# Ep 2 - Business English vocabulary for presentations

An episode of [Breakout Business English - Improve your vocabulary and confidence using English at work.](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1616739393), 13 Mar 2022, 19 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2022761/episodes/11004832-ep-2-business-english-vocabulary-for-presentations.mp3

Send us Fan Mail So when I was deciding which topic to focus on for our second episode I really only needed to look at what the people I work with are actually asking for. One of the most common topics that I discuss with people is presentations. Presentations can be great opportunities to use those English skills that you work so hard on, but they also have their own stresses and challenges. Today we’re going to look at some vocabulary that you might hear when watching a presentation and some that you might want to use when giving your own. At the end we also have our 'big discussion question' to help you with your speaking practice. You can find the vocabulary from this podcast in the vocabulary sets on my profile. I hope you enjoy today's podcast and I look forward to meeting you on a call very soon! BOOK A CALL WITH ME: www.italki.com/teacher/8060216 Support the show Book a coaching session with me at: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

## Transcript

[0:01] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode two of the Breakout Business English Podcast, helping you to communicate better at work.
[0:11] SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, my name is Chris, and I'm an online business English coach and tutor.
[0:17] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for stopping by.
[0:20] SPEAKER_00: And today's topic is presentations.
[0:24] SPEAKER_00: So when I was deciding which topic to focus on for our second episode, I really only needed to look at what the people I work with are actually asking for.
[0:37] SPEAKER_00: One of the most common topics that I discuss with people is presentations.
[0:42] SPEAKER_00: Presentations can be great opportunities to use those English skills that you work so hard on.
[0:50] SPEAKER_00: But they also have their own stresses and challenges.
[0:55] SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to look at some vocabulary that you might hear when watching a presentation and some that you might want to use when giving your own.
[1:06] SPEAKER_00: So let's start with recap.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: Recap can be both a verb and a noun depending on the context.
[1:17] SPEAKER_00: As a noun, recap is the most important points of a presentation collected together in one place.
[1:25] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you could also call it a summary.
[1:28] SPEAKER_00: As a verb, this is when we say or write down these most important or key points.
[1:35] SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at a couple of great native sounding examples.
[1:41] SPEAKER_00: Before we finish, I'd just like to recap some of our key priorities for the week.
[1:48] SPEAKER_00: Before we finish, I'd just like to recap some of our key priorities for the week.
[1:54] SPEAKER_00: You didn't miss much at the end of the meeting, Dave just recapped the year's sales figures.
[2:01] SPEAKER_00: You didn't miss much at the end of the meeting, Dave just recapped the year's sales figures.
[2:07] SPEAKER_00: So you can see here that to recap is a regular verb, therefore to use it in the past tense, we just add ED.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: Recap is a very common word in English speaking workplaces and a great verb or noun to include near the end of your next presentation.
[2:29] SPEAKER_00: I should note here that whether you say presentation or presentation, you are right, presentation is more of a British pronunciation and presentation is more American, but both are fine.
[2:46] SPEAKER_00: Moving on, we have illustrate.
[3:16] SPEAKER_00: In presentations, we can use illustrations to help our audience to understand difficult ideas or complex data.
[3:25] SPEAKER_00: This can often mean using charts, graphs or pictures.
[3:30] SPEAKER_00: Here's how we can use it in context.
[3:33] SPEAKER_00: This chart illustrates the drop in our profits over the past year.
[3:39] SPEAKER_00: This chart illustrates the drop in our profits over the past year.
[3:45] SPEAKER_00: During our last meeting I illustrated the problems we faced in the first quarter of this year.
[3:53] SPEAKER_00: During our last meeting I illustrated the problems we faced in the first quarter of this year.
[4:00] SPEAKER_00: Just as children can find illustrations in books really useful for better understanding stories, our colleagues can find that illustrations in meetings and presentations can really help us to grasp complex ideas.
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: Before we move on to our third piece of vocabulary today, let me remind you that I am a full-time professional online business English coach and tutor.
[4:30] SPEAKER_00: Over the past few years, I've worked with over 1,000 people, both online and in classroom, to improve the way that they communicate in English.
[4:41] SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to book some of my time to find out how we can work together to achieve your English language goals, then click the link in the description, or if you're listening to this on iTalkie, then just click on my profile picture.
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on to our next piece of vocabulary.
[5:01] SPEAKER_00: Background.
[5:05] SPEAKER_00: Background means to give information that will help explain something.
[5:11] SPEAKER_00: Literally, this means what is on the ground at the back of your point, behind your point.
[5:18] SPEAKER_00: You may know this word from movies or art.
[5:22] SPEAKER_00: The actors or main parts of a painting may be in what we would call the foreground, and anything else you can see behind them would be said to be in the background.
[5:35] SPEAKER_00: We can use this in presentations when you have information which gives a little more context to our key point and might help our colleagues to understand what we're trying to tell them a little better.
[5:50] SPEAKER_00: For instance, I want to talk about the economy for a moment, just to give you some background information.
[6:06] SPEAKER_00: Before I came to the company, I worked in HR, so my background is in recruiting.
[6:13] SPEAKER_00: Before I came to the company, I worked in HR, so my background is in recruiting.
[6:20] SPEAKER_00: Notice in our examples that we can refer to background information or simply background.
[6:28] SPEAKER_00: Both are fine.
[6:29] SPEAKER_00: Giving some background can really help to put your presentation into context and help your audience understand what you are trying to communicate.
