# Ep 1 - Vocabulary for talking about meetings

An episode of [Breakout Business English - Improve your vocabulary and confidence using English at work.](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1616739393), 27 Jan 2022, 18 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2022761/episodes/11004873-ep-1-vocabulary-for-talking-about-meetings.mp3

Send us Fan Mail Meetings can be intimidating for a lot of people, even to native speakers! Especially if you’re meeting with people who you don’t know very well, if at all. Today we’re going to look at a few pieces of vocabulary that you might hear in meetings and that you might be able to use yourself. At the end we also have our 'big discussion question'. I hope you enjoy today's podcast and I look forward to meeting you on a call very soon! Vocabulary bank for this episode: • collaborate • hold • minutes • confidential • address • consensus • the elephant in the room • to pencil in • to follow up Remember, I'm an online business English coach and tutor! If you would like to book a call with me then you can do that at www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com Support the show Book a coaching session with me at: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

## Transcript

[0:01] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode one of the Breakout Business English Podcast, helping you to communicate better at work.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, my name is Chris, and I'm an online business English coach and tutor.
[0:16] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for stopping by.
[0:18] SPEAKER_00: And today's topic is meetings.
[0:22] SPEAKER_00: So, meetings can be intimidating for a lot of people, even for native speakers.
[0:29] SPEAKER_00: We certainly get intimidated, sometimes nervous or scared when going into meetings, especially if you're meeting with people who you don't know very well, if at all.
[0:43] SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to look at a few pieces of vocabulary that you might hear in meetings and that you might be able to use yourself.
[0:51] SPEAKER_00: So let's get started with collaborate.
[0:55] SPEAKER_00: Collaborate.
[0:57] SPEAKER_00: So collaborate is a verb.
[1:00] SPEAKER_00: To collaborate means to work together on something, either with one other person or in a group.
[1:10] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are collaborating on a report that you are writing together, or you are collaborating on an event that you are trying to set up together.
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are calling venues to try to find out where it can be held, and your colleague is calling around people who might want to speak at the event and trying to set up and book the speakers.
[1:34] SPEAKER_00: Let's look at a quick example.
[1:37] SPEAKER_00: James and I collaborated on the report last week.
[1:42] SPEAKER_00: James and I collaborated on the report last week.
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: So that is the verb to collaborate.
[1:52] SPEAKER_00: Okay, our next word is hold to hold.
[1:57] SPEAKER_00: Hold is an interesting word in English because it can mean so many different things.
[2:03] SPEAKER_00: If you type hold into a search engine and hit enter, you will find that there are many definitions of the word hold.
[2:13] SPEAKER_00: So the most obvious one that you may think of straight away is to hold an object, to pick it up in your hand.
[2:21] SPEAKER_00: You hold the computer mouse, you hold your mobile phone, you hold a glass of water, for instance.
[2:29] SPEAKER_00: To hold an event means to make an event happen, to do everything that needs to be done to get an event started.
[2:39] SPEAKER_00: So for instance, you could hold a meeting, you could hold an interview, you could hold a conference, or maybe even hold a concert.
[2:50] SPEAKER_00: Let's have a look at a couple of examples.
[2:53] SPEAKER_00: Can we hold the meeting in your office, please?
[2:57] SPEAKER_00: Hi, could we hold the meeting in your office please?
[3:03] SPEAKER_00: Or in the past tense, we held all of the interviews last week.
[3:08] SPEAKER_00: Oh the interviews?
[3:10] SPEAKER_00: Yes, we held all of the interviews last week.
[3:14] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on to a noun.
[3:17] SPEAKER_00: This noun is minutes minutes.
[3:21] SPEAKER_00: So minutes is a word that you probably know from time.
[3:26] SPEAKER_00: We go from seconds to minutes to hours and then maybe to days and weeks.
[3:33] SPEAKER_00: So in a meeting, the noun minutes means the written record of everything said in a meeting.
[3:43] SPEAKER_00: If you are in a meeting, you will probably have someone assigned, someone who just sits there, doesn't say much, but they write down everything that everyone says.
[3:55] SPEAKER_00: The document that they create, this is called the minutes.
[3:59] SPEAKER_00: So, some examples.
[4:02] SPEAKER_00: Have you read the minutes from the meeting?
[4:06] SPEAKER_00: Have you read the minutes from the meeting?
[4:10] SPEAKER_00: Dan will be taking minutes for us today.
[4:13] SPEAKER_00: Dan will be taking minutes for us today.
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: You might notice there the verb I used for minutes was taking.
[4:24] SPEAKER_00: So you can use writing to write the minutes.
[4:28] SPEAKER_00: For instance, Dan will be writing minutes for us today.
[4:33] SPEAKER_00: But we can also use the verb to take.
[4:37] SPEAKER_00: Dan will be taking minutes for us today.
[4:41] SPEAKER_00: I always like to include the word minutes when I'm talking about meetings with people I work with because it can be a confusing one.
