Do you know what the most common mistakes in business English are? There are 4 that you can’t afford to make. Well, not just the mistakes. You will be given reasons why people make it and of course, ways to avoid making it yourself.
Mistake 1: Use ‘to+verb’ After Suggest
Now you are having a big meeting with the three big clients of your company, and it is just the right time for you to make a suggestion, and you do make one: I suggest to finish the project by this Friday. Upon hearing that the Big Three feel disappointed and ……
What causes the mistake? It is ‘logical’ to say ‘I suggest to finish it by this Friday.’ Yet, in English, ‘suggest’ is followed by a noun, so what you need to do is to change ‘finish’ to a noun.
How not to make it? Add ‘ing’ to ‘transform’ a verb into a noun. I suggest finishing it by this Friday. Other verbs like ‘suggest’ include:
consider recruiting (graduates from the best universities)
finish presenting (a proposal)
Mistake 2: Using a Comma to Separate Two Sentences
This one is about your reports or proposals. It is less than professional to write:
At McCasual we sell quality clothing and textiles, we have a good reputation for casual wear.
What causes the mistake? Well, lots of reasons, one of which could be ‘SPE’. What is ‘SPE’? Supreme English? No. It is Smart Phone English.
How not to make it? A commas is weak, so weak that it cannot ‘hold‘ two sentences together. So simply use a full-stop to ‘stop’ the sentences.
Mistake 3: Forgetting to Add Something After Transitive Verbs
What does that mean? Read the dialogue from two spies.
Spy 1: Did you mail it yesterday?
Spy 2: Yes, I mailed.
You understand every word from the dialogue, right? Yet ‘I mailed‘ is not so ‘English’.
What causes the mistake? It could be your mother tongue, especially if you are from Asia.
How not to make it? To avoid making the mistake again, you must first work out what transitive verbs are, right? A transitive verb is followed by something. By something, I mean a noun or a pronoun, for example:
Do + it. So you have to say ‘I mailed + it. Other examples in business English include:
Mistake 4: Information & Advice Are Not Countable
At a meeting, have you ever said something like: I have lots of informations and advices to provide.
What causes the mistake? In your culture you have a different way of thinking about ‘information’ and ‘advice’. You can count them, but not in English.
How not to make it? Some rules of grammar are ‘not logical’. So you have to think about how to remember it. What about ‘AI‘:
Advice & Information
And what about if you really want to count them? Add ‘a piece of‘ to make them become:
Boss, there is really a piece of information for you.
What is it?
I want to fire you.
