Topic 1.3.5 Phrasal Verbs to Use in Meetings
PHRASAL VERBS TO USE IN MEETINGS
PART A
Read the following text and see if you can guess the meaning of the phrasal verbs in bold.
During the meeting, the team leader started by saying, “Before we begin, I’d like to bring up the budget concerns we discussed last week.” The finance manager nodded and replied, “That’s a good point. We should go over the sales report carefully before we make any further decisions on spending.”
After reviewing the numbers, the marketing director said, “I’ll follow up on the request to adjust our ad campaign, and I’ll give you an update by Friday.”
The operations manager added, “In the meantime, we need to look into why customer satisfaction has dropped recently. It could be affecting sales.”
At this point, the team leader checked the time and asked, “Can we put off the client meeting until next week? I’d like to gather more information before presenting to them.”
Finally, the team leader concluded the meeting with, “Before we wrap up, let’s run through the main points of today’s agenda to ensure we’re all on the same page.”
Practice Activity
Discussion questions
- How do you bring up a sensitive topic in a meeting?
- When is it necessary to go over documents or reports multiple times?
- How do you make sure that tasks are completed when you need to follow up on previous requests or assignments?
- What kind of problems have you had to look into at work, and what steps did you take to find a solution?
- In what situations is it appropriate to put off a meeting or task?
- How do you usually run through the agenda at the start of a meeting? Do you think it’s effective to review key points at the beginning, and why?
PART B
Look at the following phrasal verbs and see if you can guess the meaning from the example sentence.
- Turn down Unfortunately, we had to turn down their partnership offer.
- Take on I’m willing to take on the role of project leader for this initiative.
- Work out We’ll need to work out a new strategy to address the challenges.
- Bring forward Could we bring forward the presentation to next Tuesday?
- Hand over I’ll hand over the project to the new team once it’s ready.
- Wrap up Let’s wrap up the meeting with a summary of key action points.
Practice Activity
Discussion
Can you make questions with the phrasal verbs above to ask your partner or teacher?
e.g Have you ever turned down a job?