[4:51] SPEAKER_00: It's a word that often people know, but they don't know the definition when it's used in the context of a meeting.
[4:59] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on.
[5:02] SPEAKER_00: Our next word is confidential.
[5:06] SPEAKER_00: Confidential.
[5:08] SPEAKER_00: This is an adjective and means to be private or secret, usually referring to information.
[5:18] SPEAKER_00: So this is the word confidential.
[5:21] SPEAKER_00: You may see this on documents, especially.
[5:24] SPEAKER_00: Maybe if you get letters in the mail from your bank or from a lawyer, it will always say confidential on it.
[5:33] SPEAKER_00: So let's have a look at a couple of examples.
[5:38] SPEAKER_00: Everything discussed in this meeting is confidential.
[5:43] SPEAKER_00: Everything discussed in this meeting is confidential.
[5:48] SPEAKER_00: David, do you think you could keep our conversation today confidential?
[5:54] SPEAKER_00: David, do you think you could keep our conversation today confidential?
[5:59] SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
[6:01] SPEAKER_00: So in these examples, we have a meeting where all of the information that is talked about should be private.
[6:08] SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be talked about outside of the meeting.
[6:11] SPEAKER_00: And then maybe you've had a conversation with someone called David and you don't want them to tell other people what you talked about.
[6:21] SPEAKER_00: You would like them to keep your conversation confidential.
[6:26] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on.
[6:28] SPEAKER_00: We have another verb.
[6:30] SPEAKER_00: This verb is address.
[6:33] SPEAKER_00: Address.
[6:35] SPEAKER_00: Now, the verb address, you may know this as a noun.
[6:41] SPEAKER_00: An address is where someone lives.
[6:45] SPEAKER_00: You live at your address.
[6:47] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you work at an address too.
[6:50] SPEAKER_00: This is where the building is.
[6:52] SPEAKER_00: Where the building you live at is, that is your address.
[6:56] SPEAKER_00: Where the building you work at is, that is your work address.
[7:01] SPEAKER_00: But this is a different meaning.
[7:04] SPEAKER_00: This is address as a verb.
[7:06] SPEAKER_00: Now, again, I like to put words in here that have a couple of different meanings and maybe challenge you a bit.
[7:14] SPEAKER_00: So, do you know what address means as a verb?
[7:20] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so as a verb, address means to try to deal with a problem or question.
[7:27] SPEAKER_00: That is one meaning of address as a verb.
[7:31] SPEAKER_00: And another meaning is to deliver a formal speech to an audience.
[7:37] SPEAKER_00: So those are to try to deal with a problem or question, and to deliver a formal speech to an audience.
[7:47] SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at a couple of examples.
[7:51] SPEAKER_00: So would anyone like to address the problems identified in the new report?
[7:58] SPEAKER_00: Would anyone like to address the problems identified in the new report?
[8:04] SPEAKER_00: So this is our first meaning to try to deal with a problem or question.
[8:11] SPEAKER_00: How about to deliver a formal speech to an audience?
[8:14] SPEAKER_00: Well, usually you'll find this at a big event, but certainly you could hear it in a meeting.
[8:22] SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
[8:24] SPEAKER_00: Before we get started, Angela would like to address everyone.
[8:28] SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
[8:30] SPEAKER_00: Before we get started, Angela would like to address everyone.
[8:34] SPEAKER_00: So in this example, maybe Angela has something important to say, and before the meeting gets started, she has been invited to tell everyone about it by the chair of the meeting, by whoever is running the meeting.
[8:52] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's keep going.
[8:54] SPEAKER_00: This next one is difficult.
[8:56] SPEAKER_00: I've put it in here to challenge some of the higher level speakers out there.
[9:02] SPEAKER_00: So this is a noun.
[9:04] SPEAKER_00: This is the word consensus.
[9:08] SPEAKER_00: Consensus.
[9:10] SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
[9:12] SPEAKER_00: Consensus means when everyone agrees on something.
[9:17] SPEAKER_00: So when everyone, absolutely every single person in a meeting agrees on something, then you have a consensus.
[9:28] SPEAKER_00: Let's have a look at some examples.
[9:32] SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry we couldn't come to a consensus.
[9:37] SPEAKER_00: I'm really sorry we couldn't come to a consensus today.
[9:42] SPEAKER_00: I'm glad we could reach a consensus.
[9:46] SPEAKER_00: I'm really glad we could reach a consensus on this.
[9:51] SPEAKER_00: So maybe one thing that you noticed there was I used the verb to come, to come to a consensus, and to reach, to reach a consensus.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: We often talk about a consensus as a destination, as a destination and the end of a journey.
[10:12] SPEAKER_00: So you'll often hear verbs like come or reach or maybe arrive at when talking about consensus.
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: Okay, I always try to put an idiom, just one idiom, in these podcasts.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at today's idiom.
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: This is one of my favorites.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: This is the elephant in the room.
