Business English Podcast. Thanks a lot everyone! I'll see you soon.