[6:41] SPEAKER_00: Our next word is highlight.
[6:45] SPEAKER_00: So where might you know this word from?
[6:49] SPEAKER_00: Well, those big bright orange, yellow, and maybe green pens that you colour over your writing with to make things really stand out on the page, those are called highlighters.
[7:01] SPEAKER_00: We use them to highlight information.
[7:05] SPEAKER_00: So maybe you can guess how we use this in the context of a presentation.
[7:11] SPEAKER_00: We can use the word highlight when we want to emphasize or bring attention to something important, to make your audience really particularly aware of it.
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: As a noun, highlight can also mean a particularly important, interesting, or entertaining part of something.
[7:31] SPEAKER_00: For instance, we often see highlights of sports events, maybe when a goal has been scored or a particularly good run has been taken on a ski slope, something like that.
[7:44] SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at some great natural sounding examples.
[7:50] SPEAKER_00: I'd like to highlight the figures from January as being particularly impressive.
[7:57] SPEAKER_00: I'd like to highlight the figures from January as being particularly impressive.
[8:03] SPEAKER_00: During our last meeting, we highlighted the work of the marketing team.
[8:08] SPEAKER_00: During our last meeting, we highlighted the work of the marketing team.
[8:13] SPEAKER_00: And of course, you can hear that highlight is a regular verb, which means that we just add ED to make the past tense highlighted.
[8:24] SPEAKER_00: So let's move on to overview.
[8:29] SPEAKER_00: So let's break this one up.
[8:31] SPEAKER_00: There are two words in there that you might already know.
[8:34] SPEAKER_00: Can you hear them?
[8:36] SPEAKER_00: So if we break up the word overview, we get the words over and view.
[8:43] SPEAKER_00: Over can mean above something, and view means that you are looking at something or what you are looking at.
[8:52] SPEAKER_00: So, what do you think an overview is?
[8:56] SPEAKER_00: Overview means to give a general outline of something.
[9:01] SPEAKER_00: In this case, it could be your presentation.
[9:04] SPEAKER_00: If you're going to give an overview of your presentation, then you would probably do this at the beginning.
[9:11] SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some examples in context.
[9:15] SPEAKER_00: Let me start by giving you an overview of what I'm going to talk about today.
[9:21] SPEAKER_00: Let me start by giving you an overview of what I'm going to talk about today.
[9:28] SPEAKER_00: If you look at the first page, you can see an overview of what we're going to be looking at today.
[9:35] SPEAKER_00: If you take a look at the first page, you can see an overview of what we're going to be looking at today.
[9:44] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on to our idiom for today.
[9:48] SPEAKER_00: As with all of these podcasts, we only have one, and today's is off the top of my head.
[9:55] SPEAKER_00: Or indeed off the top of your head.
[9:59] SPEAKER_00: So to say something off the top of your head, what does that mean?
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: Can you figure it out?
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: Do you know this one already?
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a couple of seconds to think about it.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: I know idioms can be strange because what they actually mean is often so different from the words used.
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: We could definitely say that this one, however, has a couple of clues in there.
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, we have the word head.
[10:26] SPEAKER_00: What do we use our heads for?
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope we use our heads for thinking.
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: We can also use them for researching and studying, maybe.
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: So to say something off the top of your head means that you haven't really thought about it carefully or done much investigation into it.
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: When you use this phrase, you are suggesting that you might actually be giving a wrong or inaccurate answer.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: You're saying to someone that you're happy to make a good guess at something, maybe an educated guess, but they probably shouldn't assume that your answer is completely accurate.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: Let's look at this in context.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: I don't know those figures off the top of my head.
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I don't know those figures off the top of my head.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: Do you know off the top of your head how long this is going to take?
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: Do you know off the top of your head how long this is going to take?
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: You can see in our second example that if I ask someone to speak off the top of their head, then I'm asking whether or not they know the information I'm asking for without needing to look it up or do any kind of investigation or research.
[11:48] SPEAKER_00: This is a really popular and commonly used idiom.
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: And if you're ever in a situation where you feel you want to give an answer to a question, but you're not sure you know exactly what you're talking about, then you can think of speaking off the top of your head as a little insurance policy in case you're wrong.
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: Our last two pieces of vocabulary are phrasal verbs.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: Phrasal verbs along with idioms are often the last part of the English language that people start learning.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: There are many of them, thousands in fact, and they can be difficult to remember.
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: So in these podcasts, I try to choose only the most useful ones for you to add to your vocabulary.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: With that said, let's talk about the phrasal verb to hand over.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: To hand something over.
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: This is a simple phrasal verb as it really only has one meaning.
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: To hand over means to give something to someone else.
