Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday.

Do you want to sound natural in business meetings? Not only do you need good vocabulary but you must also learn collocations - just like idioms, they must be learnt!

Collocations are words that naturally go together, creating a specific meaning. Two verbs are very common in collocations: make and do. They usually cannot be used interchangeably and using the correct verb will help you sound more natural. Let’s look in more detail.

Collocation - noun - the combination of words formed when two or more words are often used together in a way that sounds correct.

Making Your Mark: Key Collocations with Make

1. Make a decision: This phrase signifies reaching a conclusion after careful consideration. (e.g., "The marketing team needs to make a decision on the new advertising campaign.")

2. Make a profit: This refers to the financial gain a company experiences. (e.g., "Our goal is to make a profit of 50,000$ this quarter.")

3. Make a difference: This emphasizes having a positive impact on a situation. (e.g., "Investing in employee training can make a real difference in productivity.")

4. Make a suggestion: This is used to propose an idea for discussion. (e.g., "I'd like to make a suggestion for improving customer service.")

5. Make sense: This refers to something being logical and understandable. (e.g., "The new pricing strategy doesn't quite make sense to me. Can you explain it further?")

In all the above five collocations we could not use ‘do’

Doing the Business: Essential Collocations with Do

1. Do your research: This emphasizes gathering information before making a choice. (e.g., "It's crucial to do your research before launching a new product.")

2. Do the groundwork: This refers to the initial steps taken to get a project rolling. (e.g., "The sales team is doing the groundwork for the upcoming product launch.")

3. Do some networking: This involves attending events to connect with professionals in your field. (e.g., Industry conferences are a great way to do some networking.")

4. Do your best: This phrase encourages someone to put in their maximum effort. (e.g., "The manager told the team to do their best to meet the tight deadline.")

5. Do business with: This refers to having a commercial relationship with another company. (e.g., "We've been doing business with this supplier for over five years.")

In all the above five collocations we could not use ‘make’.

The Deal Exception: When Make and Do Work Together

Unusually, there is one word that collocates with both ‘make’ and ‘do’ - "deal". Both "make a deal" and "do a deal" are common collocations. However, there's a subtle difference in emphasis:

• Make a deal: This emphasizes the formal process of negotiation and reaching a finalized agreement. (e.g., "The two companies made a deal to merge their operations.")

• Do a deal: This is a more general term for reaching an agreement, which can be formal or informal. (e.g., "The salesperson offered a discount to do a deal on the spot.")

• Close a deal: This refers to finalising a business agreement after successful negotiation. (e.g., "The sales team is confident they can close the deal with the new client this week.")

By incorporating these collocations into your business vocabulary, you'll sound more confident, professional, and fluent. Remember, mastering collocations is a journey, not a destination. Keep practising, keep reading, and keep an ear out for how native speakers use these powerful verb combinations.

Expression of the Day - Make Sense

‘Make sense’ is a very common and useful idiom in Business English. It means to be clear and easy to understand.

“I hope that these newsletters make sense.”

We also use the expression when we think something is a good idea.

“We are going to employ two more salespeople next year to reach our target of increasing turnover by 20%”

“That makes sense.”

And we use the negative when we don’t think something is a good idea.

“We are going to reduce our salespeople by two next year but we still want to increase turnover by 20%”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Do you have any Business English questions?

Please email me and I will do my best to answer them in future newsletters.

Until Friday - have a great day!

Iain.

www.communicateenglish.com

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