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: The elephant in the room.
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by the elephant in the room?
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: So the elephant in the room means an obvious problem or maybe a controversial issue that no one wants to discuss.
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: So this is a great idiom because it's very visual.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: You can picture it.
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: You're in a meeting with five or ten of your colleagues, and there is an elephant there.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: There is a big elephant just standing in the corner of the room.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: You should probably talk about it, but no one really wants to.
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: So let's have a look at a couple of examples.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: I think we should address the elephant in the room.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: Why is this project failing?
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: I think we should address the elephant in the room.
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: Why is this project failing?
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: I'm sure everyone knows that the elephant in the room is that we are running out of money.
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: I'm sure everyone knows that the elephant in the room is that we are running out of money.
[11:49] SPEAKER_00: So here in these examples, you can see that the elephant in the room is that the project is failing.
[11:56] SPEAKER_00: No one wants to talk about the fact that the project is failing, but they should probably talk about it.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: Or the company is running out of money.
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: Everyone wants to talk about other things, but the really important thing that no one wants to talk about is that the company is actually running out of money.
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's finish off with a couple of phrasal verbs.
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: Phrasal verbs are incredibly important, they are used by native speakers all the time, and they are often different from each other in very small ways.
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: So they are important to uh important to learn, important to use, and important to understand.
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at a couple.
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: Okay, what does this mean?
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: To pencil in means to put something on a schedule or a schedule that may be changed later.
[12:58] SPEAKER_00: So you can think if we wrote it in pen, we wouldn't be able to use an eraser to get rid of it, to take it out of the schedule.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: Well, if we pencil it in, if we pencil something in, if we pencil the meeting in, then later we can use an eraser to take that meeting or that event out of the schedule.
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at a couple of examples.
[13:25] SPEAKER_00: Could you pencil that in for tomorrow, please?
[13:28] SPEAKER_00: Could you pencil that in for tomorrow, please?
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: The meeting is penciled in for Tuesday, but that might change.
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: The meeting is penciled in for Tuesday, but that might change.
[13:44] SPEAKER_00: Okay, one last phrasal verb for today, and then we are done.
[13:48] SPEAKER_00: So our final phrasal verb, our final piece of vocabulary for today is to follow up.
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: To follow up.
[13:58] SPEAKER_00: To follow up is a phrasal verb which means to continue communicating with someone after an event.
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: So maybe you've had a meeting and after the meeting you want to ask a question or get some information from someone.
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: Maybe after you've met someone at a conference, you want to send them information about your company and what you do, for instance.
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: Both of these are examples of following up with someone.
[14:30] SPEAKER_00: So let's look at a couple of examples.
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: I'll follow up with David about that tomorrow.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: I'll follow up with David about that tomorrow.
[14:42] SPEAKER_00: Can you follow up with Emma later?
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: Can you follow up with Emma later?
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: So in the first example, someone is going to talk to David tomorrow.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: Someone called David, they're going to either ask them a question, give them some information, they're going to communicate with David tomorrow about the thing that has happened today.
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: And in the second example, I need you to follow up with Emma.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: Can you follow up with Emma later?
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe there is some information that Emma needs, or maybe there is some information that you need that Emma can give you.
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: So this is the phrasal verb to follow up.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: So that is our vocabulary list for today, our vocabulary list for meetings.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: These are the verb collaborate, the verb hold, the noun minutes, the adjective confidential, the verb address, the noun consensus, the idiom, the elephant in the room, the phrasal verb to pencil in, and the phrasal verb to follow up.
[15:59] SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know how many of those are new to you, how many of those you know, how many of those you may know but are not confident using.
[16:09] SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
[16:12] SPEAKER_00: Okay, and to finish up, I have our big discussion question for you.
[16:17] SPEAKER_00: Every one of these Breakout Business English podcasts will end with a big question that you can use as a speaking exercise on your own if you want to improve your speaking.
[16:32] SPEAKER_00: Maybe take your phone, open up the recording app, the audio recording app, and try to speak for one or two minutes on this question.
[16:41] SPEAKER_00: And then you can go back, listen to what you have said, and correct any mistakes that you have made.
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: It's a great way to practice your speaking when you are alone.
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
[16:56] SPEAKER_00: Today's big discussion question is there are more ways to communicate now than ever before.
[17:04] SPEAKER_00: With that in mind, is it still important to hold meetings?
[17:11] SPEAKER_00: And one more time.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: Okay, that is our first episode, our episode talking about meetings.
[17:28] SPEAKER_00: Remember that I am a business English tutor and coach on the internet.
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: If you would like to book a call with me, either over Skype or Zoom or any other platform, really, then you can go to www.breakoutbusinglish.com and you will find instructions on there how to book a call with me.
[17:52] SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you so much for your time.
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: If you do decide to book a call with me, then I look forward to meeting you and to figuring out how we can work together to improve the way that you communicate at work.
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you very soon.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.