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: This can be a physical item.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: We often use this phrase when someone doesn't want to give something away, but maybe the police or a parent, if they had children, tells them to.
[13:13] SPEAKER_00: However, in business, we often use this phrasal verb when we are letting someone else speak in a meeting or presentation.
[13:21] SPEAKER_00: You might have heard that you give someone the stage, maybe you give them the microphone or give them the spotlight.
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: All of these are things that we can hand over to them.
[13:34] SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some examples.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to hand over to Sarah now.
[13:41] SPEAKER_00: She's going to tell you a little more about the project.
[13:45] SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm going to hand over to Sarah now.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: She's going to tell you a little more about the project.
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: After she spoke, she handed the meeting over to Dave, who talked about our plans for the new year.
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: After she spoke, she handed the meeting over to Dave, who talked about our plans for the new year.
[14:09] SPEAKER_00: You will notice with the second example that we can separate this phrasal verb.
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: We can put the thing that we are handing over between the words hand and over.
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: For instance, hand the meeting over, hand the stage over, hand the presentation over, or hand the microphone over.
[14:31] SPEAKER_00: Maybe in business you could also hand over a project to someone else, or hand over responsibility for something.
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: We have one more piece of vocabulary for today.
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: It's a phrasal verb and it is to hand out.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: To hand out.
[14:54] SPEAKER_00: This phrasal verb is great because not only is it a verb, but if you take away the space between the words and make it one word, it can become a noun.
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've heard this yourself if you've been to a conference or a large meeting.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: If you are given a document with some useful information on for the meeting, this might be called a handout.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: So if that's the noun form, what do you think this means as a verb?
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a second to think about it.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: Okay, as a verb, this means to give something to several people.
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: So if you're going to a meeting and someone gives you a copy of a document, they are handing that document out.
[15:49] SPEAKER_00: They are handing it out.
[15:52] SPEAKER_00: A common thing to hand out at a meeting is an agenda.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you might hand out a report or some charts about the information you're presenting.
[16:04] SPEAKER_00: Or why not hand out snacks at the beginning of a meeting?
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: After all, you don't want people to get hungry.
[16:12] SPEAKER_00: Here it is in context.
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: Before we start, I'm going to be handing out the report that we'll be talking about today.
[16:20] SPEAKER_00: Before we start, I'm going to be handing out the report that we'll be talking about today.
[16:32] SPEAKER_00: Did you get one?
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: Dave handed out copies of the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.
[16:38] SPEAKER_00: Did you get one?
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: And just like our last phrasal verb, we can separate this one too.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: Dave handed copies of the agenda out at the beginning of the meeting.
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: Did you get one?
[16:54] SPEAKER_00: Dave handed copies of the agenda out at the beginning of the meeting.
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: Did you get one?
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: If you find phrasal verbs difficult to learn, don't worry, you are not alone.
[17:07] SPEAKER_00: However, if you'd like a little help with adding some to your vocabulary, I offer a class designed to help you learn four or five phrasal verbs in just one session.
[17:19] SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to find out more, then please feel free to send me a message.
[17:24] SPEAKER_00: So let's finish off with our big discussion question.
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to find out how you can use this question to improve your speaking, then take a listen to the next episode of this podcast.
[17:38] SPEAKER_00: I'll be talking about some great ways that you can improve your speaking while you're alone.
[17:44] SPEAKER_00: In fact, some of the best, most useful speaking practice you can do is actually done on your own.
[17:52] SPEAKER_00: So follow me on iTalkie or subscribe to the podcast to hear that as soon as it is released.
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: So today's question is what skills do you think are essential when presenting or giving a presentation?
[18:09] SPEAKER_00: Do you think you need to be good at speaking off the top of your head, for instance, or skilled at taking questions?
[18:17] SPEAKER_00: One more time, that is, what skills do you think are essential when presenting or giving a presentation?
[18:25] SPEAKER_00: Do you think you need to be good at speaking off the top of your head, for instance, or skilled at taking questions?
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: That's it for today.
[18:35] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for spending some time with me.
[18:38] SPEAKER_00: And remember, if you would like to talk about how we can work together to improve the way that you communicate at work, please feel free to send me a message.
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: You can click my profile picture if you're listening on iTalkie or find the link in the description if you are listening anywhere else.
[18:57] SPEAKER_00: And I look forward to meeting you on a call soon.
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: Thanks everyone.
[19:02] SPEAKER_00: See you soon.

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